DUCHESS, REVOLT!
a Short film
written and directed by Nicola Baldwin
DUCHESSE D’ELBEUF: Nicola Sanderson
ELISABETH-HELENE: Harriet Leitch
SYLVIE-LOUISE: Stephanie Houtman
HISTORICAL ADVISER: Professor Colin Jones
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Dr Simon Macdonald
PRODUCER (ART MUSEUM): Helen Pike
CURATORIAL ADVISER: Dr Andrea Fredericksen
CAMERA: Nicola Baldwin SOUND: Becky Simon EDITOR: Louis Milner
DIRECTOR of 'THE DUCHESS' (PLAY): Saskia Marland
It is the height of the Terror in 1793. We enter the Hotel d’Elbeuf to hear the indomitable Duchess’ tips for surviving Revolution. Until her servants Elisabeth and Sylvie unleash rebellions of their own. Based on a true story.
Innocente-Catherine Rougé, the elderly Duchesse d'Elbeuf, witnessed the French Revolution and Terror from her grand house overlooking the Paris guillotine. As her fellow aristocrats were arrested, executed, or fled, the Duchess wrote a relentless stream of secret letters about her life and opinions... Her letters were discovered accidentally in the Paris police archives by Prof. Colin Jones of QMUL. You can find out more about the Duchess D’Elbeuf and Prof. Jones and Dr Simon Macdonald’s project to translate her letters on the Revolutionary Duchess website.
Originally written as immersive performance THE DUCHESS for Revolutionary Encounters Late, an evening of Revolutionary art & performance for Witnessing Terror exhibition at UCL Art Museum in March, 2020, postponed due COVID. Rewritten and filmed by Nicola during lockdown at Bell House, Dulwich.
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