Triumph of Love

Triumph of Love is a period gender-bending farce about a young Princess (Sorvino) who has inherited a throne which rightfully belongs to a Prince (Jay Rodan) that she’s in love with. The Prince has been brought up to detest her by his guardians, philosopher Hermocrates (Kingsley) and his spinster sister Leontine (Shaw). The Princess devises a plan to get the Prince to fall in love with her, hoping also to give him back the throne. As a means of getting close to him, the Princess and her lady-in-waiting Corine (Sterling) must dress up as men in order to gain the respect of the Prince’s guardians. Sounds ridiculous ? Well these period plays were, rather but perhaps at the time, they didn’t seem so.

Triumph of Love is the fourth feature from director and co-writer Clare Peploe. Clare has previously worked on films directed by her husband Bernardo Bertolucci who in turn is the producer and co-writer of this film. It appears Peploe first saw a production of The Triumph of Love at London’s Almeida theatre and fell in love with French dramatist Pierre de Marivaux’s 18^th century play.

In a sense Triumph of Love never breaks out of its stage origins. What perhaps may have seemed witty and clever as a scheming stage comedy, doesn’t work so well here. Audiences will see the Princess and her lady-in-waiting as women, the disguises to make us believe they are men are not good enough and you wouldn’t believe that wise Hermocrates and sensible Leontine would be hood-winked either. Dialogue that is meant to witty and clever, merely seems trivial and unfunny and you yearn for the predictable final reel to come sooner than it does.

Overall it leaves you questioning a) why a-list performers like Mira Sorvino and Ben Kingsley got involved in it (apart from the lure of a decent pay cheque) and b) quite why Clare Peploe and husband Bernardo Bertolucci felt it was worth turning into a feature film in the first place. A triumph of love? sadly not.