The Last Duel (2021)

Jean de Carrouges and Jacques le Gris were war heroes, and after fighting in the Caroline War, Carrouges married Marguerite de Thibouville mainly to improve his finances. His father-in-law had promised an large piece of land in the north of the territory, but he was forced to forfeit the land in order to pay his rent to Count Pierre and was unable to keep his promise. Carrouges eventually found that Pierre had given the same piece of land Jacques le Gris, and made an appeal to Pierre to no avail.

Marguerite and Jacques le Gris encountered one another briefly when Carrouges were invited to a celebration of a birth of a son of the friend they had shared. There, Jacques became infatuated with Lady Carrouges' beauty. He later went to Carrouges' castle with his servant when Lady was alone by herself and raped her.

Lady Carrouges openly accused Jacques of the rape, and then Jean, her husband, and Jacques confronted one another in a legal duel after a lengthy trial. Carrouges won the grueling duel to regain regains his honor, and reclaimed the honor of his wife.

A notable statement with a harsh echo of Marxism could be heard through Jean's mother, Nicole de Carrouges, when she spoke to Marguerite: "There is no right; there is only the power of men." There is no doubt that the lives of women, who were treated like property for most of human history, were hard, but so were that of men. It was hard for everyone, not just for women. Our juxtaposition of modern sensibilities on the past is a brash act that should be avoided. It only makes it for biased and twisted view of history, and thereby, extended to reality of now.

Marguerite's fearless willingness to speak of the atrocities is the most positive element of the narrative. She risked her own life to tell the truth, which opened a floodgate of shame and dishonor to herself and to her family by extension. It is to Jean's credit that he supports his wife in this endeavor, and sees it to the end like a real man.