The last duel: Matt Damon and Adam Driver take up arms for Ridley Scott

A decade after

and

, plunged into the chaos of the Crusades, Ridley Scott, 83, has lost none of his epic streak or his interest in the clash of swords and armor, or honor. likely knights as the promising and gloomy first images of The

suggest

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: a crazy and jovial Middle Ages

With this chainmail and bowl-cut face-to-face between Matt Damon and Adam Driver, the director of

re-enacts a page of legendary history from the Tricolor Middle Ages: the story of the last legal duel that pitted against death, before the Court and King Charles VI, two Norman knights in 1386.

Scheduled in theaters for October 13, the film which was shot in France, Burgundy and Dordogne, then in Ireland after being interrupted during the first confinement, is one of the most anticipated of the re-entry.

If received well, drama could become one of the favorites of the award season.

Its enticing cast lends itself to this: Matt Damon, Adam Driver, Ben Affleck and Jodie Comer.

The revelation of the soap opera

is already well versed in the Middle Ages and the tribulations of a noble woman in a court of men.

Jodie Comer, who could be Ridley Scott's future Joséphine de Beauharnais, played one of the key protagonists of the War of the Two Roses in the successful BBC miniseries

.

Boyhood friends Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Oscar

for the script for G

, also worked behind the camera writing the script with Nicole Holofcener.

Put Marguerite back at the center of the matter

Vassals of Count Pierre d'Alençon (Ben Affleck, unrecognizable in blond), Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) have been fighting over land for a long time. But in January 1386, their quarrel took another turn when Carrouges Marguerite's wife (Jodie Comer) accused Jacques Le Gris of having raped her. That day, the young lady was left alone by her servants, her mother-in-law and her husband. No one can thus confirm his statements. His testimony was immediately contested by Le Gris. Aware that the justice of men would hasten to discredit his wife, Jean de Carrouges therefore decided to appeal to the king and demand a judicial duel (a tradition already in decline at the time). Either a confrontation until death ensues. The winner, supposed to have received theapproval of God, is declared in its rightfulness.

Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were based on the work of the professor and American medievalist Eric Jager,

and wanted to put Marguerite back at the center of the case, as sketched in the sober and dizzying poster of the film.

The last duel

the trio said in the production notes. Before adding:

This is what this trailer points out, Marguerite's position is very precarious: if her husband loses his fight and dies, she will follow him to the grave and be burned for having given false testimony.

warns his mother-in-law. Does Pierre de Carrouges fight out of love for his wife or to wash away his honor as a humiliated husband? Isn't it also motivated by pecuniary considerations? So many ambiguities and gray areas that

should explore.