A medieval epic
Based on a true story, The Last Duel is a gripping – yet relatable – tale of betrayal and vengeance. GEMMA DUNN finds out more from those involved.
FANS rejoiced when it was announced Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had reteamed to pen medieval epic The Last Duel.
It had been 25 years since the thenunknown duo scored a breakout hit with their Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, and only now, with the pull of a powerful screenplay, had the longtime friends been convinced to reunite.
It is very different this time, Damon, 51, muses: “I think we’ve been afraid of writing because we were so inefficient (before), it was so time consuming the first time we did it because we didn’t know what we were doing!
“It took us literally years; we wrote thousands and thousands of pages that we basically scrunched into a 130-page screenplay,” he says of the 90s hit, having started crafting it whilst attending Harvard University.
“But I think by just doing movies for 25 years, just kind of by osmosis, we figured out structure, so it turned out to be a really efficient process this time.
“And also begging an incredible writer like Nicole (Holofcener) was a really good idea too, that definitely streamlined the process and gave us the confidence.”
And the Bostonian natives certainly need direction with a title as complex as The Last Duel, which, based on Eric Jager’s compelling 2004 book The Last Duel: A True Story Of Crime, Scandal, And Trial By Combat In Medieval France — tells its story from three distinct perspectives.
Centred on actual events, and set against the brutality of 14th century France, the drama recounts the story of Jean de Carrouges (Damon), an ambitious knight who challenges his
squire Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) to a deathly duel after his wife Marguerite (Jodie Comer) accuses Le Gris of raping her.
Affleck, Harriet Walter, Nathaniel Parker, Sam Hazeldine, Michael McElhatton, and Alex Lawther also star.
But it is British visionary Sir Ridley Scott who directs the battlefield.
“[I knew] from the moment I saw the cover of the book The Last Duel — and Ridley’s first movie was obviously The Duellists . . .” Damon says of getting the prolific filmmaker on board.
“I’ve been looking for something since we did The Martian together six or seven years ago as I had the best time working with him, so I gave him the book and he said right away he’d read it and wanted to do it!
“But we were still looking for a writer and I told them I was having dinner with Ben, so I told him the idea and he was like, ‘Well, why don’t we write it?’
“And I was like, ‘What? You wanna write that!?’” he admits, laughing.
“And so it just kind of happened really organically and really quickly.”
“(Working on) The Martian with Matt proved to be very fruitful,” Scott, 83, agrees.
“And I’m good with period pieces, so he thought of me!
“But the thing that really got me, Matt said, ‘I want to tell the story from three different points of view
“And there’s a Japanese film called Rashomon — so in a funny kind of way it’s a Rashomon idea [whereby] you discuss and see three different points of view of what actually occurred. “Literally, physically see it. “That to me was an incredibly interesting challenge, to literally
illuminate the truth and decide for yourself.”
Such a change required the actors to alter their performances when shooting scenes for another character’s point of view, as they needed to lean into how that particular character sees them.
“It’s so important that in each perspective the audience really believes whichever character is narrating it, and that was actually really fun to do,” Comer, 28, notes.
“It was a little dizzying, as sometimes you were shooting three perspectives on the same day, and I kept questioning myself, wondering if I was leaning into certain scenes too much or not, but it is up to Ridley and the guys in the edit room to decide which feels more truthful.
“I felt very loyal to Marguerite and really wanted to make sure that we’d always got that in the bag, and then I could play around with the other versions.”
Yet despite the switch ups, it’s predominantly a survival story — grounded in the experience of Marguerite — that explores the ubiquitous power of men, the frailty of justice and the strength and courage of one woman willing to stand alone in the service of truth.
For Liverpool-born Comer, the appeal was simply “the opportunity to give this woman a voice.
“There was so much information about these two men and this event, but at the heart of it was this act of violence against this woman and how she had stood up in spite of everything and wanted to fight for justice,” reasons the Killing Eve actress.
As for the sensitive issues at hand, “Sadly you go back to any decade in history, and it will always feel relevant.
“That’s really sad, but it’s also a huge part of the reason why I feel the film will connect with so many people on a deep level.
“It wasn’t lost on us going into this that we had a real duty of care, especially when portraying the rape scenes, to ensure that they weren’t gratuitous, and they were moving the story forward,” Comer states.
“There are going to be many people who watch this film and relate to it in some way. And that can be difficult to execute, and it can be difficult to watch, but I believe we shouldn’t shy away from it for that reason, as long as it’s handled with care.”
“It wouldn’t work unless Jodie is so smart and brave and complicated in her performance and I’m not sure every actor would have been [able] to actually play another character’s point of view of themselves, rather than their sense of their true self,” chimes Affleck, 49, who plays Count Pierre d’Alençon, a wealthy and powerful land baron who is liege lord to Jean de Carrouges.
“We really tried to create and reflect this phenomenon of the fact that two people can have a conversation and you can ask each one of them, ‘What did you come away with?’ And they’ll genuinely tell you different things.
“They’ll have different experiences, and those experiences oftentimes are rooted in where they’re coming from, their needs, their values, and so forth.
“You don’t realise how hard it is to play three different characters – and not only that, but to take these extraordinarily delicate moments and to not sacrifice the integrity of your character, not sell it out for the other character, and yet still commit to playing a realistic version of that.
“It was extraordinarily brave — particularly for Jodie and for Adam, who could have latched into just utter villainy,” concludes the Argo star.
“We always said, over and over, ‘These performances are going to make you!’”
Plus, “Ridley’s style of filmmaking was so impressive and exciting and energising and made you feel so alive!”
“I remember when I met Matt early on and he was like, ‘You should know, (Ridley) works at a pace, he has four or five cameras rolling. It’s fast!’ Comer concurs, having filmed on location in Ireland and France.
“And then I got to set, and I was like, ‘Oh, no kidding!’” she quips.
“It was fascinating to see how he makes his decisions; he doesn’t miss a trick and the film has a lot of heart, but it’s also a spectacle and it has the fighting and the duels – it’s what he’s so great at.”
The Last Duel is showing in UK cinemas now.