If you like romantic period pieces, you might want to check out Ehrengard: Art Of Seduction. This Danish movie is available on Netflix, so is it going to teach us new tricks on how to entice someone? The story follows Cazotte, a man who declares herself an expert in love and is recruited by the clever Grand Duchess of the fantasy Kingdom of Babenhausen to assist her in finding an heir to her kingdom.
While looking for an ideal future, Cazotte trains the Crown Prince, who is shy and introverted, in the skills of seduction. However, their scheme quickly goes south when an heir is conceived outside of marriage, forcing the royal family into danger of losing the Kingdom to arrogant cousins.
So, you could approach this movie in a couple of ways. One is sort of a romantic drama, in the fact that there is deception at play when a man wants to woo a woman. Another way to view this is a man smitten with somebody that he doesn’t know and then vows to win her heart, by some deception.
One more way is to watch a man get snubbed by a woman and then spend the next hour and a half concocting schemes and lies to get closer to her in the hopes that she’ll fall in love with him. Yeah, none of these sound that appealing, right? And that’s what’s crazy about this movie.
But really, when we watch the main character Cazotte scheme and connive, even wager, so that he can attempt to make a young woman named Ehrengard fall in love with him. Now, to do so, he will use a subtle seduction, “a skill” that he’s honed and is somewhat known for.
Ehrengard The Art Of Seduction Ending Explained:
While residing in solitude, Princess Ludmilla gives birth to a healthy child. However, the information was kept under wraps since it may cause a huge controversy. Marbod felt that something strange was happening, but he was prevented from approaching the princess and prince.
Marbod and his wife tried to get information about the truth that the royal family was withholding from the people in a nearby tavern. They learned that the Duchess had hired Lisbeth as a wet maid months after they had bought off the taverner.
The separation was too much for Lisbeth’s husband to handle, and he spent his despairing days wandering the streets while blaming the royal family for stealing his wife without his will. Marbod got to know about Lisbeth’s husband, Matthias, and learned that the royal castle was keeping a newborn.
In order to get the Prince and Princess’ attention, the Marbods made the decision to write the Duchess a letter. And they gave Matthias orders to take the royal child into his custody, and if he achieved his goal, he would win his wife back.
Ehrengard Overhears Cazotte And The Duchess
In the meantime, the Duchess decided to fabricate Ludmilla’s pregnancy and organize a picnic to put an end to the rumors. Cazotte and the Duchess had a long discussion on how he would go after Ehrengard. Cazotte wanted to paint her lovely face from a distance rather than approach her physically. He had made the decision to refrain from making any physical advances.
Every morning, he had been accompanying Ehrengard to the lake while also painting her in a fully vulnerable state. He was sure Ehrengard would be absolutely amazed and charmed when she saw the artwork. Ehrengard accidentally hears their conversation and gets both humiliated and furious.
In addition to studying her in private, the painter was also openly discussing his innermost motives with the Duchess. Ehrengard felt deceived, and the picture in Cazotte’s chamber, as well as her naked drawings in his diary, proved he wasn’t lying. In an attempt to come up with a solution, Ehrengard gets into the woods and there she runs into Lisbeth’s husband.
Lisbeth’s husband wasn’t sure whether he should leave the royal family and take the baby with him. Because of his drunkenness, it was simple for Ehrengard to obtain the whole truth from him. But rather than putting a stop to him, she urged him to follow the plan exactly as he was told.
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The Truth Gets Out
Matthias entered the castle secretly when the group was having a picnic, taking the baby with him. Ludmilla’s pregnancy was being celebrated in the distance by the royal family, who gathered around a table. Mrs. Marbod started feeling Ludmilla’s belly in an effort to learn the truth. Of course, everything was bad, and Ludmilla had a pillow tied around her waist.
Matthias shook up the picnic by running with his baby in his arms. Ehrengard chased him, as did the other members of the royal family. Ehrengard attacked Matthias as he was carrying his baby to his home.
The Marbods were relieved that the truth had finally come to light, but they were completely taken aback when Ehrengard told them the baby was her own. She created a story about how she and Cazotte had a passionate connection and had a child as a result. Cazotte was taken aback when Ehrengard told him to look into the pocket of his coat, where she had put his diary.
Ehrengard’s The Art Of Seduction Ending Explained
Ehrengard showed that she was a few steps ahead of Cazotte, who had thought he could seduce her. She was fully aware of his preparations, and she let him know in the open that none of those methods would have been effective against her. The Marbods left when they learned that they had no evidence that the baby belonged to the Princess and Prince.
After learning about the diaries at the end of Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction, Kurt invited Cazotte to a duel. Ehrengard, on the other hand, rode her horse and hugged her lover on the morning of the duel. Cazotte was forced to have sex with the Duchess because he was unable to seduce Ehrengard. The child of Princess Ludmilla and Prince Lothar was baptized, and the truth was never revealed to the cousins.
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For her devoted service to the Babenhausen family, Ehrengard received the Order of Saint Stephan. In the end, Cazotte traveled to Rome because he was rather upset that he wasn’t given recognition for his help to the royal family. There, he kept painting and was given more opportunities to improve as an artist.
Eventually, Cazotte came to be known as “Casanova” due to his appeal to female circles. It was rather a relief that Cazotte was not able to go after Ehrengard while she stayed strong and took control of the entire narrative. Cazotte accidentally shot himself in his lower leg during the fight.
Therefore, we may conclude that he received fair payment for his perverted acts. Women in the nineteenth century lacked the ability to confront men like Cazotte without damaging their reputations. Ehrengard shows remarkable courage and commitment to the Duchess in accepting the blame. However, one is left to think how Marbod never discovered the truth.
After all, Ehrengard was meant to be carrying her child. We can only speculate that Marbod may have found everything, but since it had been hidden for nine months and he lacked any concrete proof against the royal couple, he was left with no choice.
Ehrengard The Art Of Seduction Review
The acting in this is decent, and aside from Cazott being slimy, a lot of the characters are easy to watch. I mean, even the villainous relatives of the Crown Prince, do a wonderful job of portraying vile and greedy relatives.
I don’t want to come off sounding like I didn’t like the film. As I was watching it, I was entertained and amused by probably the most likable character, Ehrengard, even though we don’t know a ton about her. I mean, we know of her family and her strict upbringing, but then, outside of that, she’s kind of a stranger.
Now, the issue for me is that the longer I sat with what I watched, I just got an icky feeling over Cazott’s actions and then the story glorifying it.
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