“The Death of Louis XIV” : Jean-Pierre Léaud in Majesty – Franceinfo

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Lesson of darkness

behind closed doors in the bedroom of king Louis XIV at the time of his long agony of death, “The Death of Louis XIV” do not play the card of the facility. But it would be a sorrow to miss such a work, because work there is a, word used too often, too lightly to speak of an artistic production, which, in turn, is often reduced to a product. Albert Serra is done pictorials in avoiding any adverse aesthetic, filming to the candle, to prepare a film of tomb, such as the one created a musical composition in the baroque tribute to a person, deceased or not.

“The Death of Louis XVI” : the trailer

The form slow and meditative of the Tomb corresponds to the approach of Serra, but perhaps even more, Lessons of Darkness, in which fifteen candles are extinguished one at a time until a last left on, during the execution of a piece. Death is at work in a space of twilight where the darkness competes at the crimson hangings, a red off, a sign of the extinction of the lights and glories of the past, of a life that is fading, a revocation is announced. One thinks inevitably to Rembrandt and Caravaggio in these compositions abyssal echoes of the metaphysical.

Twilight of the evening

The sketch pictorial, the subtle luminescence, the sobriety of the decoration and the realism of the costumes underlie and serve as the acting to translate the severity of a unique moment in History. The death of the greatest of the kings of France who was in his time, the king of the world. With him disappears from this world. Jean-Pierre Léaud is literally staggering, confusing, transcendent in this king who is dying. Arrived in the autumn of his life, deeply marked by the loss of his Pygmalion and François Truffaut, which he has never recovered, the actor is inhabited throughout this slow agony ; his gestures slow and painful, his face changing, his eyes sore, sunken, and black reflect a death mask in the making. Few actors could hold such as him in the face with a camera who listens, during a long plane fixed front-end, for long minutes, silent that mark the awareness of a death inevitable, without a word being said, a phrase that is exchanged.

Jean-Pierre Léaud in “The Death of Louis XIV” by Albert Serra

© Relais Movies

Twilight, powerful, magical, “The Death of Louis XIV”, selected at Cannes, would have deserved the Palme d’or had it been in competition, for his overflow of plastic beauty and drama. A confirmation of the dazzling back to school French film, after “Frantz” by François Ozon and “Nocturama” by Bertrand Bonello. Discrete, coherent, demanding in his choice of subjects and their treatment, Albert Serra has been confirmed as a filmmaker of the first plane on which the we may have confidence for the future.

“The Death of Louis XIV” : the poster

© Relais Movies

THE PLUG

historical Drama by Albert Serra (Spain/France) – With Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Assumçao, Marc Susini – Duration : 1.55pm – Released : November 2, 2016

Synopsis : August 1715. On his return from the promenade, Louis XIV felt a sharp pain in the leg. In the following days, the King continued his duties, but his nights are restless, the fever wins. He eats little and is weakening more and more. This is the beginning of the slow death throes of the greatest king of France, surrounded by his followers and his doctors.