THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV

Versailles, August 1715: on returning from the hunt, Louis XIV (Jean-Pierre Léaud) feels a pain in his leg. He continues to attend to his duties, but sleep becomes restless, the fever rises, and the leg begins to rot. Gathered around his bed are his physician Fagon (Patrick d’Assumçao), summoned professors of the Paris faculty, quacks with miracle cures, and courtiers who already sense the coming power vacuum. The Sun King tries to rule from his bed and refuses amputation. “The Death of Louis XIV” (2016) by the Spaniard Albert Serra is a chamber piece about the dying of a king, which could have been prevented with today’s medicine.

Albert Serra of Spain draws on medical records and the memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon; the project began as a Centre Pompidou commission for a performance and was shot in fifteen days with three cameras, without rehearsal. Jean-Pierre Léaud, the face of the Nouvelle Vague, has almost no lines and moves less and less from scene to scene, to the point of complete stillness. It premiered in Cannes in 2016; the film received the Prix Jean Vigo. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2016.

Shown at the 2016 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2016 · Film Archive