Portraits: Louis XIV is the English title of a French docudrama which premiered in 2012.
It is an episode of the French series called Secrets of History
(Secrets d’Histoire) (season 5 episode 2).
The topic is the life of the famous king and the construction of the famous palace which he built at Versailles.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** French title: Louis XIV - Les Passions du Roi Soleil
** Director: Laure Delalex
** Host and presenter: Stephane Bern
** Language: French
** Subtitles: English
** Available via Amazon Prime Video (2014)
** Run time: 1 hour 56 minutes
The docudrama is a combination of two elements.
(1) A traditional documentary film where modern experts (known as talking heads) appear from time to time
(2) a drama in which historical scenes are reconstructed by modern actors.
The historical scenes are filmed on location: inside and outside the Palace of Versailles. The cinematography is excellent!
What do reviewers say about this film? On IMDb it has a rating of 86 percent.
On Amazon there are at the moment 21 global ratings and 18 global reviews of this product. The average rating is 2.9 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 58 percent.
Here are the details:
5 stars = 9 percent
4 stars = 28 percent
3 stars = 24 percent
2 stars = 24 percent
1 star = 15 percent
As you can see, there is a big difference between IMDb and Amazon. The former rating is very positive, more than four stars, while the latter rating is not very impressive, less than three stars.
Critical voices on Amazon claim this film is not a balanced account of the king and his role in French history. Instead, they say, this is a case of hagiography. The king is presented as a hero, while negative aspects of his role are only mentioned briefly or ignored completely.
I understand the critical voices and agree with them. There are several good reasons to offer a low rating:
# 1. The inspiration
This film does not mention a person who played a brief but important role in the life of Louis XIV:
Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680)
Who worked as a government official in charge of finances from 1656.
Fifteen years before, in 1641, he had bought a palace called Vaux-le-Vicomte which is located ca. 55 km south of Paris.
He had hired several experts to upgrade the palace and the surrounding park to make it more impressive:
** The architect Louis le Vau
** The painter and decorator Charles Le Brun
** The landscape architect André le Nôtre
In August 1661, he invited the king and many others to attend a grand party at his palace.
Fouquet spared no expense, but his effort to celebrate and praise the king failed. The king was upset. He felt the host was trying to outdo the king!
How could Fouquet have a palace that was greater than anything the king of France had? How could Fouquet arrange a party that was more impressive than a party arranged by the king of France?
Louis was not impressed; he was insulted. When his minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert suggested that Fouquet had used government money to upgrade his palace, the king was ready to believe him.
Fouquet was arrested and charged with abusing his position to enrich himself. He was found guilty and sent to prison. He was never released. Louis insisted that he could not be pardoned. He died in prison in 1680.
What did Louis learn from this episode? He decided that he was going to build a palace which was more impressive than anything else in France, indeed more impressive than anything else in Europe.
He decided to do what Fouquet had done. He took a small building and expanded it into a magnificent palace. Having sent Fouquet to prison, he hired the same experts which Fouquet had used at Vaux-le-Vicomte and ordered them to create a grand palace for him.
According to this film, Louis XIV was the one who had the idea to turn a small hunting lodge at Versailles into an impressive palace. But this is not true. Louis was inspired by Fouquet. He stole his idea and he even used the same experts which Fouquet had employed for his palace.
Nobody in France could have a palace which was more impressive than anything the king had. The king’s palace had to be the largest and the most impressive of all.
The man who had the original idea was charged with a crime he may or may not have committed and sent to prison for life in order to silence him and to show others what would happen if you tried to outdo the king in any way.
This significant detail of the king’s life is not mentioned in this film. This is a serious omission. This is a serious flaw.
# 2. The economy
Louis XIV ruled for more than sixty years, longer than most kings, prime ministers and presidents. He had plenty of time to build a solid economy, but he did not do that.
On the contrary: he spent more money than he had, building the huge palace at Versailles and waging futile wars against foreign enemies.
When he died, he left France in economic ruin!
This significant fact is mentioned briefly at the end of the film, but it is not explored in detail,
# 3. The protestants
In 1685, Louis revoked the edict of Nantes. The edict, which had been issued in 1598, offered Protestants almost the same rights as Catholics in France.
Louis revoked this edict to please the Catholic Church. According to some observers, he did it to please his second wife Marquise de Maintenon, who was a devout Catholic.
Whatever the reason, it was not a good decision. Protestants in France were given a choice: convert to the Catholic faith or leave the country at once.
A few converted, but the majority left the country. How many? The figures are not certain. Perhaps 500,000.
Those who left were often among the best and the brightest. When they left, other countries would benefit from their skills and talents.
This significant fact is mentioned briefly at the end of the film, but it is not explored in detail.
CONCLUSION
This film runs for almost two hours. There is plenty of time to present a balanced account of the king and his role in French history. But the director does not do that. Instead, she tends to focus on the glory of the king, the glory of his palace, and the glory of France.
It is too one-sided!
This film is not great; it is not even good; it is average. It cannot get more than three stars (60 percent).
RELEVANT RESOURCES
# 1. Docudramas (in French)
** The Rise and fall of Versailles (2008)
A film in three parts:
Episode one: Louis XIV = 59 minutes
Episode two: Louis XV = 59 minutes
Episode three: Louis XVI = 49 minutes
** 1715: The Sun King is Dead (2015)
French title: La mort de Louis XIV
Run time: 52 minutes
** The private Life of Marie Antoinette (2008) (2014)
French title: Marie Antoinette intime
Run time: 1 hour 51 minutes
** Marie Antoinette: The Trial of a Queen (2018)
A film in two parts:
Episode one: The Trial of a Queen
Run time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Episode two: The Last Days of Marie Antoinette
Run time: 52 minutes
# 2. Books (in French and English)
** Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France by Evelyne Lever (2001) (2006)
** Embezzlement and High Treason in Louis XIV's France: The Trial of Nicolas Fouquet by Vincent J. Pitts (2015)
** Juger la reine by Emmanuel de Waresquiel (2016)
** King of the World: The Life of Louis XIV by Philip
Mansel (2019) (2020)
** The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV’s France by Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss (2022)
*****
Visit Versailles
by Béatrix Saule
with the collaboration of
Mathieu de Vinha
(2010)
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment