''The Death of Louis XIV'' (french: La Mort de Louis XIV) is a 2016

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

film directed by

Albert Serra Albert Serra (Catalan pronunciation: �lß'ɛɾ sɛrəborn 9 October 1975) is a Spanish independent filmmaker and manager of the production company Andergraun Films, set up by Montse Triola primarily to produce Serra's films. He is best known fo ...

and starring

Jean-Pierre Léaud Jean-Pierre Léaud, ComM (; born 28 May 1944) is a French actor, known for playing Antoine Doinel in François Truffaut's series of films about that character, beginning with ''The 400 Blows'' (1959). He also worked several times with Jean-Luc God ...

. Set in 1715, it depicts the final days of

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Versa ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

2016 Cannes Film Festival The 69th Cannes Film Festival was held from 11 to 22 May 2016. Australian director George Miller was the President of the Jury for the main competition. French actor Laurent Lafitte was the host for the opening and closing ceremonies. On 15 Marc ...

on 19 May 2016. It was released in France on 2 November 2016.

Plot

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

lies in his bed. Because of the gangrene, his foot becomes blackened.

Cast

Production

Director

and producer Thierry Lounas wrote the screenplay for the film.

played the lead role. For the film, Albert Serra did not have any rehearsals. Filming took place in the surroundings of the

Château de Hautefort The Château de Hautefort is a French château and gardens located in the town of Hautefort in the Dordogne. The castle was originally a medieval fortress that was reconstructed in the 17th century, and embellished with a jardin à la française. I ...

in 2015. It took 15 days to shoot the film in total.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on 19 May 2016. It was released in France on 2 November 2016.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 56 reviews, and an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''The Death of Louis XIV'' will frustrate viewers out of sync with its deliberate pace, but those with the patience to settle in may be rewarded with a thoughtful, finely detailed drama." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Boyd van Hoeij of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' called the film " lbert Serra'smost accessible work to date." Glenn Kenny of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "As for Mr. Serra, while he often enjoys playing the foppish provocateur in his interviews, his film is sober, meticulous and entirely convincing in its depiction of period and mortality." Ben Kenigsberg of '' Variety'' wrote, "As minimalist as Serra's films can be, they are rarely boring, and often given to wry wit." Peter Bradshaw of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the film 5 out of 5 stars, writing, "At 73, Jean-Pierre Léaud gives what could be the performance of his career as Louis XIV." Allan Hunter of ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' also commented that "It is easily the actor's best role and most noteworthy performance in some time."

Accolades

References

External links

Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Death of Louis XIV, The 2016 films 2010s historical drama films 2010s French-language films French historical drama films Portuguese historical drama films Spanish historical drama films Films directed by Albert Serra Films about Louis XIV Films set in the 1710s Films featuring a Best Actor Lumières Award-winning performance 2016 drama films 2010s Spanish films 2010s French films