Pretty Good

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Belgian director Gerard Corbieu's "Le Roi Danse" is really about two things: the life of Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer to Louis XIV, and the creative chaos inherent in musical genius. Lully was probably the most controversial composer ever to serve Louis XIV. He was a Florentine attempting to fit into a French World that did not want him, but which in the end had to acknowledge his musical genius. He was a libertine who shamelessly carried on extramarital affairs with men and women at a time when a man of his station (the kings and nobles were not held to such lofty moral standards) was required to be prudish and monogamous. He was mercurial, unpredictable, unscrupulous, cold and vain at a time when advancement depended on him being subservient and capable of flattery. But Lully's wild and unorthodox ways came from the same well spring as his musical genius, which was why he retained the king's favor for such a long time. This is the Lully that is portrayed so well by Boris Terral in "Le Roi Danse." Experiencing this movie is likely experiencing wild bursts of energy on screen. The music is often the source of that energy, but Boris Terral and Benoit Magimel (whose Louis XIV is the best I have seen) contributes to it as well. Sometimes this film was criticized for its graphic portrayal of Anne of Austria's breast cancer surgery without anesthetic (a scene which, by the way, was faithful to what actually happened) or its tendency to clutter one event after the other in furious succession until Lully's career approaches a crescendo unheard of in the French music world. But it is important to remember that this what the 17th century world was like. Moreover, we are seeing that world largely from Lully's eyes as he recalls his life shortly before an agonizing death from gangrene. For Lully, the 17th century world of a music was filled with ups and downs, humiliations and triumphs, and the agony of it all was that each success (when Lully was successful) was only fleeting because Lully was only someone as long as he retained the king's favor. There is an extraordinary scene where Lully explains to his wife Madeleine that without the king he is nothing. In other words, forget about all the brilliant compositions in the past or all the great work he was doing now. If Lully could not compose works that were better than his last to hold on to the king's favor, his career was over and he was nothing.I could go on, except I would be missing something: the artistry involved in making this film. Visually, this film is great to look at. Moreover, it is easy to mess up a film with such a complex script as this one. But the acting in it is superb, especially from Magimel (Louis XIV), Terral (Lully) and Tcheky Karyo (Moliere). Finally, Corbieu paces everything at an appropriately frenetic pace that we experience and understand the 17th century and all its uncertainties for a composer. In short, Le Roi Danse is a truly brilliant film.

le roi danse feels like a french response to the excellent film "amadeus." a beautiful costume film with sumptuous scenes of dance and song, it takes its liberties with historical accuracy. we never get too deep into the characters louis xiv, lully or moliere, but with hints of obsessions (homosexual or otherwise) here and there, we understand them all well enough. if you're looking for something entertaining this film will undoubtedly please, though it won't make you think too hard. many of the reactions viewers have are probably quite visceral -- though the film talks about the loftiness of dance, it deals with the most basic of human motivations and feelings, of jealousy, lust, desire, horror even. there are a few wince-worthy moments (not for the squeamish), two specifically seem to book-end the film. they're not explicit, just painful, so the squeamish should be okay once these moments pass. le roi danse is not a terribly deep movie, but there's enough there to feel compelled by the characters, thus this is still compelling and astoundingly beautiful. on top of the great visuals and direction, excellent acting by magimel, terral and karyo all.

I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's historical accuracy was criticized vehemently by Benoît A. Racine (baracine@idirect.com) from Toronto, Ontario, Canada that I decided to say that this movie was recommended to me by a professor of French History & Literature from Stanford University. I'll write again later with my review, but from what I was told this is an excellent example of court life. Apparently the dances, rivalry between the artists and life as a boy king are well represented in light of this particular period of their lives. To sum, based on the reviews most people thought the film was a beautiful, now you know that the essence of it is based on historical fact as well. I guess that history can be fun after all!

This movie gives us another glimpse of the feudal life of the french King Louis XIV. "Le Roi Danse" shows us his obsession with dancing and how important music and dance was to him. But the main story is about Jean-Baptiste Lully which is the main composer and the dance instructor for Louis. Lully falls in love with his king but this love is never returned by the emperor. Benoit Magimel makes a very strong performance as King Louis - there are incredible moments when he dances or just stare at Lully. Tcheky Karyo plays Moliére - the poet and a friend of Lully. The relationship between Moliére and Lully reminds me on the situation we had with Mozart and Salieri in "Amadeus"... Strong rivalry between the characters. Karyo is very convincing in his portrayal of the poet. The interieurs, the costumes and even the music are overwhelming. The movie is a pure feast for the eyes and ears. The only minus point - as far as I can see it - is that the director expects a certain knowledge about the french history from the viewer. Some characters and situations aren't explained 'cause Corbiau seems to think everybody knows about Cardinal Mazarin and so on. Sometimes the story-telling jumps and makes a following a little bit complicating. But in general it's a movie well worth seeing!