The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (1966)

The Taking of Power by Louis XIV (La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV)
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Written by Philippe Erlanger, Jean Gruaut, and Roberto Rossellini
1966/France
Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there. L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between[/box]

Rossellini embraces the bizarre in his historical TV drama.

The year is 1661.  Louis XIV, who had been France’s king since he was 4, is an awkward dowdy young man.  The death of trusted Cardinal Mazin creates a power vacuum that allows Louis to rule as well as reign.  He reveals a heretofore unrecognized ability as a strategic thinker.

Louis plan was to keep the nobility in debt, the merchants in profit, the poor working and fed and the peasants untaxed.  The stratagem led to the building of Versailles where Louis expected all nobles to gather and adopt an outrageously expensive lifestyle set by himself. We watch as he becomes the Sun King,

Jean-Marie Patte, who plays Louis, was an amateur actor who appears gauche and ill at ease in his fine feathers throughout the film.  This and the over-the-top setting lends a feeling of heightened reality far from the usual historical drama.  I liked it.

Clip – sub-titles not required