Film Reviews

Le Roi Danse

• Rating:
• Director: Gerard Corbiau
• Starring: Benoit Magimel
• Details: Fra/ 114 mins / (No Cert).

Another lavishly produced music based film, Le Roi Danse is a historical musical drama charting the relationship between Louis XIV of France and the Italian composer Jean Bapiste Lully. At first, the relationship between the 14-year-old monarch-in-waiting and the bisexual Florentine composer is based on a love of music. But as Louis grows older and eventually becomes King, his grip on reality begins to slip and he used Lully's talents to impress a warped vision of himself onto the rest of the world. Of course, it isn't long before their relationship begins to shift irreversibly.
Le Roi Danse is a splendid looking film, and it has few peers in terms in terms of pure visual dynamics (indeed, in terms of visuals, its closest relative is probably Moulin Rouge). What's even more surprising is that it was directed by Gerard Corbiau, the man responsible for one of last year's most depressing dramas, the extraordinarily bleak Piano Teacher. Thankfully, things aren't so despairing here, and although it's a relatively niche-driven excursion, this is fairly entertaining, if not quite gripping, stuff.

Review by Garreth Murphy