Cinema Releases - The Death of Louis XIV

August 1715. After going for a walk, Louis XIV feels a pain in his leg. The next days, the king keeps fulfilling his duties and obligations, but his sleep is troubled and he has a serious fever. He barely eats and weakens increasingly. This is the start of the slow agony of the greatest King of France from gangrene, surrounded by his doctors and closest advisors, speaking in frantic, whispered tones about their options, in an era in which little is known of such illnesses.

Albert Serra's new film, The Death of Louis XIV, is an adaptation of the Duc de Saint-Simon’s memoirs, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as the Sun-King. The cult actor, who worked with all major directors from the Nouvelle Vague after being discovered in Truffaut's The 400 Blows, plays the dying king who can barely move from his bed in the Château de Versailles. His relatives and his closest counsellors come in turns at his bedside, but he attends only a few meetings and can barely rule his kingdom. His secret wife Madame de Maintenon, and his doctor Fagon dread his last breath and try to hide it from the public, to preserve the future of France. Shot in rich colour with extraordinary lighting, Jean-Pierre Léaud, in his costume, hair and poses, fully embodies the last few days of the longest serving king of France, who, with his seventy two years in power, changed the face of the monarchy and of France.

Cannes Film Festival, Official Selection, Special Screening

Best Film, International Competition, Jerusalem Film Festival

London Film Festival 2016, 'Dare'

Born in Banyoles in 1975, Albert Serra is a Catalan artist and director. Having studied philosophy and literature, he wrote plays and produced different video works. He gained an international recognition with his first feature film, Honor de Cavalleria (2006), a free adaptation of Don Quijote played by non-professional actors from his village. For his second film, Birdsong (Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Serra took inspiration in a traditional Catalan Christmas song, El cant dels ocells, and worked with the same group of people to tell the story of the Three Wise Men who golled their guiding star to Jesus. In 2013, the Centre Pompidou in Paris organized a full retrospective and gave him a carte blanche. The same year, he received the Golden Leopard in Locarno for his film Story of my Death, inspired by Casanova’s memoirs. In 2015 he was invited to show work at the Venice Biennale, in the Catalan Pavillion, and he also had a full retrospective of his films at Tate Modern.

The Death of Louis XIV, his new film starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as the Sun King, was presented in the Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival 2016 to warm critical and public applause.

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