# Opinions of 'Le Roi Danse', film about Lully & Louis XIV?



## Ingélou

I'm obsessed with Lully at present. I found a dramatic clip of 'Le Roi Danse' on YouTube which seemed, however, not to be organised as a chronological story. I found one review which said that though the music was fab (naturellement!) it went on a bit & flipped to and fro from Lully's deathbed to the crises of his career. I don't want to buy the film if it's going to irritate me. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?


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## mamascarlatti

To be honest, while it is good spectacle with lovely music, it's not exactly gripping stuff. The death by self inflicted gangrene is pretty horrible though.

Also, your French will need to be fluent because it has no subtitles.


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## Ingélou

Hmmm! Even the lovely Lully's music may not compensate for close-ups of the gangrene. Thanks for warning me. Little YouTube clips are the way to go...


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## Ingélou

Aha - as I'm thinking about Lully to post something about him on the Baroque Exchange, I remembered this film. I decided that I'd really like to see it & asked Taggart if we could order the dvd. But as you say, Natalie, there are no subtitles, so it wouldn't have been worth it. But Taggart found it on YouTube *with subtitles*  in fourteen different links - number 9 is so rude  that you have to work hard to get to see it. But we have just watched *Le Roi Danse*...

And we enjoyed it! There *were *a few gruesome bits - not so much the dying Lully's gangrene, as the poor Queen during & after an operation on her breast, and Moliere coughing up blood. And I don't trust it as history - though they got round that by presenting bits as Lully's deathbed fantasy. But still, the story interested us, and as for the music, the clothes, and above all, the glorious French language - we were mesmerised.

*Vive La France!*


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## PetrB

Ingélou said:


> I'm obsessed with Lully at present. I found a dramatic clip of 'Le Roi Danse' on YouTube which seemed, however, not to be organised as a chronological story. I found one review which said that though the music was fab (naturellement!) it went on a bit & flipped to and fro from Lully's deathbed to the crises of his career. I don't want to buy the film if it's going to irritate me. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?


Here ya go, link 1 of 14: assemble in a playlist, et voilà, the complete film with English subtitles.

This is from the same director who did Farinelli, and all the production values, sets, costumes, etc are beyond high, while there is something fascinating to both subject and look of it, there is something irritatingly superficial -- feeling more about style than substance. Yet, I watched and enjoyed, and was sometimes mildly annoyed with, Farinelli, and found the same with Le Roi Danse.

The "confusing" device some complained of is dead-simple to understand flashback from end of life to recall, the chronology is quite clear to anyone familiar with standard flash back (the world is getting more literal, some people now so crippled by that they don't get basic flashback in story or film narrative - go figure.

I think you will enjoy it -- and maybe find some of it irritating. When the writing has substance, the cast is quite fine and do their stuff. (Farinelli is also I think worth at least a viewing.)


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## Ingélou

Ah, thanks, Petr :tiphat: - the 14 YouTube links were what we watched in the end but it's lovely that you thought of us, and it's also great to read your comments. We too found the flashback sequences easy enough to understand, though it was clear that some of them were also fantasies or influenced by fantasies. 

It's also a nice post because I didn't know about the film 'Farinelli' (I'll come clean - hadn't heard of the original either! ) so now we have something else to watch & to exchange opinions about. Thank you!


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## PetrB

Ingélou said:


> Ah, thanks, Petr - the 14 YouTube links were what we watched in the end but it's lovely that you thought of us, and it's also great to read your comments. We too found the flashback sequences easy enough to understand, though it was clear that some of them were also fantasies or influenced by fantasies.
> 
> It's also a nice post because I didn't know about the film 'Farinelli' (I'll come clean - hadn't heard of the original either! so now we have something else to watch & to exchange opinions about. Thank you!


The most disappointing but not surprising element of Farinelli is a secondary plot element -- fictional and taking great license with fact -- which is blatantly Franco-phallocratic and near inadvertently funny.

Again, there is much to enjoy, the period settings and costumes 'fabulous' -- and again, more than a little irritating, within that context, the stage costume and makeup on Farinelli often is too directly reminiscent of Adam Ant :lol: Yet, again, I do recommend it.


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## Delilah

I absolutely adored this movie, I am slightly biased perhaps because I do love historicals, add classical music and legends such as Lully and Molière and I am sold. Didn't know much about Lully before this movie, not the easiest personality to fall in love with in my opinion, but I can definitely see the fascination.


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