| | |  | Ballets & Classics | Home » » » Le Roi Danse (Original French Version with English Subtitles) | | | | | | | Description: | | Corbiau repeats the Farinelli formula, artistic rivalry and social private drama expressed in dazzling, sometimes excessively lavish baroque scenery, music and costume, but this time in its ultimate setting: Versailles. There are two protagonists - first the title character, Louis XIV, the French sun-king who has two passions, establishing absolute rule over the realm -after decades of religious/civil wars- by divine right and artistic brilliancy as a dancer (like Nero wrote and performed musical poetry), and starts asserting himself against the entourage of his Medici mother, the regent during his minority, by building his palace complex and launching a 'fitting' new, mainly musical display of baroque show. Secondly the musical genius Gianbattista Lulli ('Jean-Baptiste') Lully, a Florentine upstart of unbridled ambition, quickly gains the king's absolute trust, despite the nationalist and aristocratic opposition to a low-born Italian, and thus turns the normally socially humble post of court composer into a 'ministerial portfolio of culture' of Cabinet rank, complete with a monopoly which kills of his artistic rivals in operatic theater. The script also weaves a complex web of court scheming for individual power and social interests, and even a sadistic but accidental murder on a young valet, producing a sensuous and sumptuous drama too complex for this format, ending in a freakish but fatal accident. | | | Product Details: | | | Director:
| Gérard Corbiau | | Format:
| Import, Widescreen, Color, Subtitled | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Run Time:
| 114 minutes | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 11 reviews |
| | | | Used and New: | | | |
| All | |
| $22.57 | Used
- Mint | | | $22.99 | New | | | $25.99 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $36.95 | Used
- Mint | | | $119.99 | New | |
| New | |
| $22.99 | New | | | $25.99 This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. | New | | | $119.99 | New | |
| Used | |
| $22.57 | Used
- Mint | | | $36.95 | Used
- Mint | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 11 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 a couple of problemsJun 12, 2006
By Theodorus
In order to understand the movie, one has to be quite familiar with French history, especially during the reign of Louis XIV, including the background information on Lully, Robert Cambert, Moliere, Prince de Conti; otherwise, the plot and conversation could be very confusing. One of my biggest problems with this movie is that many characters were cast TOO OLD! Cambert (1628-1677) was only 4 years older than Lully (1632-1687), and yet the actor who played Cambert looks old enough to be the father of Boris Terral (who played Lully) and actually was already 50 year old when the film was shot! The actor who played "Prince de Conti" was already 56 while his character should be a twentyish or thirtyish young man! Same with Moliere. Couldn't the director find some younger French-speaking acotrs?
But if you like French Baroque music and court dance, then this movie might be for you.
17 of 19 found the following review helpful:
 A film of Art, as beautiful as paintings in the museumMar 27, 2006
By Miho Hirono
"ex-musician"
It is pity, many fine French films are out of order. You may get from used seller though.
I have seen some paintings or drawings Louis XIV danses ballet. The Ballet scenes in this film reminded me those pictures.
Most of music is by Lully, A father of French Opera, that is gourgeous. I had never listen to Lully's music before but they interest me then I bought a CD.
The story is about a life of Jean-Baptist Lully with Louis XIV and Moliere,and basically followed with the fact in the history. Lully composes music for his master, Louis XIV who is a lack of power in early period. Louis danses with Lully's music. Louis takes a charge and power as a king after the death of the premier Mazarin. His idea conflicts often with his mother and Church. Louis uses power of art as the power of France. Louis orders Moliere and Lully work together and they build up comedy-ballet genre and releases some masterpieces such as "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme". Louis is unpreased Lully's bisexuality and some scandals with young boys but also Louis admits Lully's outstanding music talent. Because Lully hasn't been satisfied with working under, he is feeling, Moliere, then finally he excludes him from the court. Lully got old, injures his leg during the concert. He refuses to have his leg cut then dies. Louis didn't show up dying Lully.
In this film, the story put focus on Lully's feeling love to his master which is never completed. It looks like he admires his master so deeply that his feeling becomes love. And the master, Louis XIV acted by Benoit Magimel, is detached as a king. "I don't have any friends" says Louis XIV.
According to some history articles, Lully is a composer who gets the most from his master. And Lully is considered Louis's personal friend. So I guess their relationship was not like in the film.
The most facinating aspects in the film is, I think, music, ballet scene, custume, and arts. Each cut is as beautiful as a paintings in the museum.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Simplified but still really goodJun 30, 2008
By Scott Gregg
Louis XIV was the most capable monarch of his, or perhaps any, generation. The artistic grandeur of his court is legendary. The film, like most about La Grand Monarch, is rather simplistic. However the performances, musically and dramatically, are well worth the viewing. Do not bother with the English dubbed version. The original French is best. Just remember that Lully was only one in a thousand important relationships Louis had in his 70+ years on the throne.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Exquisite Music, Dancing and CostumesJun 02, 2009
By Barry J. James
I purchased this DVD after seeing a preview featured on another DVD. I was fascinated by the quality of the production and the shear extravagance of the sets and costumes. How much of the story is factual I don't know; probably very little. How much interaction there was between Louis XIV, Lully and Molière can only be guessed. However, treated as fiction this film is a wondrous tale of how a working-class musician (Lully) gets involved with the King of France and will do almost anything to keep in his good graces
Having visited the Palace of Versailles myself, I was a little disappointed that the only views of the completed building are of the Galerie des Glaces as the principal performers walk into the credits at the very end of the movie.
 Overblown, potboiler soap operaMay 25, 2012
By J. Martin
Another reviewer was mistaken when he wrote, "In order to understand the movie, one has to be quite familiar with French history ...." While it wouldn't hurt to know everybody's back story, it is NOT essential to appreciating this movie. Before I watched it, I had never heard of Lully or Cambert or Anne of Austria; I had heard of Molière and Conti but knew nothing about them except their names; but I had no trouble at all following the movie and enjoying it as much as I could with its substantial flaws.
The same reviewer complained that the actors playing Molière, Conti and Cambert were much too old, that all three were closer to Louis' age. What bothered me more than the wrong ages of some of the supporting characters was the fabulous gorgeousness of the actors who played Louis and Lully. Please! There are good portraits of both men, and both of them were as homely as my aunt Gertrude - especially Louis.
That a man who looked like a gargoyle dwarf (he was only a few inches over five feet tall), saddled at the age of four with a bankrupt, strife-torn, second-rate country, transformed himself into the Sun King and his country into a major world power, and by the force of his will completely dominated Western civilization for nearly a century - and STILL, more than 300 years later, and despite the horrific revolution that destroyed the world he created, is the single most significant person in the history of France (only Napoleon comes close, and he was a flash in the pan compared to Louis) - is a big part of what makes him so extraordinary. If he had looked like Benoît Magimel, what would be the big deal? Gorgeous people automatically control the world; they don't have to DO anything. Louis is fascinating because he was NOT gorgeous, and making him gorgeous wipes out 75% of what makes him interesting.
The answer to both that reviewer's and my beefs with this movie is that its makers had no intention of making an historically accurate quasi-documentary about this fascinating man and the almost equally fascinating people around him. They intended to make an overblown, potboiler soap opera based loosely on real people. They made the principals gorgeous because who cares what happens to ugly people? They made the villains grotesque and old because if they had been young we might not have known they were the villains.
This is a French movie, but it might as well have been made in Hollywood. It is cheap (and I'm not talking about money) melodrama, with gorgeous, dashing heroes and old, ugly, hunched-over, troll-like villains with grotesque birthmarks on their faces. It was NOT made for experts in French history or any other persons of intelligence and discernment.
It was made for an audience that neither knows nor cares how accurate it is or who the people in it are. That's how Hollywood does everything, by formula - the same formula they used in silent westerns, where you knew the good from the bad guys by the color of their hats - so audiences don't have to think, don't have to understand anything. They know by their looks which characters to cheer and which ones to boo, and that's all that matters.
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