The Death of Louis XIV

La mort de Louis XIV

1715, by the deathbed of Louis XIV. A swarm of royal servants is swirling around the dying monarch. The palace’s physicians are muttering through their teeth, petrified in the thought of being accused. The flatterers and backslappers of the court are in denial, insisting on pampering the patient, as if he was a baby. Roi-Soleil is about to set in slow and torturing agony – death has engulfed him. Jean-Pierre Léaud’s wrinkled face reflects every aspect and manifestation of mortality: the gradual retreat of body and mind, the eerie blend of terror and serenity, the chilling plainness of the unavoidable end.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Albert Serra

Script: Albert Serra, Thierry Lounas

Cinematography: Jonathan Ricquebourg

Editing: Ariadna Ribas, Artur Tort, Albert Serra

Sound: Jordi Ribas, Anne Dupouy

Music: Marc Verdaguer

Actors: Jean-Pierre Leaud, Patrick d’Assumcao, Marc Susini, Irene Silvagni, Bernard Belin

Production: Capricci Production

Producers: Thierry Lounas, Albert Serra, Joaquim Sapinho, Claire Bonnefoy

Co-production: Rosa Filmes, Andergraun Films, Bobi Lux

Costumes: Nina Avramovic

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: France, Spain, Portugal

Production Year: 2015

Duration: 105΄

Contact: Capricci, international@capricci.fr

Awards/Distinctions: Best Actor, Best CinematographyBest Cinematography – Lumiere Awards, France 2017, OFCS Award – Online Film Critics Society Awards 2017

Albert Serra

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 international recognition with his first long feature, Honor of the Knights, a free adaptation of Don Quijote played by non-professional actors from his village. The film was presented at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in 2006. For his second film, Birdsong, Serra took inspiration from 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 following their guiding star to find Jesus. In 2013, the Centre Pompidou in Paris gave him a carte blanche for correspondence with the Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso. The same year he received the Golden Leopard in Locarno for his new film Story of my Death, inspired by Casanova’s memoirs. The Death of Louis XIV starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as the Sun King was presented in the Official Selection of Cannes Film Festival 2016. Liberté, starring Helmut Berger, Marc Susini, Baptiste Pinteaux, is the cinematic recreation of his 2018 Berlin Volksbühne play of the same name, which won the Special Jury award at the 2019 Un Certain Regard selection at Cannes. In 2022, he returned to Cannes in the Official Competition Section, with Pacifiction.