LE DÉLUGE
Follows the last uncertain days of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before they were executed.
1792. Louis XVI (Guillaume Canet), his wife Marie Antoinette (Mélanie Laurent), and their children have been arrested and imprisoned in the Tour de Temple, a sinister chateau in Paris, awaiting their trial. Far from the splendour of Versailles, they are isolated and vulnerable for the first time in their lives. Drawn from the diaries of Louis XVI’s personal valet Jean-Baptiste Cléry (played by Fabrizio Rongione), the film begins in the immediate aftermath of the 1792 insurrection that saw the Tuileries Palace stormed by armed revolutionaries and the monarchy abolished. Arrested, the royal family and their entourage arrive at the Tour du Temple, a large but sparsely appointed chateau in central Paris, where they are to be confined while their fate is determined. The deposed, imprisoned monarchs are mocked by whatever finery they have held onto, looking shrunken in their dirtied robes and increasingly unkempt wigs. With empathy and stirring performances from Canet and a blistering Laurent, this is a fascinating story from which modern France was born, told with a de-frilled austerity that feels decidedly new. (Subtitles)
France 2024 Gianluca Jodice 101m
