Louis XIV is no newcomer to Albert Serra’s filmography, the hero of his latest opus to date, The Death of Louis XIV (2016). This Sun King features a twin, even though, in the game of differences, it turns out that there are quite a few. Instead of Jean-Pierre Léaud, a non-professionnal actor whom Serra already worked with in his first films. Very different body weight, here in expansion, there in retention; a different way of putting his face in it: there, at the service of an astonished child’s gaze, here, singularly chubby, as if extending without any solution to all of his corpulence; here, the invention of sovereignty constantly reinvented, and there, the kingdom of innocence vaguely struck by idiocy. And the props: if the tale in the first version needed Versailles or an imitation of it, the second one reduces the palace to a luminous halo. True, this time we are stuck between bare walls, white-washed with pink coating (the color of twilight?) under neon lights at the ceiling. Here, for a long time, this king has been left to his own devices, moaning on the floor, with a stomach ache as severe as it is hilarious, with rare trinkets all around. Then we see spectators entering the field to see Her Majesty’s rants, his hair (as wigs were called then) and sumptuous clothes characteristic of that era, and spectators dressed in anorak. So what, then: capturing a performance? If the art gallery really frames the « action », what we find here is calculation, cutting up, montage; in short: a film, and no misunderstanding. And a film whose paths familiar to everyone Serra’s work point to: aristocracy in all its grandeur, its stupidity and its agony, the representation of power, the forces of art. Between the sublime and the grotesque, between derision and the derisive, between Buñuel and Dali, a royal figure engages in a quest for his death mask.

影片背景设置在十八世纪末，理性主义让位于浪漫主义的那段时期。主人公是臭名昭著的浪荡子卡萨诺瓦(韦森科·阿泰奥 饰演)和他的贴身男仆(路易斯·塞拉特饰演)。故事讲述主仆二人的生活经历，当时他们与社会名流、艺术家的交往以及在万花丛中的风流史。故事开端于一座法式城堡，最终来到了喀尔巴阡( Carpathian ，位于波兰东南)凄清的山脉，在那里他们遇到了同时代的另一位著名人物：吸血鬼伯爵德古拉(艾力塞乌·胡艾塔斯 饰演)。

Trusting in fate, Don Quixote and Sancho pursue their travels in search of adventure day and night. They ride through fields, talking about subjects as varied as spirituality, chivalry and daily life. A growing bond of friendship unites them.