Clevercell Very disappointing...

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

mcv-3 le roi danse feels like a french response to the excellent film "amadeus." a beautiful costume film with sumptuous scenes of dance and song, it takes its liberties with historical accuracy. we never get too deep into the characters louis xiv, lully or moliere, but with hints of obsessions (homosexual or otherwise) here and there, we understand them all well enough. if you're looking for something entertaining this film will undoubtedly please, though it won't make you think too hard. many of the reactions viewers have are probably quite visceral -- though the film talks about the loftiness of dance, it deals with the most basic of human motivations and feelings, of jealousy, lust, desire, horror even. there are a few wince-worthy moments (not for the squeamish), two specifically seem to book-end the film. they're not explicit, just painful, so the squeamish should be okay once these moments pass. le roi danse is not a terribly deep movie, but there's enough there to feel compelled by the characters, thus this is still compelling and astoundingly beautiful. on top of the great visuals and direction, excellent acting by magimel, terral and karyo all.

Belle_Mondo A story of the Sun King told through flashbacks from the mind of his choreographer and court musician Jean-Baptiste Lully. The director didn't want to make an accurate depiction from his life, which is his total right, but freely mixed historical fact with luscious, soap-opera fiction with static characters and overblown baroque settings. It is so boring and pointless you feel the need the vomit all over the rich costumes and make-up, in an uncontrolled reflex of nausea and a deliberate attempt to give all that lifeless material some soul. I am still waiting to see a story from Louis XVI, which is worth seeing.

Benoît A. Racine (benoit-3) The director's motto, judging from his body of work so far, seems to be: "You don't like history, kids? No problem, I hate it too! But I have ways of making you watch just the same!" This is a prime example of an over-the-top Mexican telenovela trying to pass for what it's not, i.e. an 'historical' epic. It describes Louis the XIVth's changing allegiances between Molière, the court dramatist, and Lully, the court composer, as a series of off-colour vignettes with a vaguely homosexual subtext. No expense is spared to gross out the spectator at every turn: a plethora of endless scenes involving various body fluids are interspersed between sundry bloody surgical emergencies (a staple of every soap-opera) and scenery-chewing, bodice-ripping drag-queen-on-a-rampage mad scenes. This is truly cinema by hairdressers for hairdressers. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with history. At no point in the whole film is the spectator given to even timidly wonder what makes a prince a king, a dramatist a great playwright and a musician a genius. The events depicted in "Le Roi danse" have been elaborated brilliantly in at least half a dozen films and TV series by directors as diverse as Rossellini and Ariane Mnouchkine during the past 50 years. This is not one of these films. Watch this film, by all means,if you really, really enjoyed the extreme close-up of Haendel squashing a bug with the tip of his walking-stick in "Farinelli". Otherwise, save your money, go for a walk, buy a book, listen to a record, get some culture in. Even "Moulin Rouge!" is marginally less embarrassing than this piece of barocaca!

kmk-3 What a relief to see a film about the 17th century that does not feature Gerard Depardieu! Wonderful fashion detailing and locations support a serious history lesson on how music and theater were key to the success of Louis XIV. One of the best exemplars of how young men measure themselves by their physical abilities, the film provides a unique timeline for the long reign of Louis. He grows from an unsure child into a confident (well, yes, arrogant) man -- and partly this is accomplished through his passionate involvement in music and dance. Think of the foolish Emperor in "Amadeus," telling Mozart there are "too many notes," and then see this depiction of a king who actually understands and appreciates music. Yes, of course, peasants were mistreated and millions starved, but we don't see that part of 17th century France. That is another story, another film. This one is stunningly beautiful; like great art, some of these images may never fade from your mind's eye.