History movie with considerable bite and edge, situated in an era a few generations before the French revolution. The least one can say is that the rot has already set in : the future king is but a minor child, raised and supervised by his great-uncle the Regent, who is a sensualist and voluptuary surrounded by a constellation of prostitutes, opportunists, golddiggers and nitwits. (Look up "decadent" in the dictionary and you will find a portrait of this man.) At the same time one of the minor nobles tries to drum up local support for an attempt at some kind of separatist revolt or seccession. None of this is particularly helpful to a France crippled by debt and overflowing with poor and disgruntled citizens. The movie, which boasts a prize cast, contains a number of sharp, vivid, memorable scenes, quite a lot of which (as you may have guessed by now) involve debauchery, both of the merry and the tedious kind. There are also some memorable lines, although the quality of the dialogue is very uneven : witty gems alternate with nonsense so bizarre or tone-deaf that it seems to spoof itself. Sadly the movie, seen as a whole, does not impress. The various incidents and episodes may be intriguing, witty or macabre, but they do not become a harmonious whole. It all has an anecdotal, meandering quality. Still, the movie is not to be dismissed lightly, because it can teach a number of lessons. One of these lessons concerns religion : the movie tells you exactly what to expect if faith allies itself closely with politics and power and then continues this alliance for several centuries. It pretty much kills the religion : everything related to love for God or man evaporates, until you are left with nothing else than empty formalism, weaponised sectarianism, senile tradition or self-mocking cynicism. It's a message to ponder.

Tavernier hit one out of the park with this, his second At-Bat. With the not inconsiderable help of Jean Aurenche, his co-writer, he offers one of the most accurate and dazzling evocations of French History ever put on film. The trio of heavy-hitters, Philippe Noiret, Jean-Paul Marielle and Jean Rochefort are outstanding as Regent, Rebel and Abbe respectively and it's interesting to find Thierry Lhermitte making an early appearance as a Nobleman which is more or less casting against type. The Sun King is dead but the intrigues with which his Court was riddled lives on and it is the nuances which delight rather than any set-pieces. This is definitely one to savour and will surely stand up to repeat viewings.

Considering that there have been very few films made about the regency period of the rule of Louis XV, this is an important film. However, as nothing of any particular significance takes place, the film itself seems to have very little to say. Yes, it makes clear that the Regent was a sexually obsessed guy and the courtiers were all pretty worthless. As a result, there is a lot of nudity in the film. It's rare to see a historical drama with so many small-breasted nymphs running about the sets. And, it implies that the young Louis is a depraved little kid--but it never follows through with this most interesting aspect of the film. I really think they should have either tried to make the movie MORE significant and involving or just thrown in the towel, so to speak, and made it a porno film. I half expected to see Sylvia Kristel as one of the extras. As it was, the movie just didn't seem to have much of an audience.

It is unbelievable how the director Tavernier could recapture the mentality of this beginning of the 18th century which would lead to the French revolution. The wars of Louis XIV had ruined the country and the best thing the regent (an excellent Philippe Noiret but all the actors are excellent) could do was to avoid war, so they spend their time with feasts, manipulation, fraud and speculation. The mentality of the Noble of France is well described. There is (among others) an interesting dialogue between the regent and his nephew about the way the comte de Horn should be executed: it had never happened before (in this way: rouer) in France, and he only killed a speculator!. All those pretty details and the funny but accurate dialogues make of -this movie an unique historical document and at the same time it is a pleasure to see the movie again and again.