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PRODUCTION France

Albert Serra shooting Last Days of Louis XIV

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- The cast of this Franco-Spanish production staged by Capricci Films includes Jean-Pierre Léaud and Patrick d'Assumçao

Albert Serra shooting Last Days of Louis XIV
Jean-Pierre Léaud during the shoot for Last Days of Louis XIV (© Dordogne-Cinéma)

Today is the last day of the whirlwind shoot for the new feature by Albert Serra, entitled Last Days of Louis XIV [+see also:
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interview: Albert Serra
film profile
]
. After Don Quixote in Honour of the Knights [+see also:
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(Directors’ Fortnight 2006), the Three Kings in Birdsong (Directors’ Fortnight 2008) and an encounter between Dracula and Casanova in Story of My Death [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Albert Serra
film profile
]
(Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2013), this time the astonishing Catalan filmmaker is trying his hand at an adaptation of the memoirs of Saint-Simon and the character of the Sun King, Louis XIV, who is being played by iconic actor Jean-Pierre Léaud (François Truffaut’s famous Antoine Doinel from The 400 Blows to Love on the Run, and who has also played in such movies as The Mother and the Whore, Day for Night, I Hired a Contract Killer and The Pornographer). He is joined by such names as Patrick d'Assumçao (nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2014 for Stranger by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile
]
), Irène Silvagni (a well-known personality on the fashion scene), Bernard Belin (a former pensionnaire of the Comédie Française), Marc Susini, and writers Jean Henric and Olivier Cadiot.

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Written by Albert Serra and Thierry Lounas, the story gets under way when Louis XIV gets an agonising pain in his leg upon his return from a hunt. A fortnight later, he is bedridden in Versailles. This is the start of the long, drawn-out death throes of France’s greatest king, who must also organise his successor as he is surrounded by his faithful followers: his doctor, his favourite Marquise of Maintenon, his surgeon and his top manservant.

Produced by Thierry Lounas for Capricci Films (which has distributed all of Serra’s films in France), Last Days of Louis XIV is being co-produced by Spanish outfit Andergraun Films and by French company Bobi Lux. The feature is also benefiting from backing from the Aquitaine region, the Dordogne department and the Arte Cofinova Sofica. The shoot, which got going on 28 September, is taking place in the surroundings of the Château de Hautefort. The feature should be ready in spring 2016 and will be distributed in French theatres by Capricci, with international sales still under negotiation.

Capricci Films, which currently has De sas en sas [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Rachida Brakni (read the news) and The Wounded Angel by Emir Baigaizin in post-production, will release Andy Guerif’s Maestà, la passion du Christ in theatres on 18 November and is also preparing After Blood of the Beasts by Jean-Charles Hue (whose previous film, Eat Your Bones [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, was also produced by Capricci). In the past, the Nantes-based outfit has produced such titles as Pasolini [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Abel Ferrara
film profile
]
by Abel Ferrara and has distributed several movies such as Jealousy [+see also:
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trailer
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]
by Philippe Garrel and After the Night [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Basil da Cunha
film profile
]
by Basil da Cunha.

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(Translated from French)

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