With THE TAKING OF POWER BY LOUIS XIV, neorealist pioneer Roberto Rossellini created the first of the fascinating, often overlooked historical dramas that would define his late career—and reinvented the costume picture in the process. In this edition of Observations on Film Art, Professor Kristin Thompson explores how Rossellini uses meticulously detailed costuming to visually convey the Sun King’s transformation of France from a decentralized, feudal state into an absolute monarchy molded in his own ostentatious image. The result is a singular achievement in which the central tension—the struggle for political power between Louis and the aristocracy—plays out as a cold war of couture.
Directed by Roberto Rossellini • 1966 • France
Starring Jean-Marie Patte, Raymond Jourdan
Filmmaking legend Roberto Rossellini brings his passion for realism and unerring eye for the everyday to this portrait of the early years of the reign of France’s “Sun King,” and in the process reinvents th...