In "Let Joy Reign Supreme", it is 1719, four years after the death of Louis XIV, and the Regent(Philippe Noiret) rules the country in the name of the nine year old king.(It is said to be bad form to have a monarch who wets his bed.) The Marquis de Pontcallec(Jean-Pierre Marielle) goes to the Regent with a list of
demands on behalf of a group of nobles seeking to rebel and form the Republic of Breton. The Abbe Dubois(Jean Rochefort), a friend and confidante of the Regent, has his eyes on the lucrative position of Archbishop of Cambrai and sees crushing the rebellion as one way of reaching that goal. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, "Let Joy Reign Supreme" is a bawdy and intelligent period piece. The movie shows that the monarchy as being motivated by patronage, corruption, decadence and greed was unwittingly setting the wheels of the French Revolution in motion and, therefore, the seeds of its own destruction.
February 19, 2007
