The Flood ***
de Gianluca Jodice
Franco-Italian film, 1 h 41
In August 1792, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, their children, the king’s sister and their retinue were transferred to the Temple Tower in Paris. Imprisoned, but “sheltered from popular anger”modulates the captain who supervises their detention. In rooms almost devoid of furniture, a dreary daily life is organized where these inmates strive to maintain their appearance, down to wigs, jewelry and powder. Madame de Lamballe comforts Marie-Antoinette, annoyed by this deprivation of liberty: “Soon we will return to our masked balls. » But the noose tightens around the royal family when only Jean-Baptiste Cléry, the valet of Louis XVI, is authorized to stay.
It is from the edifying diary of this servant and the stories of the monarch’s trial that Gianluca Jodice weaves his film. Skillfully divided into three parts (gods, men and the dead), The Flood is passionate about the portraits he paints of sovereigns and their psychological evolution. Queen even before being one, in the words of Stefan Zweig, Marie-Antoinette was exasperated by this putting her privileges on hold. Louis XVI does not want to lose hope of a merciful outcome.
Metaphysical accents and political issues
Over the course of the chapters, a progressive dispossession of their gold, ribbons and lace, the passage from wide frames to close-ups, each person becomes humanized, their bond is transformed. Almost unrecognizable, Guillaume Canet plays this initially impenetrable king whom historians have said is autistic: he goes from a surprising detachment which questions his capacity for understanding to moving flashes of lucidity and a sincere and clumsy attempt to fix.
Sovereign, Mélanie Laurent embodies the arrogance of Marie-Antoinette who gradually slides towards more pragmatism – her sacrifice, the film’s only concession to fiction, in order to obtain more comfort for her family or her childish questions to Cléry about the acquisition of a house and a job to practice. Like these two actors, all the interpretations turn out to be fine and accurate, including those of the children.
If it makes the couple endearing, this quasi-camera with discreet metaphysical accents does not forget the political issues: the fall of the monarchy uninterrupted for eight centuries involves that of the bodies which embody it.