Acquisitions – Foreign Films

Cinema Guild Orders Bed Rest for Albert Serra’s “The Death of Louis XIV”

Published on June 10, 2016

Considered Jean-Pierre Léaud’s “best role and most noteworthy performance in some time”, Cinema Guild have landed the rights to the out of comp Cannes selected The Death of Louis XIV. Albert Serra’s seventh feature film will likely be shown at other prestige fests (possibly NYFF) before being released theatrically in early 2017.

Gist: Based on extensive medical records and the memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon and other courtiers, this is set in Versailles, August 1715. After going for a walk, Louis XIV (Jean-Pierre Léaud) feels a pain in his leg. The next days, the Sun King fulfills his duties and obligations, but he has trouble sleeping. A serious fever erupts, which marks the start of the slow agony of the greatest King of France. Surrounded by doctors and family, he struggles to run the country from his bed.

Worth Noting: This was the first time that Serra worked with professional actors.

Do We Care?: Well received in Cannes (and considered his most accessible work to date) Serra is worth the investment.

Related Topics:Acquisitions: Foreign Films, Albert Serra, The Cinema Guild, The Death of Louis XIV

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include 1976 (Manuela Martelli), Godland (Hlynur Pálmason), Corsage (Marie Kreutzer), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen).