this be quite an amazing film to watch . use digital technology and the director and rohmer and have literally encrust his living actor into painted backdrop . most of the time this work brilliantly and especially at the start where the film be like a pop up story book come to life . it be less successful in a few scene and where it limit camera angle ( they have not paint the side of some of the building for example ) but it be a very interesting way to film a historical film which be as much about our own misconception and limited view of history a history itself . it be narrate use the memoir of the duc dorleans ex mistress and grace elliott . so and an event usually claim a one of their own by marxist historian and especially in france and be here tell from the point of view of a female aristocratic foreigner . inevitably a different point of view emerges there can be no objective representation . the use of the memoir device do give the film a rather episodic quality . personally and i find the story line around the king death the most interesting . a staunch royalist she be shock when the duc vote for the king death ( a basic knowledge of the french revolution be probably helpful to follow the dialogue between grace and the duc here . he be louis cousin and have himself elect to the assembly and where he promptly change his name to philip equality ) . the filming of louis death be masterly . grace and her maidservant be in meudon and out of paris and watch from a hill with a telescope . we do not see the execution and we only hear the maid commentary and like grace . the most dramatic event of the revolution happen off screen . grace can not bear to watch her king be kill . her view be that of an aristocrat . any justification of louis death be literally beyond her vision . this be powerful and keenly intelligent film making . the love story between the duc and grace be insinuate and never tell and and be powerfully move ( tho the duc do seem a bit of a pompous fool at time while what do she see in him . no accounting for taste ) . the undercurrent of madness ( simply exist be enough to be a suspect ) that sweep individual along in a time such a the revolution be illustrate a grace life be turn upside down and her house be search daily and yet she still order her servant to cook her food and be incapable of dress herself . if you have any interest at all in a subtle and well tell film and make clever use of new technology to tell an old tale and or the representation of a pivotal moment in europe history narrate by an aristocratic foreign woman and it ultimate outsider and then this be well worth your time . it be a little slow in place but your patience be amply reward .