ROI SOLEIL
Spain | 2018 | 62 min | col.
Filming the performance executed in Lisbon at the Graça Brandao Gallery in January 2017, during which his favourite actor Lluís Serrat staged the death of the Sun King for seven consecutive days, Albert Serra completes his previous The Death of Louis XIV, where the great Jean-Pierre Léaud lay in agony in his bed. If the latter was a hyper-baroque chamber piece, with the dying king prostrated and surrounded by doctors, servants, and domestic animals, now the solitary figure is shot in an aseptic, modern and minimalist space and immersed in a red light which confers a hellish and crepuscular atmosphere on everything. In the silence interrupted by regular wheezing and sighs, Serrat drags himself like a wounded beast that, in spite of the relentless pain, cannot stop eating sweets from the tray always at hand. Around him, those who watch the performance can walk throughout the scene and observe with detachment, creating a dimension of ironic estrangement towards the holiness of death. (a.s.)
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: 05 Nov 2024
- Time: 16:30
Location
- Cinema Astra - Piazza Cesare Beccaria, 9 50121 Florence (FI)
Organizer
-
Albert Serra
Albert Serra was born in 1975 in Banyoles, Spain. HE’s PhD in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, Universitat de Barcelona. In 2006, Serra wrote, directed and produced his debut feature Honour of the Knights, premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2006. Since then, all his films have premiered at Cannes except Story of My Death, that won the Golden Leopard in Locarno in 2013. His major filmography includes Birdsong (2009), Lord Worked Wonders in Me (2011), The Death of Louis XIV (2016, Prix Jean Vigo winner) and Liberté (2019, Special Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard in Cannes). He created the 101 hours film Three Little Pigs for Documenta in 2013. He has also shown Singularity (2015) at the Venice Viennale of Art. In 2022, he directed Pacifiction, premiered at the Official Selection in Competition at Cannes Film Festival. He received the Louis Delluc Prize and two César Prizes for this film. He has given lectures at numerous museums, universities and cultural centers, and many retrospectives of his work have been held around the world.
