Change Your Image
akominatus
IMDb member since February 2005
Reviews
Un roi sans divertissement (1963)
A hauntingly brilliant and greatly underrated film.
4 February 2005 - 8 out of 10 users found this review helpful.
Giono's script simplifies the complex plot of the original, but then a film script is not a novel; the new version of "Un roi" is close to perfect in cinematic terms, combining elements of a thriller with the study of a mind collapsing slowly under the pressures of loneliness and isolation. The images, even in the grander scenes such as the wolf hunt, avoid melodrama in favour of a gradual build-up of tension. Most memorable is the astonishing use of occasional colour in the essentially monochromatic snowscapes, particularly the great red star of blood splashed across the snow. An unjustly neglected masterpiece, currently (and for many years) unavailable in any form.
See more▼See less▲