The court of Louis XVI is stripped to a faded, festering husk of itself in “ The Flood ,” a stark study of the king’s last days in which the luxurious trappings of French monarchy disappear before our eyes — until only its literal architecture remains. An impressively severe second feature by Italian director Gianluca Jodice , this is a brisk rejoinder to past cinematic portraits of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette that have rendered even their downfall in the most lavish way possible. Such spectacle can have its own ironic purpose, as with the pointed whipped-cream excess of Sofia Coppola’s 2006 vision.
But here, as played by Guillaume Canet and a blistering Mélanie Laurent, the deposed, imprisoned monarchs are mocked by whatever finery they’ve held onto: Looking shrunken and freeze-dried in their dirtied robes and increasingly unkempt wigs, they’re dead well ahead of their date with the guillotine. A rather sober opener for this year’s Locarno Film Festival , “The Flood” may come as a disappointment to viewers who prefer their royalty porn pretty and push, and not artfully painted in various shades of dry rot. But there’s something quietly transfixing about its austerity, while the film retains enough handsome Euro-arthouse sheen — atop the draw of its name stars — to sell widely.
Drawn from the diaries of Louis XVI’s personal valet Jean-Baptiste Cléry (played by Fabrizio Rongione), the film begins in the immediate aftermath of the 1792 insurre.