Angélique und der König

beautiful people, touching love, adventure and mysteries, Versailles and strange situations. that could be all. a splendid Michelle Mercier as new, strong, determined, mature Angelique and her fight for justice and true love. France of Louis XIV and little more than romanticism, exoticism or a history lesson. a film/a series who reminds more the sensitivity , expectations and innocence of the public from the"60's - East European not the last - than the glamor of a pink history. a film who seduces for the , at first sigh, large circles of chaos. and for the art of the lead actress to create a credible character who defines herself more than by the beauty but for the force and courage. a film for each age. for discover a form of cinema who has origin in the popular novel by Alexander Dumas father and Feval and could be a kind of alternative to many blockbusters.

In this movie. Ft. some freaky stuff, out of nowhere a human sacrifice of a tyke, not going thru with just hinted , otherwise kingly intrigues , the other part with the shah is yawn , but just I guess more for the novella crowd.

Angelique is back for another adventure. In the previous film Angelique married her cousin, Philippe de Plessis-Bellières. At the start of 'Angelique and the King' Philippe dies and Angelique is once again widowed. Now, King Louis XIV expresses his interest in her. He sends her on a mission to ensure a treaty is signed between Persia and Russia.

In Persia, she gets more than she bargained for in Ambassador Bachtiary Bey, who sees her as a gift to him. In a daring rescue, she is saved by Prince De Vardes, who proclaims his love for her. Now Bachriary demands De Vardes' head. Oh, Angelique and all the men who fall at her feet!!

As a reward for her mission, Kind Louis awards a property to Angelique, which belonged to her first husband, Jeoffrey de Peyrac. Jeoffrey was my favourite character from the first movie, so I was overjoyed at his return (once again portrayed by the handsome Robert Hossein).

Angelique is once again portrayed by the fabulous Michelle Mercier, and she is as witty as ever. I absolutely love her as Angelique. As always, the film offers passion, drama, humour, intrigue, action and adventure. 'Angelique and the King' was so much better than its predecessor 'Angelique: The Road to Versailles' (Aka 'Marvellous Angelique'). The costumes and locations are stunning as always.

Angélique is apparently one dangerous woman to love. So far, in the previous films, she had sex with three men and they soon died. Now, at the prologue to this third film, you see her brand new husband who she wed at the end of the second film...and of course, he dies! I felt like yelling out to each man she slept with in this film to run! While she herself never killed anyone, the results are still hard to discount--two lovers and two husbands dead.

Soon after this latest death, the King himself (Louis XIV) meets with our heroine and begs her to help convince the Persian Ambassador to agree to a treaty. However, what they didn't realize was that the handsome Persian was in fact a sexual sadist. So, it is up to the King's half- brother, some Hungarian prince, to save Angélique from the evil troll's clutches. Later, the Prince returns to get a thank you bit of nookie and I automatically assumed he'd soon be dead.

Later, she is summoned to Louis' court and it appears she's about to become his mistress. However, when she learns that her first husband might not be dead, she leaves in search of him--a good idea since someone is trying to poison her at Versailles. Unfortunately, whoever dislikes her isn't just trying to get her away from the King, as they soon make another attempt to poison her in her own palace (this, by the way, is a particularly cool scene). Does it ever end for poor Angélique?! Just before she can go off in search of her missing husband, Angélique accidentally stumbles into a Satanic cult at Versailles!! And it's not the nice Satanic cults that give out donuts and candy on pagan holidays, but the baby sacrificing kind! Will our dear heroine survive? Will she get back her scarred but sexy Marquis? Will men stop dying once they have sex with her? Tune in to find out for yourself.

Overall, this film is a good bit better than the second sequel. The second had even more plot elements and twists than this one--too many for one film. Here, though there seems to be everything but the kitchen sink thrown in, at least it's easier to follow and more satisfying.

"Angélique et le roy" is Anne et Serge Golon's peak:their novel successfully recreates the atmosphere of Louis the fourteenth 's court,with its intrigues,and its incredible "Etiquette".Their depictions are vivid and colorful.They have never blended so intimately Angelique's adventures with the historical events:and there 's a lot of 'em:war in Holland,the sumptuous feasts which celebrated victory,the rise of Madame de Montespan and the fall of Louise de La Vallière as favorites of the Sun King,the poisons affair,Henriette d'Angleterre's death,et al.Of course,there are some mistakes (the book was written in the fifties):Monsieur ,frère du roi (king's brother),was never the villain depicted by the Golon,and his wife's(Henriette) poisening was never proved(and the historians reckon it's unlikely).

What about the movie?It's an almost complete loss.The scenarists took what was the most spectacular-Angélique meets a Persian prince and is almost raped,she attends a black mass- and left the rest,all I mention above."Indomptable Angélique" and "angélique et le sultan" the two final episodes of the saga are,if possible,worse.

One should note,however,that only the third part of the novel was transferred to the screen.Philippe ,who plays a prominent part in the novel ,disappears in the prologue!

If only more people knew the novels...Alas!