Les rois maudits

In 1302, king Philip the Fair of France staged a coup against the mighty order of the Templars, which he considered to be a state within the state. The Grand Master was accused of sacrilegical practices and burnt at the stake. According to the legend, from the stake the Grand Master cursed the king and all his descendants. In fact, the king himself would soon die, and all his three sons would succeed him, but each only for a couple of years and each dying without issue. Therefore, these kings are often called "Les rois maudits", the "cursed kings".

The series describes the lifes of some common people during the reign of these kings, when France was struck, inter alia, by a terrible famine and by plagues. It is beautiful pageant of Medieval Life. The video, if it existed, would be an ideal educational tool for the teaching of French and European history.

The great pity of this work is that it's only available in France in a version without sub-titles. I had the great pleasure of seeing the whole series on British television in the early '70s, and the recommendation is not to see it at all unless you can own a copy. It is worth learning French for. The giant figure of Jean Piat presides over the action of the story and his political ambition provides the motive power for it. It is not his character, Robert D'Artois, though, who supplies the pretext. That falls to the character of Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, whose order King Philip the Fair persecutes with the object of obtaining its wealth and replenish the depleted coffers of the French Crown. The old man is burned at the stake on the Isle St. Louis and with his dying breath curses the French King to the thirteenth generation of his line. The story progresses rapidly through treachery, adultery, painful public executions, strangulation, poisoning, sorcery, apostasy, and more and culminates at the first action of the Hundred Years War between England and France. All is put in train (with a smile and a gallic shrug) by Robert D'Artois. Jean Piat's performance is pivotal but by no means the only good thing in this medieval trinket-box. Louis Seigner and Helene Duc as Tolomei the Banker and Mahaut D'Artois respectively, give performances ,parts of which I remember vividly even now after thirty years. For those who cannot get hold of this series, read the book!

Every one agrees this is one of the best TV series ever made, on a par with "I, Claudius". Furthermore, this is the version purists should prefer over the recent blood-and-guts remake, which preserves most of its dialogs but serves it à la Quentin Tarantino with plenty of gore, violence and CGI. What made the original interesting is that they skimped on the sets (which were mostly painted backgrounds, projection screens, simplified architectural elements and other theatrical tricks) in order to put the emphasis on the spoken word, the acting, the characters, the costumes (which were part of this character) and the story, all of which is lost in the remake. The original version is available from Québec's imavision.com in a 3-DVD boxset - unfortunately without subtitles of any kind. But, still, it's the kind of series that makes the learning of the French language fun.

The 1972 version of Les Rois Maudits still stands up among the best TV series ever produced. In France and Canada, it is mentioned in the same breath as the Prisoner!

The adaptation is remarkable. The cast is absolutely perfect. The producers picked theater actors and have chosen to simplify the sets as much as possible in order to bring even more punch to an already powerful text.

It's a shame the DVD box set doesn't come with English subtitles. It would certainly help English-speaking viewers understand the whole story, even though people can get a clear idea as to what is going on.

Les Rois Maudits is a must in any DVD collection!

Oh, i should have seen this colossal piece of classic theater style drama much sooner. This 616 minutes felt like 2 hours and i was ready for another 616, it really took me by surprise because it looked dated and boring at first.

There's some really original scenes like those family portraits in which nobody moves for several minutes while the narrator do his job. The sets and costumes are well made and the acting level is very high. If you are a "long take fan" like me you will be pleased, really amazing actors, great cast and well directed. Jean Piat (who plays Robert d'Artois) steals the show and he's by far my favorite character in this series, what an artist!!

I've learned a lot of historical facts with this, even if some scenes are obviously fictionalized a bit.

The plot is quite complex and i was lost from time to time because there is a lot of characters in this historical saga and they are almost all important. The music is discrete and takes more and more place as the series goes on. Don't expect too much physical action though, if you don't like long dialogues in a theatrical-flamboyant style you may have some boredom problems along the way; even if there's always a spectrum of brutality and sadism around. But if you like to watch good actors performing as i do, there's an "all you can eat" buffet waiting for you on Youtube, just saying...