The story of the last days of King Louis XVI, his queen Marie Antoinette and their children, told in the opening film of 77th Locarno Film Festival, "The Flood" by Gianluca Jodice, will be released theatrically in Italy from November 21. The film is set in 1792, when the sovereigns and their children were arrested and imprisoned in the Temple Tower, a dark and sinister medieval castle on the outskirts of Paris. Far from the splendor of Versailles, they are isolated and vulnerable for the first time in their lives.
When one talks of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the images that come to mind immediately are lace, tall wigs, gaudy clothes, Versailles or the guillotine. In between these two extremes is an unknown moment: the few months in which the last king and queen of France were imprisoned with their two children awaiting execution. An intense and brief period, in which the masks and symbols of an era have been removed: those of the royals as public and private figures and that of history as it definitively turned a page.
The Italian-French co-production spent 7 weeks filming in Piedmont (December 2022 - March 2023) with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte, in the Savoy Residences: the Ducal Castle of Agliè, Royal Palace of Venaria Reale, Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi and Stupinigi Park of Nichelino - locations and municipalities that were involved through the Foundation’s regional network (read about the locations here).
The interiors were built in Rome, as director Gianluca Jodice who wrote the screenplay with Filippo Gravino, notes.
The film is divided into three acts - 'the gods', 'the men', 'the dead' - as if they were the three ages of man. Act 1 is set in a huge hall where the revolutionaries have provisionally, and haphazardly, housed the royals. The gods are still here, namely the king and queen, who - although prisoners - retain their titles and symbols. The staging is like the last painting of the 18th century, and the camera sinuously captures the residual royal rituals and dynamics.
The second act is set in the narrow, dirty cells on the upper floors of the castle. The situation is collapsing fast. The style is drier, more violent, the camera more edgy, closer to the breathing and suffering of the main characters now stripped of their privileges, now become ordinary mortals.
Act 3 is the act of death. The tone is whispered, dark, reflective. The violence has dissipated, as has the monarchy/revolution opposition, indeed a strange and natural closeness is established between the previously opposed parties; language is bare, essential, filled with close-ups and details. It marks their end.
French stars Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent play Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The cast also includes Aurore Broutin, Hugo Dillon, Tom Hudson, Roxane Duran, Anouk Darwin Homewood, Vidal Arzoni and Fabrizio Rongione.
Alongside names such as Daniele Ciprì (DP), Massimo Cantini Parrini (costume designer), Tonino Zera (set designer) and Aldo Signoretti (wig and hair designer), the crew comprised numerous local professionals, including Stefano Blisa (production secretary), Emanuela Minoli (location manager), Chiara Moretti (Extras coordinator), Carlotta Desmann (set decorator), and a large number of special extras.
The Flood is an Ascent Film production with Rai Cinema and Adler; in co-production with Quad; produced with the support of Film Commission Torino Piemonte; co-produced by Yann Zenou; produced by Marco Colombo; produced by Matteo Rovere and Andrea Paris.