The poor acting performance Wes Anderson adored: “I was in his corner from start to finish”
There are some filmmakers who possess a truly unique and visionary visual style whilst also managing to capture the hearts of audiences with genuinely emotional narratives. Wes Anderson is certainly such a director, and only a fool who hadn’t been privy at one point or another to his genius would argue otherwise.
After early acclaim arrived for his films Bottle Rocket and Rushmore, Anderson continued his journey to the top of the American film world, beginning with his Academy Award-nominated The Royal Tenenbaums. Going on to deliver modern masterpieces in the shape of The Darjeeling Limited, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grant Budapest Hotel and Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson never looked back and further cemented his position as one of contemporary cinema’s all-time greats.
So many of Anderson’s movies have provided countless cinema fans with some of their favourite film moments of the last 25 years, and the filmmaker himself is no stranger to viewing the greatest works of all time. In a feature with Criterion, Anderson named his ten favourite movies of all time and included the likes of Robert Bresson, Shohei Imamura, Paul Schrader and Luis Bunuel among his top choices.
Eventually, Anderson turned his attention to a 1966 French television film by Roberto Rossellini. Jean-Marie Patte played Louis XIV in The Taking of Power by Louis XIV, and even though Anderson admits that his acting performance left a lot to be desired, he still can’t help but feel admiration for his effort, going so far as to express his defence of him.
“This is a wonderful and very strange movie,” Anderson noted. “The man who plays Louis cannot give a convincing line reading, even to the ears of someone who can’t speak French — and yet he is fascinating. I was in his corner from start to finish (which comes unexpectedly — I thought there had to be at least another hour and a half to go when ‘Fin’ came up).”
“Mainly, he just walks in and out of rooms and dresses and undresses,” the director added. “I want to watch it again! What does good acting actually mean?” The film tells of the famous French king and his rise to power following the death of his advisor, Cardinal Mazarin (played by Guilio Cesare Silvagni. He must deal with the requests and problems of his mother and his court nobles, who believe Mazarin’s end will grant them more respective power.
Check out the trailer for The Taking of Power by Louis XIV below.
