Planchon, Roger, Briaux, Hervé, Graziosi, Paolo, Mansion, Maxime, Maura, Carmen, Quivrin, Jocelyn	...	(Director)
Roger Planchon	...	(Writer)
Carmen Maura	...	Anne d'Autriche
Maxime Mansion	...	Louis XIV
Paolo Graziosi	...	Mazarin
Jocelyn Quivrin	...	Philippe Duc d'Anjou
Hervé Briaux	...	Gaston d'Orléans
Brigitte Catillon	...	Duchesse de Chevreuse
Irina Dalle	...	Grande Mademoiselle
Serge Dupire	...	Prince de Condé
Isabelle Gélinas	...	Duchesse de Chatillon
Michèle Laroque	...	Duchesse de Longueville
Aurélien Recoing	...	Coadjuteur de l'Archevêque de Paris, futur Cardinal de Retz
Régis Royer	...	Prince de Conti
Vanessa Wagner	...	Charlotte de Chevreuse
Maurice Barrier	...	Guitaud
Marco Bisson	...	Le duc de Nemours

Comments: DFR 196

Summary: The title of this major French costume drama means "Louis, child-king", and indeed it's a fascinating fresco about the formative years of the young king Louis XIV, before he became the Sun-king at Versailles. It was a dark and violent period, when the Louvre (meaning 'wolves hunt castle', hunting was a major aristocratic pastime), then still the somewhat gloomy royal palace, was the battle field of palace intrigues while the regency was held by queen-mother Anne of Austria but the actual head of the royal government was the aging cardinal Giulio Mazirini ('Mazarin'), the less-known Italian successor of Richelieu, who also introduced to the court and the kingdom a host of his countrymen from whom Louis would learn the passion for Italian culture, especially music which would flourish under the direction of Lully (but that later story is another movie, "Le Roi danse")...