The court of the King is covered by twilights and immersed in mourning: the King Louis XIV is dying in the hands of his three doctors. At the opening sequence King Louis, fabulously played by Jean-Pierre Leaud, is seen surveying his Versailles gardens. It turns out to be his last gaze over his vast estate. Later the film meticulously presents each painful sigh, each word, each gesture of the dying monarch, which, at the end, simply turns out to be just another suffering man.
