Let Joy Reign Supreme

The ironically titled second feature by Bertrand Tavernier is an extraordinarily detailed, thrillingly alive evocation of eighteenth-century France during the regency of Philippe d’Orléans (Philippe Noiret), who ruled on behalf of the young Louis XV following the death of his great-grandfather, Louis XIV. A decadent and ineffectual ruler, Philippe presides over a court rocked by political intrigue and social upheavals that in many ways laid the foundation for the explosion of the French Revolution.