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‘The Flood’ Review: A Near-Dystopian Vision of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s Last Days
Starring Melanie Laurent as Marie Antoinette, Gianluca Jodice's 'The Flood' revisits a familiar chapter of history with an austerity that feels new.
Constantly stressing the disparity in scale between aristocratically soaring ceilings and a dwindling floor plan, Tonino Zera’s superbly disheveled production design contributes to the dystopian air of proceedings, as does Daniele Ciprī’s parched, desaturated lensing: The world may not be ending for the rest of the country, but with a restless public calling for their heads, the royals may as well be barricaded against a zombie apocalypse. The first, titled “The Gods,” sees the newly stripped royals still treated with an echo of the regard in which they were held before: Public prosecutor Manuel (Tom Hudson) addresses them with deferential respect, even as he delivers lectures about democracy that are so alien to the former king as to be incomprehensible. Her posture stiff and brittle, her neck looking set to snap — with or without the blade’s help — under the weight of artificial hair and despair, she patrols her limited domain with a desperate, almost farcical sort of pride, until the pretense exhausts her, and she buckles into primal, animal screams.
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