Vatel [HD]

A vivid rendering of royal extravagance
It's 1671, and the King of France, Louis XIV, is looking for a general to carry war to the insufferably insolent Dutch. One of his nobles, the Prince de Condé, wants the job, thinking such royal favor will relieve his chronic impoverishment. The Prince's strategy to entice the sovereign's attention is ... well, to throw a lavish party, of course. VATEL is Condé's master of the kitchen and entertainment planner for the big event, for which the King, his Queen, and a large coterie of sycophants will descend upon the Prince's country estate to be lavishly fed, housed, and amused for several days. The expense and bother of it all will be staggering.

Gérard Depardieu, Julian Sands and Julian Glover play the roles of VATEL, Louis XIV and Condé respectively. Additionally, Uma Thurman plays Anne de Montausier, the King's favorite "lady-in-waiting". ("Waiting for what?" would be an obtuse question.) And, Tim Roth has the role of the creepy Marquis de Lauzan, one...

Vatel = "Why critics are useless"
See Vatel. See it for the truly exceptional art direction. See it for the performances of Depardieu and Roth. See it because Thurman gives what may be her best performance yet. See it to take a trip back to the Golden Age of France, without Musketeers. See it simply because of the movie magic of watching some of the most beautiful food known being created. However, this is not some Martha Stewart field trip to the seventeenth century .

For all the remarkable spectacle Vatel presents, it is really a wonderful character study, layered over a profound fable of the stresses and dangers of living in a society obsessed with material excess and impossibly complex social codes. Sound familiar? Louis XIV carefully kept an entire social class deliberately distracted by the pursuit of pleasure and prestige in order to politically neutralize them. Considering that we are in the throes of a similar, though far more widespread social regression, the points of view explored in Vatel are...

Simply Divine
This film is such a visual masterpiece! It's absolutely stunning from beginning to end. The set design is by far the most accurate historically that I have ever seen (and believe me, I have seen just about every 17th century period piece there is). The actors performances are overall, perfection. Gerard Depardieu does a magnificent job as playing the title role Vatel, who is a party planner extrodinare! The pretense is an all important visit from Louis XIV (played beautifully by Julian Sands) to Vatel's master's estate. Everything must be perfect so that the Sun King may grant Vatel's master a commanding generals position in an impending war with the Dutch and thus, bestowing riches upon him. Intrigue, lust and pure love is what transpires over the three days that Louis spends at the estate. Uma Thurman gives a great performance as a courtesan who catches most everyone's eye, including that of Vatel however, the King catches her first which complicates matters. Tim Roth gives a fine...

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