Ludwig 4K 1973 ITALIAN

A synthesis of history and cinematic art, Visconti's creation cuts sharp, only time to bring your heart to bear. And if, even a little bit, it lives in the captivity of illusions, as the heart of Louis, it will sink into this disturbing, coldly silent and at the same time answering to the chorus of questions the atmosphere of the film. And even after watching it, some bitterness will still be wrapped around the thorns and will let go reluctantly and not at once.

Ludwig's face is beautiful when he is full of reveries and hopes for his future reign, when he speaks with deep admiration of creation, of the beauty and mystery of the night, and when disappointments overtake him one after another, and when tragic features are increasingly revealed by betrayals and eternal mismatches of reality with what is represented, and when the inexorable time and suffering make his teeth black and his eyes cloud over, and even in his death it is beautiful.

To keep a child in one's soul is a rare gift, but, unfortunately, if the voice of that inner child sounds strongest, it leads to trouble. Ludovic is like a child who stands on the edge of an abyss, but does not fully believe that the abyss is in front of him, does not feel its real enormity and step by step is approaching death. And already seeing, or instinctively feeling before him the abyss into which he will have to step, Ludwig does not turn from the path. His faith in the beautiful cannot be extinguished, his vision of the world through the prism of his own ideals is unshakeable, without it the king himself is unthinkable, it is the core of his being. To others he holds a cardboard sword, not Excaliburne, but one can look at it in a very different way-not as a weakness, but as the most important thing that remains in him, not lost in time. Some kind of unsolvable mystery.

At times he may not like it - nervous, angry, at times cruel-hearted, but this only reflects his image more fully, gives charm and realness - this special feature of sincere, humane selfishness. Through the arched eyebrows and eyes hungry to see the light, tenderness creeps in, held back by the monarch's grandeur.

The film is magnificent, the actors, the unhurried camera, the German pleasing to the ear, the costumes and sets are wonderful. This living world of cinema is always open to the living heart, it makes the dreary music of rain eternal, intertwines beauty with madness, resurrects the dead Bavarian monarch, and with him puts on the flesh of real images of an era long gone.

And we hear it all somehow in our own way.