Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Joe Stemme One of the biggest cult films of the 60s and 70s* is now back for a brief theatrical run on it's way to Blu Ray and Streaming courtesy of a new 4K Restoration by the Cohen Media Group to commemorate its 50th Anniversary. The restoration looks fine, if not extraordinary (it may look better on Blu-Ray since most theaters will be showing it via 2K DCP). Reviewing the film for the first time is a bit tricky in light of its formidable cult history. At the time, it's success was often chalked up to as a counter-culture commentary on the insanity of the Vietnam War. By the 80s and 90s, KING got tabbed as 'of its time' and 'dated' (a term I despise). In 2018? With distance, one can look at it as the timeless fable it always was at its core. A British soldier Plumpick (Alan Bates) is sent to a small German occupied village in WWI on a spy mission. Unbeknownst to the Allied forces, the village has already been evacuated and the Germans have also left (leaving a nasty surprise behind). In a bizarre turn of events, the village's only inhabitants are the patients at an insane asylum. The patients soon dub Plumpick their de facto ruler - 'The King of Hearts'. Not content with just a 'King', the patients dress up and become characters of their own - everything from Dukes and Duchesses, to Prostitutes and Madams. A particularly winsome lass, Coquelicot (Genevieve Bujold) is presented as a possible Queen to the 'King'. There is much frivolity and preciousness on hand, much of it entertaining, and much of it cloying (and all of it will be found offensive to many people offended at its portrayal of the mentally ill). De Broca's direction and the script by Daniel Boulanger and Maurice Bessy moves in fits and starts. How enjoyable one finds it will depend on one's tolerance for such whimsy. The performances are energetic and its no wonder Bujold (in her yellow tutu) soon became an international name. The film's message that the insanity of war would be no different with the actual 'insane' in charge (if not better off!) is facile, of course, but, one can see how it would have had resonance during a time of war, protest, assassinations and such. It's like Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME as played by mad fools. But, rather than just saying it's 'dated' and 'of its time' (just as facile, in my book), its better to just look at KING OF HEARTS as fairy-tale for all times. * After not doing much business in its initial run, KING OF HEARTS had a legendary 4 to 5 year run (depending on the source) at the now defunct Central Square Cinemas in Boston. During that period it spread to midnight shows, college campuses and revival houses across the country. It remained in regular revival house distribution into the 80s.

dbdumonteil "Le Roi De Coeur" belongs to a handful of French movies which are much more known and praised abroad (another example comes to mind:"Cybèle Ou Les Dimanches De Ville D'Avray").In France the audience snubbed it and the critics panned it;De Broca was famous for his entertaining (not meant pejoratively)works ,such movies as "Cartouche" "L'Homme De Rio" "Les Tribulations D'Un "Chinois" En Chine" were huge blockbusters and the people were not ready for "something different"..When he tried something different,nobody understood and the director felt compelled to return to more "accessible" stories ("Le Diable Par La queue" etc);that's why" Le Roi De Coeur" has remained unique ,very original;in the past of the French cinema,to my knowledge ,only one movie mixed the war and an insane asylum (Raymond Bernard's "Un Ami Viendra Ce Soir");Bernard's movie had good potential (who are the loonies?) which he lost in a trite patriotic finale.Broca goes all the way:in a world gone mad, the only safe place,where people have remained sensible,is an insane asylum!the last picture -which may have inspired the ending of the much more conventional "rain man" -is revealing;this is one of the most extraordinary demonstration of the absurdity of war .Broca had done what Richard Lester tried to do (but was not able to)in his "how I won the war" :a crazy movie in which madness rules but has its own internal logic ;terrific French cast plus English Alan Bates -who loves birds and thus is a potential pacifist plus Italian Adolfo "Largo" Celi as an English major plus gorgeous Canadian Genevieve Bujold as Coquelicot (=Poppy!).

Dennis Littrell The madness of war makes the members of the asylum seem sane. Such is the theme of this anti-war comedy directed by France's Philippe de Broca, starring the English actor Alan Bates wearing a jaunty crown, and featuring a young and delectable Genevieve Bujold in a yellow tutu.She's insane. A virgin who believes she's a prostitute. Her madame is also insane, or so the townsmen of Marville believe. But theirs is such a pleasant insanity that we in the audience are persuaded to ask what is sanity and who needs it? Can nerve gas and rat-infested trenches with bloated, rotting bodies be sane?But hold on there, that last sentence better describes some other anti-war movies from the time of The Great War, perhaps "All Quiet on the Western Front" or Kubrick's "Paths of Glory." Here the tone is light, the treatment burlesque, the plot absurdly amusing.Bates plays Private Charles Plumpick (in Scottish kilt) a keeper of messenger pigeons who has "volunteered" to find and defuse a bomb left in Marville by the retreating Jerrys. It's set to go off at the stroke of midnight. The townspeople learn of the bomb and desert the town, leaving the inmates at the sanitarium and the circus animals to fend for themselves. So when Plumpick arrives he finds only a detachment of Germans who spot him and chase him into the asylum. Inside as cover he joins a game of cards with two of the inmates. The Jerrys confront the inmates who identify themselves in absurd ways. Plumpick, with some on the spot inspiration, calls himself "the king of hearts."And so we have our premise. When the Jerrys retreat to the countryside to await the explosion, and while the English watch for the return of one of Plumpick's pigeons with news that the bomb has been defused, the inmates stream out of the asylum. They take over the town, dressing up in various costumes: this one becomes the mayor, another the priest, and little Mademoiselle "Poppy" (Bujold) awaits her first trick.This the kind of movie that Monty Python fans would adore, and I suspect it had some effect on the directorial style of Terry Gilliam.Anyway I wrote a little ditty to anticipate the ending (BEWARE SPOILER!):I'll have no more of war Such a craven whore! To the asylum I will go To be my true love's beau.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

dancingmike I originally saw this film the year it was released in the USA. I laughed like crazy the first time, though I knew the film was much deeper. When I returned for a second time I bit my tongue and concentrated on the real message, a very powerful one, indeed. It remains my favorite film. Have I seen better films? Sure, but this one touched my heart. It was the right film at the right time at the right place.In the beginning, it's a real treat to see the communications specialist wandering into the recently abandoned French town carrying a cage of pigeons. This is Pvt. Plumpick, played by the late, great Alan Bates. Well, he finds the town isn't exactly abandoned and gets chased into the town's insane asylum, hiding with the patients. When he gives his name as King of Hearts (the previous name was the Duke of Clubs)the delusional patients are overjoyed to see the king return. The Germans who chased him are spooked by the crazy people and leave. Plumpick leaves the asylum and proceeds to check out the town. He sends a two part (two pigeon) message, but one bird doesn't make it through. Then he gets knocked out by a falling pole. When he awakes the town is busy with people, but as he wanders around he sees some very odd things. His messages are equally odd and confuse the already confused British general. What they do manage to deduce is that there probably is some kind of bomb set to go off at midnight. Finally Plumpick finds out it's the asylum patients who have come into the city and assumed roles. Of course, they are thrilled to find the King and the fun really begins. Some comments focus on the patients not being really insane, but in those days, unless the family was very rich, anyone in the family who was "off" usually got packed off to an asylum to avoid stigmatizing the family. Plus most families expected their children to work and those "off" kids were of little use to them. Also,lots of people believed insanity might be a transmittable disease. We know better these days.The inmates have their time in the city in their various roles. They are still delusional and mostly act like children with new toys. Look for Michel Seurralt as the hairdresser, who will play Albin/Zaza in the La Cage aux Folles films. When I watch the film now -- I've watched it so many times I've lost count -- I like to focus on specific characters, and have grown to love everyone in the town.Things move along and, of course, this dreamland can't last forever. But if you think the wonderful part about the patients running the town was theater of the absurd, just wait, the best of that is yet to come. And I can't imagine any other way the film could have ended. A very powerful conclusion adorned by the insanity of theater of the absurd. Ionesco has nothing on De Broca! Just a beautiful film that occupies a permanent space in my heart and mind.