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To me, this movie is perfection.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

History movie with considerable bite and edge, situated in an era a few generations before the French revolution. The least one can say is that the rot has already set in : the future king is but a minor child, raised and supervised by his great-uncle the Regent, who is a sensualist and voluptuary surrounded by a constellation of prostitutes, opportunists, golddiggers and nitwits. (Look up "decadent" in the dictionary and you will find a portrait of this man.) At the same time one of the minor nobles tries to drum up local support for an attempt at some kind of separatist revolt or seccession. None of this is particularly helpful to a France crippled by debt and overflowing with poor and disgruntled citizens. The movie, which boasts a prize cast, contains a number of sharp, vivid, memorable scenes, quite a lot of which (as you may have guessed by now) involve debauchery, both of the merry and the tedious kind. There are also some memorable lines, although the quality of the dialogue is very uneven : witty gems alternate with nonsense so bizarre or tone-deaf that it seems to spoof itself. Sadly the movie, seen as a whole, does not impress. The various incidents and episodes may be intriguing, witty or macabre, but they do not become a harmonious whole. It all has an anecdotal, meandering quality. Still, the movie is not to be dismissed lightly, because it can teach a number of lessons. One of these lessons concerns religion : the movie tells you exactly what to expect if faith allies itself closely with politics and power and then continues this alliance for several centuries. It pretty much kills the religion : everything related to love for God or man evaporates, until you are left with nothing else than empty formalism, weaponised sectarianism, senile tradition or self-mocking cynicism. It's a message to ponder.

This movie tackles heads-on a very interesting period in French history, when the nephew of Louis XIV , Philippe d'Orleans, was made regent for 10 years while Louis XV, a 5-year old child, waited for his majority. Its strength: the angle chosen by the scriptwriters, who encapsulate in 90 mn a sharp evaluation of the character of the Regent in the context of the era he lived in. The director makes the choice to shows us a man eager and able to do good for the country, while jaded in every other part of his life. The story is cynical and bawdy, but there is great wit in the dialogs, and very sharp moments of political observations relevant to the period (as well as to our modern period, frankly). We see the Powerful, the Entitled, the greedy, the ambitious and the scruple-free, and we occasionally glimpse at the rest: the Poor, brutalized and hopeless. I liked how the figure of Philippe d'Orleans, a libertine and miscreant who notoriously managed to govern France wisely against all odds, is humanized here by his keen intelligence of the facts around him, and how he grabs the viewers' empathy thanks to his self-awareness -and inherent compassion-while steeped in widespread decay. Whether, as a ruler, he deepened that general decay with his own turpitudes, or whether despair in front of its extent prevented him from fighting it is the question the film poses.Unfortunately, this sharp attention to the character of Philippe is not given to the rest of the production. There is a feel of 'made for TV" movie about both the production and the casting. The main parts (Rochefort, Marielle and Noiret, Vlady) are wonderfully acted and utterly believable; but the rest of the cast feels like a bunch of extras hired on the run, thrown a costume and told to look and act "peasant", "soldier", "nun", "nude prostitute", "blind musician". I noted for instance that all the "starving" peasants look in fact well fed, and that the château's staff is forever statically sweeping the floor or pouring liquids in glasses. It seems no one cared to give them real directions, and that flaw distracted my attention too often. As a historical or political pamphlet, Let Joy Reign Supreme is truly a compelling movie to watch. But as a work of art, it left me wanting.

This is a film that has haunted me for thirty years. I just re-viewed it on DVD and it was every bit as good as I remembered. I don't know why it doesn't show up in festivals and best-of-all-times list; it is on mine. It is satisfyingly densely textured and the acting is flawless. It is rich in every way-- historically fascinating as it shows the tugging at the fibers of France that would eventually (but not quite yet) culminate in revolution, the many nuances of class resentment from the top down -- tension between royalty and nobility, generals and (would-be) clergy, and provincial gentry and their peasantry. Luxurious scenes and costumes and cinematography. Psychologically rich, terrific dialog, in the closely twined relationship between jaded nobility and ambitious bourgeois that plays out in a tug-of-war over the fate of Bretons. Philippe Noiret as the jaded regent is the ambiguous moral center, stoic yet decadent, embodying la patrie yet carving a private erotic niche apart from a world where his decision can tip the balance of European powers.

This is one of my all time favorite movie and probably the best historical movie ever. One of the few movies featuring 3 of the best french actors (in leading roles): Philippe Noiret, Jean Richefort and Jean-Pierre Marielle. This movie is about how cynical France was ruled after the death of Louis XIV and while the new (Louis XV) was just a child. Don't expect a spectacular movie with great action and bloody violence (like Gladiator or Brave Heart). The pleasure with this movie is somewhere else: dialogs (brilliant), description of cynicism of the nobility and the actors performances (Jean Rochefort, playing L'Abbé Dubois, stoled the show).