Monseigneur

We thought for a long time that the Dauphin Louis XVII might have escaped from the Temple,the prison where he was imprisoned with his parents ,aunt and sister after the storming of the Tuileries in 1792.The French had a tendency to believe he had succeeded in his escape:hence the movies which were made .Recently science proved that the child of the Temple was really Louis XVII ;it was the end of a storybook adventure .

"Pamela" (1944) dealt with the "escape":it had a complicated story but was entertaining.I saw it when I was still thinking that what they taught me in school (He might...) was perhaps true.

"Monseigneur" is a different matter since it tells a contemporary (1949) story.A historian claims that a modest locksmith is the descendant of the kings of France,Louis XVII 's great grand-son.He has found documents which prove it.

Roger Richebé,a director too often dismissed as cheesy ,did a good job:Bernard Blier is well cast as the "new" king .There are very fine ideas such as the wax museum visit which has very funny lines(" When things got busy,the guillotine could cut up 120 (sic) heads an hour" ) The aristocrats the historian gathers around the monarch are on cloud nine.

There's a good unexpected twist .The last scenes in the Saint-Denis Church where the remains of the kings and queens of France are , almost verge on dramatic.And the final picture is beautiful ,tinged with nostalgia .