cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 37

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More diaries of our favorite 18th-century Prussian diary-keeper have been unearthed and have been synopsized!

January 18th: Blessed be thou to me! Under your light, my Prince Heinrich was born!

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

haha, it's like you know that this is the best way to get me to watch this movie...

Lol, look at you and your complex emotions and declarations of loyalty. Meanwhile, me: "Wait, he tricked his nobles into killing someone he tricked into wearing his clothes, and he gets to gloat afterwards? BE STILL MY HEART." ~~stupid stroke~~

:D

From:

selenak

Well, as tv tropes put it about Louis XI: not the prettiest or most regal of French Kings, but still the definite Chessmaster among them, so yeah, a guy after your own heart. Except for the lack of a tragic ending. Jacques Perrin, who played him in the movie, and who died only this year in April, was very well known in France and outside of France in character roles, like in Cinema Paradiso. As coincidence will have it, he also played Richelieu in another film that's on YouTube, here</a, about the Cinq Mars conspiracy (aka the one involving Louis XIII' last favourite vs the Cardinal).

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I watched it! *gasp*

Thanks to your summary. Without your summary, I think I would have made it about 5 minutes in before wandering off. So thank you!

I enjoyed his chessmastering! I chuckled when he caressed the spider and admired its web. I loved the dialogue, especially with the Archbishop. Anne was great! I loved Louis taking her off for secret lessons in ruling. And when he said they were cut from the same cloth and that he trusted her...I think that was my favorite scene.

cahn, you will love the kneeling-to-Regent-Anne scene at the end!

Having watched that, I determined that I needed to check out a bio. So I went looking for the Paul Murray Kendall one you mentioned, Selena. Only to find that it's not on Kindle in English, only French. Normally I would order the English hard copy and digitize it...but I don't know which address to send it to.

So naturally I decided the time has come to learn French. :D

It would be great if I could get my French up to approximately where my German is now. It would be so useful for salon!

cahn, yell at me if I don't read at least a paragraph a day! (Usually once I do a paragraph, I can do approximately a page with no problem.) Except the 13th, that's moving day and I have an exemption.

From:

selenak

Yowsers. I am amazed that I finally succeeded with luring you to watch a movie! This will have consequences...

From:

mildred_of_midgard

How could I resist a scene like

Council: *trembles*
Louis XI: Tell me what you admire most about me.
Council: *sweats, praises Louis*
Louis XI: Trust you guys to leave out the most important thing. I consolidated France from an assembly of fiefdoms into something resembling a modern state and crushed all my enemies. Now, I'm expecting you all to supper, and you can think about which of your territories you'll hand over first to the crown to put me in a good mood.

??

I ask you. :D

This will have consequences...

It has already had consequences, namely the studying of French! But I look forward to these other consequences (though I cannot tell whether you propose to write fic about Louis XI or to rec more movies).

From:

cahn

You watched it??

I have sadly totally fallen off the bandwagon with my French. But at least I shall yell at you if necessary! It's not necessary, right??

From:

mildred_of_midgard

You watched it??

I know, right? Being me, of course, I had to watch it in several 15-20 minute installments spaced out over the course of a week. But I watched it!

It's not necessary, right??

Nope! But it would have been that day if I hadn't asked you to yell at me. Even better, because my wife and I swapped roles in the big move yesterday, I had most of the morning free, and I got some French and German done. So I'm on a streak. \o/

Keep yelling at me if I break my streak!