Travel through time to 18th-century France with films exploring life among the aristocracy. This series, presented in conjunction with the exhibition The Orleans Collection, takes place Saturday afternoons in November and December.

• Saturday, November 3, 2 pm: A Little Chaos (Rated R, 2015)
• Saturday, November 17, 2 pm: The Death of Louis XIV (La mort de Louis XIV) (Not rated, 2017)
• Saturday, November 24, 2 pm: The Royal Exchange ((L’Echange des Princesses) (Not rated, 2017)
• Saturday, December 1, 2 pm: Dangerous Liaisons (Rated R, 1988)

ABOUT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV (LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV)

Upon returning from a hunting expedition in August 1715, King Louis XIV feels a pain in his leg. The film traces the king’s last days at Versailles, where, surrounded by loyal followers in his royal chambers, he succumbs to death. French with English subtitles. (Not rated, 2016; 1 hour, 55 minutes)

In a review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw writes: “In what seems like real time, the film takes its audience through a historical event, the death of Louis XIV, placing us by the royal deathbed in the days and hours before he died in 1715 of a blood clot. Frowningly solicitous courtiers come and go. Murmuring physicians suppress their obvious terror of being blamed. Ladies-in-waiting simperingly attempt to keep His Majesty’s spirits up and greet his pathetic attempts at gallantry and good humour the way they might an infant doing his toilet training. And the king slowly dies … Movingly, and often terrifyingly, Jean-Pierre Léaud gives a superb approximation of what the slow approach of mortality looks like: the retreat into fatigue, into a strange combination of fear and calm, into mysterious stillness. The gradual leaking of life looks like the disappearance of moisture from wet sand in the sun. I can’t think of any actor who has over the space of a feature film given such a brilliant portrayal of the protracted moment of death.”

Watch the trailer: