Ludwig is a 1972 film directed by Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 director Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...

 about the life and death of King

King

- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...

 Ludwig II of Bavaria

Ludwig II of Bavaria

Ludwig II was King of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death. He is sometimes called the Swan King and der Märchenkönig, the Fairy tale King...

. Visconti's muse

Muse

The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...

, Helmut Berger

Helmut Berger

Helmut Berger is an Austrian-born German film and television actor. He is most famous for his work with Luchino Visconti, particularly in his performance as King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig, for which he received a special David di Donatello award.He appears primarily in European cinema, but...

, stars as Ludwig, while Romy Schneider

Romy Schneider

Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born German film actress who also held French citizenship.-Early life:Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian...

 reprises her role as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in a very different portrayal compared to her role in the 1950s Sissi

Sissi (film)

Sissi is a 1955 film directed by Ernst Marischka and starring Romy Schneider, Karlheinz Böhm, Magda Schneider, Uta Franz, Gustav Knuth, Vilma Degischer and Josef Meinrad. It is the first of a trilogy of romantic films about the Empress of Austria, Elisabeth of Bavaria, who was known to her family...

trilogy.

Ludwig is a very languidly paced film, but with an impressive sense of tragic crescendo. The fully restored version, running over four hours, builds sympathy in the viewer for Ludwig's decadent, yet ultimately firmly constricted life. Visconti’s meticulous realism gives a bright picture of court life in the nineteenth-century Bavaria and shows with impressive dramatic pathos how a dreamy romantic idealist as Ludwig succumbs to the strenuous and urgent demands of his responsibilities as king. The political sphere of counselors, clergymen, princes and kings, as well as the intricate and often tense relations between the members of the royal family are treated in the film with an acute and refined sensibility to aristocratic decorum and way of living. However, in the 19th century the Bavarian king lacked real political power, causing Ludwig to indulge in his Wagnerian fantasies while more or less ignoring the political reality at the time.

Background notes

The film was made in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 and other parts of Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

, Germany and at these locations:
Berg Castle

Starnberg

The city of Starnberg is in Bavaria, Germany, some 30 km south-west of Munich. It lies at the north end of Lake Starnberg, in the heart of the "Five Lakes Country", and serves as capital of the district of Starnberg...

, Castle Herrenchiemsee

Herrenchiemsee

Herrenchiemsee is a complex of royal buildings on the Herreninsel, an island in the Chiemsee, Bavaria's largest lake, 60 km south east of Munich. Together with the neighbouring island of Frauenchiemsee and the uninhabited Krautinsel it forms the municipality of Chiemsee...

, Castle Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau is a village in the municipality of Schwangau, Ostallgäu district, Bavaria, Germany.It is located between Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangau and is visited by about 2 million people annually, where they start tours to the former royal palaces.The village is dominated...

, Castle Linderhof

Linderhof

Linderhof Palace is in Germany, in southwest Bavaria near Ettal Abbey. It is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.-Development of the building:...

, Ettal

Ettal

Ettal is a German municipality in the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in Bavaria.-Geography:Ettal is situated in the Oberland area in the Graswangtal between the Loisachtal and Ammertal, approx. 10 km north of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the district capital, and approx...

 and Neuschwanstein Castle.
During filming in Linderhof Castle the temperature in the famed mirror hall got so high that one of the mirrors cracked. As a result, it is to this day the only broken piece in the original decor of the hall.