Ludwig II

I am thoroughly pleased with the new German treatments of popular 19th century biographies. This new Ludwig II makes one boldly forget previous versions, including Visconti's glorified spectacle. The young king, played by Sabin Tambrea, is a somnambulist in the best tradition of the special characters played by Conrad Veidt. The old king turns into Sebastian Schipper and the personality breakdown is all the more perfect. The film is composed of exquisite detail, a beautiful sense of Wagner's operas and images filled with the search for a beautiful utopia, a kingdom without wars. Hannah Herzsprung also joined the collection of actresses who have played Sissi with humility and played some very successful energetic scenes. (11/04/2021)

It is a pity that Ludwig was born into a royal family as a fag with a passion for art. Nowadays, I could imagine him with a black fringe over his forehead, with a pierced face, with tunnels in his ears, and with red-black highlights on his head. Therefore, nothing unusual compared to today’s emo youth. But I understand that at that time, anyone who stood out from the crowd had a problem. The problem was even worse when he was basically not interested in the royal family, diplomacy, affairs, women, or wars, but rather, he was more interested in music, paintings, or architecture. He had a tough time, and this movie tells a pretty nice story about it. And it doesn’t really matter that it is over two hours long. The Romanian emigrant – Sabin Tambrea – proved that he can be a very capable actor, but also that playing freaks just works for him. I wasn’t bored and that doesn’t usually happen to me in similar purely historical films full of dialogues. (26/10/2015)