It’s the new year and today is National Weigh-in Day so before we all go screaming into the night or reluctantly walk back into the gym, I thought it would be fun to post a movie each Monday that I love that one y’all might find fun. One that you could look forward to watching after sweating your butt off on the treadmill or after you crawl out of that Zumba class you swore you’d try.
First up, one of my all time favorites: The King of Hearts (1966) or as it’s pronounced in its native tongue Le Roi de Coeur.
I saw this movie back in high school and absolutely loved it. I still understand most of it without subtitles which is nice that my four years of high school French haven’t been totally flushed.
Now back to the movie.
Set during World War I, the hero,Charles Plumpick, played by Alan Bates, is a Scottish solider who’s stumbled up on the town after the German army has booby trapped the place to explode.
Stay with me, I swear this is a romantic dramedy.
Before Bates arrives, the townsfolk figure out the Germans are up to no good (as Germans usually are in World War I movies), so they all book it and leave, but they don’t take everybody with them.
Up on the hill, sits the asylum. Yeah, they didn’t take any of those people. In fact, in their hurry to leave, the good people (including the nuns) left the doors wide open to the place. Seeing their opportunities for a bit more freedom, the patients begin to venture out into the streets.
Thankfully, none of the residents of the asylum are violent, which is nice because this is a romantic themed movie after all. Instead of vandalizing and hurting each other, they have a great big street party that looks something like present day Mardi Gras.
So when Bates arrives to defuse this bomb that’s supposed to blow up the place, he’s quite confused to find people partying it up and not worried about much of anything, much less war or a bomb.
He also sees the beautiful, Coquelicot, played by the gorgeous, Geneviève Bujold. Now he’s truly confused because he knows there’s a bomb in this town and now there’s a hot girl he’d really like to get to know.
Defuse the bomb? Hang out with the girl?
Bomb go boom. His heart goes BOOM! BOOM!
After talking to the people for a bit, it doesn’t take him to realize what’s going on, but by then, the townspeople think he’s quite amazing and crown him the King of Hearts (Le Roi de Coeur) and his queen is none other than the intoxicatingly beautiful (and “insane”) Coquelicot.
With his duty as an officer, he feels compelled to finish his mission and save the people, but what of his heart?
Does he succeed? And what happens when the “normal” people return to the town once the place is safe? Does he take her with him?
It’s really up in the air because it’s a French movie and they always do the unexpected so to know what happens, you’ll have to check it out.
The full movie can be found on YouTube. (I checked Netflix, it’s not there.)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYSXbB1IM6A]
So grab a snack and a warm blanket and snuggle in to watch King of Hearts or Le Roi de Coeur if your high school French is still stuck in your brain (or you understand French far better than I ever have).
And as they say in New Orleans: Laissez les bons temps rouler
(let the good times roll for those of you who didn’t take high school French or who’ve never been to NOLA.) 😉
#MovieMonday #KingofHearts
