Tavernier's second film is a foray into history, to the court of the Duc d'Orleans, in whose hands the land lay while a sickly little boy who was later to be called Louis XV, grew up. Tavernier's historical vision is colorful, detailed and buoyed by expert research; it is also probingly political. Philippe Noiret stars as Philippe d'Orleans, the uneasy regent who is tormented by the pretenses of a costumed court and by his own nagging suspicions that God is not only cruel, but joyfully merciless. Jean Rochefort, who portrayed the intriguing police inspector in The Clockmaker (see October 30), here again engages with Noiret in examining a world of tiring paradox. Marina Vlady and Christine Pascal, portray a courtesan and a countess, respectively, in a world where politics is steeped in sex and vice-versa.