"Languidly elliptical and enveloped in a mystique oferotic suffering, (The Rose King) is pitched somewhere between theepicene froth of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier and the torturedmysticism of Jean Genet's The Miracle of the Rose, with a backbeat ofKindermarchen cruelty-as in Grimm's "Snow White and the RedRose"...In no particular hurry, a stark narrative coalesces out ofa sensual flow of disconnected images. Anna (Magdalena Montezuma, in herlast film) and her grown son, Albert (Mostefa Djadjam), farm roses in adilapidated chateau on some Mediterranean beach. Like an alchemist,sullen Albert is searching for the ideal flower...The Rose King isinfused with Christian allegory...and the film's intense mother/sonrelationship rhymes with the crumbling icons of Mary and Jesus...ButAlbert is distracted from his rose-aries when he catches handsome youngFernando (Antonio Orlando) stealing from the poor-box...Fernando is theRose King...sacrificed on the altar of Albert's obsessive love. The RoseKing has a surplus of romantic imagery and a lush, musicalstructure...but it's far from sentimental...Everything presages deathand refers back to roses, as ripe and heavy as tropical fruit." J.Hoberman, Village Voice