“Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925), eccentric figure of Parisian culture in the period spanning the two centuries, was the author of works inspired by the Greek myth of perfection, free love, easy joy, lewd pleasure, as his dissolute texts – Astarte, Afrodite, La chanson de Bilitis – where he expressed his decadent taste, bear witness.

Les aventures du roi Pausole, set in a kingdom where the king has at his disposal 366 women so as to enjoy each one of them every day of the year, is another novel belonging to this genre, although in a more up-dated context. In 1933 the novel was adapted to the big screen and, according to the usage of the early sound period, in several versions.

The first was shot in Paris with fat André Berley as leading actor; afterwards a second version starring Emil Jannings, who was also to play in the English one (The Merry Monarch) with English actors, was made in Vienna for an Austrian-German co-production.

What has remained of Louÿs’s fantastic tale in its cinematic adaptation? The choreography of a filmed operetta, outer forms and not much else. A rather unsavoury tale, maybe a small moral tale on faithfulness in love and the absurdity of polygamy with many beautiful girls and – if you really want to look for it – a touch of the light open-mindedness of young René Clair”.

Vittorio Martinelli