History UsefulNotes / LouisXVI

* Creator/SofiaCoppola's ''Film/MarieAntoinette2006'' - Played by Creator/JasonSchwartzman.
* ''Film/FarewellMyQueen'', a 2012 French historical film directed by Benoît Jacquot. Played by Xavier Beauvois.

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* ''ComicBook/JourJ'': An AlternateHistory where the royal family escapes in the Montgolfiere's hot-air balloon... but Louis still dies from a stray bullet to the gut.

[[AC:Films -- Live-Action]]

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* ''La Marseillaise'' - 1938 French film by Creator/JeanRenoir which despite being highly pro-Revolutionary also has a very sympathetic King (played by Pierre Renoir, the director's own brother).

* ''La Révolution Française'', a two-part 1989 film made and released for the bicentennial of the Revolution. Played by Jean-François Balmer.

Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi King]] of UsefulNotes/{{France}} and Navarre from 1774 until 1791. Upon accepting the 1791 Constitution, he became "King of the French"[[note]]A title that would be revived in the July Monarchy[[/note]] until the 10 August 1792. He became King as a young man (20 years of age, which was still older than his three immediate predecessors, who became king at nine, five, and five) and his reign coincided with UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.

* ''Jefferson in Paris'' - 1995 Creator/MerchantIvory film which chronicles UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson's time as French Ambassador in the late 1780s. Creator/MichelLonsdale plays the King.

* Creator/SofiaCoppola's ''Film/MarieAntoinette2006'' - Played by Creator/JasonSchwartzman.

* ''La Révolution Française'', a two-part film (1989[[note]]Released for the bicentennial of the Revolution[[/note]])
* ''Jefferson in Paris'' - Creator/MerchantIvory film which chronicles UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson's time as French Ambassador in the late 1780s. Michel Lonsdale plays the King.
* ''Film/{{Beaumarchais}}'' (in French ''Beaumarchais, l'insolent'') - 1996 French film about the author of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro''. Louis XVI listens to the play and bans it because of its criticism of the privileges of aristocracy. ''The Marriage...'' was effectively censored from 1778 to 1784.
* ''Film/{{Ridicule}}'' - 1996 French film set in 1783's Versailles Court. The movie is about a young aristocrat going to Versailles in order to get some money he needs to dry out swamps in his lands. Louis XVI himself is a minor character of the movie.
* ''Film/FarewellMyQueen'', a 2012 French historical film directed by Benoît Jacquot, starring Creator/DianeKruger as the Queen, Creator/LeaSeydoux, and Creator/VirginieLedoyen.

-> ''Sieyès, who had voted for death, once told [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] that Louis XVI was a tyrant and deserved to die: "M. l'abbé [Napoleon snapped], if he had been a tyrant I would not be here, and you would still be saying mass."''

Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791. Upon accepting the 1791 Constitution, he became "King of the French"[[note]]A title that would be revived in the July Monarchy[[/note]] until the 10 August 1792. He became King as a young man (20 years of age, which was still older than his three immediate predecessors, who became king at nine, five, and five) and his reign coincided with UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.

* ''Manga/TheRoseOfVersailles''

* YoungAndInCharge: He was 20 when he came to power and died at the age of 38. Most depictions, save for ''Film/MarieAntoinette'' neglect this and usually cast older actors in the role of the King.

* Creator/SofiaCoppola's ''Film/MarieAntoinette'' - Played by Creator/JasonSchwartzman.

* AdiposeRex: Revolutionary propaganda and caricature made fun of his portliness to paint an image of a lazy King, indeed he was personally highly fit and active physically.
* HiddenDepths: Known to work on clockwork as a hobby. Reportedly, as he was on the way to the guillotine he asked if anyone had any news of La Perouse (an explorer whose ship ran ashore off the island of Vanikoro, northeast of Australia).

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* ''Beaumarchais l'insolent'' - 1996 French film about the author of ''The Marriage of Figaro''. Louis XVI listens to the play and bans it because of its criticism of the privileges of aristocracy. ''The Marriage...'' was effectively censored from 1778 to 1784.

-> ''Sieyès, who had voted for death, once told [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] that [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Louis XVI was a tyrant]] and deserved to die: "M. l'abbé [Napoleon snapped], if he had been a tyrant I would not be here, and you would still be saying mass."''

-> ''Sieyès, who had voted for death, once told [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]] that [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Louis XVI was a tyrant]] and deserved to die: "M. l'abbé [Napoleon snapped], [[BrutalHonesty if he had been a tyrant I would not be here and you would still be saying mass]]."''

* Creator/SofiaCoppola's ''Film/MarieAntoinette'' - Played by Jason Schwartzman.

His death by execution marked the end of Ancien Régime, absolute monarchy, feudalism and the DivineRightOfKings as a concept of sovereignty.

Initally, Louis XVI was quite open to new ideas and embracing some of UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment reforms. Where his precessor had brutally shut down the parliaments[[note]]Though parliaments proved shortly before the Estates Genetal to be [[ItsAllAboutMe only interested]] in keeping their [[{{Greed}} privileges]], not really any political reform, and even less social reforms[[/note]] and railed against any reforms whatsoever, the King wanted to be popular and lessen some of the malcontent against his rule. In 1787, He signed into place the Edict of Versailles, which ended 102 years of Catholic subjugations of Protestants and Jews under the noxious Edict of Fontainebleau, giving them legal rights and civil status, a primitive form of reform that paved the way for the more decisive initiatives of the Revolution. The King's financial advisors -- Malesherbes and Turgot -- however faced opposition when they tried to put new taxes on the nobles, [[ItsAllAboutMe who despite having the money did not want to pay]]. Indeed, it was for reasons of solving a growing economic crisis and issuing monetary reform that Louis XVI convoked the meeting of the Estates-General in 1789, the first time in 150 years. This decision gave political representation and brought on to the national stage a generation that was as young as the King and with comparatively little political experience. The corrupt nobility and clergy regarded the King's reforms with scorn and they urged him to sideline the Third Estate, this led to the Tennis Court Oath and the forming of the National Assembly. A decision to send troops to Paris triggered the Fall of the Bastille and the real beginning of Revolution.

* ''Ridicule'' - 1996 French film set in 1783's Versailles Court. The movie is about a young aristocrat going to Versailles in order to get some money he needs to dry out swamps in his lands. Louis XVI himself is a minor character of the movie.

Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791. Upon accepting the 1791 Constitution, he became "King of the French"[[note]]A title that would be revived in the July Monarchy[[/note]] until the 10 August 1792. He became King as a young man (20 years of age, which was still older than his three immediate predecessors, who became king at nine, five, and five) and his reign coincided with - UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution and UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution.

* ''Anime/RoseOfVersailles''

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The Revolution was regarded by the nobility and the royal family as, understandably, an existential threat. This became even more clear after the Women's March to Versailles (October 1789), which brought the King to the long abandoned Tuileries Palace in Paris. This event made him a virtual prisoner to the National Guard, most of them drawn from Parisian radicals. The King was placed in virtual house arrest with his wife and children, under constant scrutiny. In the early years of the Revolution, the reformists and the people regarded Louis XVI as a good man, surrounded by bad advisors and they tended to scapegoat the Queen as a LadyMacbeth type. Some of them (Mirabeau) even went behind the backs of the Constituent Assembly to provide advise to the King on becoming a more popular monarch. This fiction ended with the Flight to Varennes, where Louis and his family tried to escape the Tuileries but not before sending a letter denouncing his treatment and the trajectory of the Revolution. He failed and was brought back to Paris but with his popularity in tatters.