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I like Miklós Jancsó. His films are not always good, but they’re usually visually and stylistically arresting, with extraordinary landscape visuals and stylized action. I was willing to forgive Decameron ’69 because that was a flawed project and he was the best thing about it. I’m not sure I can defend this one, though. I get the impression there’s part of Jancsó’s usual political point buried in this one: Prince Rudolf was apparently a supporter of Hungarian rights, and fashionable Hungarian conspiracy theories hold that he was assassinated for his views. That particular conspiracy theory is a tiny part of this incredibly tedious piece of ostensible erotica. Yes, “erotica”. Jancsó’s films typically involve a fair bit of incidental nudity, but it’s usually artistic; here it comes across as merely hedonistic, with orgy on orgy broken up by tedious monologuing. The artistic eye, I’m afraid, is all but absent from this one, and there’s very little to recommend it. Er, unless you like excruciatingly long orgy scenes (no, seriously, they’re not actually all that stimulating. I’m not being a prude or a wet blanket. These scenes just are not very good, artistically speaking).

See also: IMDB, Wikipedia.