Synopsis
The Royal Exchange (L'Échange des princesses, 2017) is Marc Dugain's period drama, now available to watch online on iFILM. By the close of 1721 the treasuries of France and Spain have been bled dry by years of fighting, and France's regent, Philippe d'Orléans, gambles on an unlikely fix: bind the two crowns through marriages between children. Lambert Wilson plays the regent; Anamaria Vartolomei is his twelve-year-old daughter, packed off across the Pyrenees.
On paper the arrangement is tidy. Boy-king Louis XV is betrothed to a four-year-old Spanish infanta, while the regent's daughter is sent to the heir of the Spanish throne. But children aren't chess pieces, and homesickness, dread and small acts of rebellion start pulling the whole scheme apart. Adapted from Chantal Thomas's novel, the film keeps its tone cool and precise, with none of the usual costume-drama gloss.
It looks straight at what these stories usually skip — that the price of a political peace was paid by kids. If slow, detail-rich European cinema is your thing, settle in. Stream The Royal Exchange (2017) online on iFILM.
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