Ludwig

“Ludwig. He loved women. He loved men. He lived as controversially as he ruled. But he did not care what the world thought. He was the world.”

Ludwig (Helmut Berger) is crowned king of Bavaria in 1864, a young man handed a throne he never prepared for. He turns to Richard Wagner (Trevor Howard), whose music he worships, and to his cousin Elisabeth of Austria (Romy Schneider), the one person he truly wants near him. Luchino Visconti follows him from the coronation to his death in 1886, giving the court's velvet and gilt the same slow weight as Ludwig's own unraveling.