The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

This quietly amazing film is conceived in terms of pure minimalist intimacy.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by James Adams

A masterpiece. Admittedly, callow viewers may have difficulty getting past the cumulously bewigged Jean-Pierre Léaud’s uncanny resemblance to Phil Spector, circa 2008.

RogerEbert.com

The small but wonderfully rich details of the film invite us in: the trembling of a wrinkled cheek, the arch of an eyebrow, the flicker of a candle, and especially the superbly evocative sound design.

RogerEbert.com by Nell Minow

The small but wonderfully rich details of the film invite us in: the trembling of a wrinkled cheek, the arch of an eyebrow, the flicker of a candle, and especially the superbly evocative sound design.

The Film Stage by Ethan Vestby

The Death of Louis XIV may be Serra’s clearest film in terms of formal patterns and his most mysterious in actual meaning. It depends on who you ask; to this writer, that’s a good thing.

Screen Daily by Allan Hunter

It is the attention to detail and the refusal to compromise that allows Serra to create such a compelling, coherent vision.

The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

[Mr. Léaud's] riveting, and a little alarming. As for Mr. Serra, while he often enjoys playing the foppish provocateur in his interviews, his film is sober, meticulous and entirely convincing in its depiction of period and mortality.

Screen International by Allan Hunter

It is the attention to detail and the refusal to compromise that allows Serra to create such a compelling, coherent vision.

Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang

In The Death of Louis XIV, Léaud shows us stray glimmers of the droll conversationalist and irrepressible bon vivant the Sun King once must have been. But his performance is finally a magnificent stare into the abyss, a sustained contemplation of things we would rather not dwell upon but will ultimately have to face.

Time Out London by Trevor Johnston

The painterly camerawork shows the sheer sophistication possible these days with digital technology. The only conventional note in a highly distinctive film touched with wry humour is the too-safe choice of a Mozart music cue.

Empire by Simon Crook

Serra’s sad, stately, haunting addition to the slow-cinema genre doubles up as both an intimate study of the Sun King’s death and a requiem for Europe’s fading arthouse scene.

Slant Magazine by Carson Lund

Catalan prankster Albert Serra's film ultimately emerges as a compact, improbably riveting viewing experience.

Village Voice by Melissa Anderson

Delicately balanced between grandeur and absurdity, Serra's film maintains this tricky equilibrium largely thanks to the icon whose face fills the screen.

Variety by Ben Kenigsberg

The vividness of the realization — with a sound design that emphasizes every chew and tick of the clock — makes the movie continually engrossing.

The Hollywood Reporter by Boyd van Hoeij

By cataloging every spoon of food not eaten, every sip of water not swallowed and every sigh and every groan uttered, the myth becomes a man and the inherent paradox of being a divine ruler is revealed.

The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

It’s such a conceptually fertile film that one wishes that it weren’t also a bore.

CineVue by Ben Nicholson

The period atmosphere isn't alive with bold ideas as much as decay.