From 2016 to 2023, David and I, along with our colleague Jeff Smith, created a series of video essays for the Criterion Collection’s streaming service. The Criterion people wanted us to cover aspects of cinema from our textbook, Film Art. Fairly late in the series our producer pointed out to me that we had never dealt with costumes in a film. That focus had never occurred to us, but as it was my turn to create a video, I pondered what film would be interesting for such a topic, I naturally thought of Roberto Rossellini’s first historical drama, The Taking of Power by Louis XIV, which I hadn’t seen since my graduate-school days. It turned out to be quite delightful and an excellent choice for a costume drama in which costumes were actually central to the plot. – Kristin Thompson