This is a depiction of the life of nobility in transitional times before the French revolution.

The film starts in 1719. Louis 14th died four years earlier. Philippe d'Orleans is the regent. He is a liberal and a libertine. His right-hand man, Dubois, an atheistic and cupid priest, as libertine as Philippe, tries to take advantage of a little rebellion lead by a Breton squire (Pontallec) and of the famine to become archbishop... Description of the life of the court in this period of transition where the French Revolution smoulders.
 
Scénario: Jean Aurenche et Bertrand Tavernier
Distribution:

• Philippe d'Orléans, le Régent (Philippe Noiret)
• L'abbé Dubois (Jean Rochefort)
• Le marquis de Pontcallec (Jean-Pierre Marielle)
• Emilie (Christine Pascal)
• Villeroi (Alfred Adam)
• Le cardinal (Jean-Roger Caussimon)
• Le duc de Bourbon (Gérard Desarthe)
• Le capitaine La Griollais (Michel Beaune)
• La gouvernante de Pontcallec (Monique Chaumette)
• La Fillon (Nicole Garcia)
• Le comte de Horn (Thierry Lhermitte)

France, 1719.  Four years after the death of the Sun King Louis XIV, the reins of power are held by the regent, Philippe d'Orléans.  Both libertarian and libertine, the regent is a man of profound contradictions.  He sympathises with the plight of his people, agonises over the state of his country – which is close to bankruptcy – but is powerless to change things.  His right-hand man is the ambitious Abbé Dubois, a man of the clergy with low moral standards, a devout atheist who blasphemes at the altar by day and indulges in the most obscene orgies by night.   Meanwhile, the Marquis de Pontcallec, an impoverished noble, is stirring up an uprising in Brittany, in protest against the imposition of heavy taxes and the violation of a treaty between the province of Bretagne and France.  To appease the English and further his own ambitions to become archbishop, Dubois coerces Philippe d'Orléans into quashing the rebellion and executing Pontcallec…

Que la fête commence is essentially a colourful biopic of three historical figures: the regent Philippe d'Orléans, his advisor and minister, the Abbé Dubois, and the Breton trouble-causer Marquis de Pontcallec.  All three characters – each flawed and emblematic of a France which has fallen into decadence and complacency – are brought to life through the superlative performances of Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort and Jean-Pierre Marielle.   In what should be considered one of his finest screen roles, Noiret manages to convey the inner turmoil, the self-loathing and feckless impotence of the regent – a tragicomic character

Bertrand Tavernier’s inspired portrait of regency France (the period of transition between Louis XIV and Louis XV) sheds some light on a comparatively obscure period in French history. 

The music for the film adapted by Antoine Duhamel, from manuscripts written by Philippe d'Orléans, himself an accomplished musician, is stunningly evocative of the period.
Although most of the film is closely based on historical fact, its writers (Tavernier and Jean Aurenche do allow themselves a few flights of fantasy.  One example of this is the film’s touching and contrived ending in which the regent (traumatised by the Pontcallec incident) is suddenly brought into contact with the suffering of the ordinary French people.  The result of the encounter is one of barely suppressed bitterness and brutality, the smouldering fire which would flare up into bloody revolution sixty years later.  Although the symbolism is a little too obvious, it does provide an appropriate conclusion to a drama which has portrayed so vividly a world of depravity and corruption, a world which is ripe for purging.

Notes relevées sur un site en anglais <http://www.frenchfilms.topcities.com>