Tea at Trianon: Doubt (2008)

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 5, 2009

Doubt (2008)

A review from A Conservative Blog for Peace, which says:

I’m impressed: not the heavy-handed jab at the church I feared and half-expected (leftish priest good, traddie nun bad). Complex characters well acted in a story full of the subtlely of the title. How personally involved can priests and nuns become in their charges’ lives without compromising their work?.... For good measure add race and a dash of feminism.

Terry Nelson has some interesting reflections, too. Share

4 comments:

Mark said...: There's an interesting interview with Meryl Streep about her part in the movie in the UK's "Catholic Herald":

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/f0000352.shtml; January 5, 2009 at 11:37:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Thanks, Mark, I'll check it out!; January 5, 2009 at 3:21:00 PM EST
Dymphna said...: The good news is that it's not antiCatholic. The bad news is that the pedophile is presented as a much more likeable person than the nun.; January 7, 2009 at 10:02:00 AM EST
Unknown said...: Most of the time, the pedophiles are the more charismatic, likeable people. I'm glad that this movie portrayed him as such, because it adds a dash of realism.; August 24, 2009 at 9:09:00 PM EDT