Tea at Trianon: Notes on a Scandal (2006)

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

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

My husband brought the DVD home with the warning that Notes on a Scandal was supposed to be an intense and disturbing film. Disturbing it was indeed, but not in the way I thought it would be. I assumed that a plot involving a teacher's "affair" with a teenage pupil would be overwhelmed by the unsavory aspect of that dangerous liaison. While events do turn upon the sordid, ill-fated dalliance, it is shown to be the unappealing result of mental aberration on the part of Cate Blanchett's character "Sheba." Sheba is drawn into the affair because she is basically undisciplined and used to living a free life, although she has tried to be a devoted mother to the best of her ability. But when boredom and unhappiness overwhelm her, she is bereft of resources.

The other dangerous relationship in the film is the emotional obsession that an older teacher, Babara Covett, magnificently played by Judi Dench, develops over Sheba. It reminded me of a saying of St Francis de Sales: "There are many virgins in hell, but there are no humble people in hell." With all the overemphasis on the physical, we forget that there are other sins besides those of the flesh, and that pride and covetousness can also lead a soul down the primrose path. Barbara's determination to monopolize Sheba's affections is in many ways as insidious and dangerous as any carnal misbehavior.

Barbara (Dench) is a dedicated teacher who with one word can restore order in a classroom. Her amazing competence and intellectual superiority lead her to despise the world. She is a misanthrope worthy of Scrooge, yet the witty and brilliant reflections as recorded in her secret diary are chillingly amusing. Unfortunately, she has a habit of forming inordinate attachments to other, younger women, attachments which she erroneously idealizes as being spiritual friendships. True friendship has little to do with it, however. Barbara resents Sheba's family and when Sheba puts her children first, only then does Barbara report Sheba's criminal actions.

Notes on a Scandal is a revealing glimpse into the souls of two women, each narcissistic and possessed by different brands of lust. Rarely has real love been so starkly contrasted with inordinate affections as in director Richard Eyre's modern yet timeless melodrama. Share