Tea at Trianon: The Madness of King George (1994)

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, February 27, 2008

The Madness of King George (1994)

"You do me wrong to take me out o' the grave:
Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like moulten lead."
~ King Lear, Act 4, Scene 7

The words of Shakespeare's Lear, when murmured by Nigel Hawthorne in his haunting performance as George III, contain within them all the agony of the mad king. George III, separated from his family, bereft of power, stripped of all dignity, sits in a meadow and reads Shakespeare with his doctor. The Madness of King George is, in my opinion, one of the top ten, must-see films about royalty, along with The Queen, The Lion in Winter, The Last Emperor, Anne of the Thousand Days, and Young Bess. Not that every single aspect of such films is totally historically accurate, but the essence of the lives of the persons in question is captured so vividly that the past is brought to life.

The Madness of King George is flawlessly cast. Nigel Hawthorne thoroughly becomes the dedicated, irascible, highly moral and temporarily deranged George III, fondly called "Farmer George" by his people. Helen Mirren is perfection as Queen Charlotte, the devoted wife and mother of fifteen children. Her role as a helpmate, friend and advisor to her husband give her an incalculable influence which is suddenly taken away. It is hilarious when she scolds the Prince of Wales: "Smile and wave, you lazy hound, it's what you' re paid for!" Yet her heartbreak over her husband's illness, and her unflinching determination to be with him again, would elicit tears from a stone. The depiction of the two oldest princes, rascally and conniving, and of all the royal children for that matter, is straight out of a Copley or a Reynolds painting. Costumes, wigs, manners, gestures are as authentic as a film can provide. Humor and tragedy, politics and family feuding, are woven together amid the music of Handel. I wish someone would make a film of such quality about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

The Madness of King George beautifully depicts marital fidelity and love, especially on the part of the queen, who will not abandon her husband no matter how bizarre his behavior grows. When the head of a family, who happens to be the head of a kingdom, loses his reason, the earth is shaken to its foundations. Also shown are the primitive and often inhumane ways of treating the mentally ill. The prejudice against Catholics, deeply ingrained in the British monarchy, is summed up especially in the final scene, as Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Prince of Wales' Catholic wife, waves from the crowd. She knows that she will never take her place with the royal family as they accept the homage of the crowd on the stairs of the cathedral.
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