Although I have not yet seen
L'Autrichienne in its entirety,
I have it on good authority that it is perhaps the best film about Marie-Antoinette. German actress Ute Lemper gives a magnificent performance as the Queen in her last days at the Conciergerie, during her grueling trial and preparations for death. Marie-Antoinette's agony, her serenity in the face of many indignities, and her ability to move hearts, are captured with authenticity and stark realism. The screenplay, written by André Castelot, was taken directly from the court transcripts and the accounts of eye-witnesses. Although it is almost impossible to find
L'Autrichienne in America on DVD, it can be watched
on YouTube. (Thanks to "lemraq" for this find.) Sadly, there are no subtitles but the poignancy of Ute Lemper's performance supersedes language.
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Although I have not yet seen L'Autrichienne in its entirety, I have it on good authority that it is perhaps the best film about Marie-Antoinette. German actress Ute Lemper gives a magnificent performance as the Queen in her last days at the Conciergerie, during her grueling trial and preparations for death. Marie-Antoinette's agony, her serenity in the face of many indignities, and her ability to move hearts, are captured with authenticity and stark realism. The screenplay, written by André Castelot, was taken directly from the court transcripts and the accounts of eye-witnesses. Although it is almost impossible to find L'Autrichienne in America on DVD, it can be watched on YouTube. (Thanks to "lemraq" for this find.) Sadly, there are no subtitles but the poignancy of Ute Lemper's performance supersedes language.
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22 comments:
Thank you!
I'm glad you like the movie! I like it a lot, too! you can watch the whole movie on youtube. yes, sadly there's no subtitle.
Hi Elena!I've been reading your blog for some time and I love it!It's my favorite blog!
I've also been wanting to see L'autrichienne but I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally saw it yesterday on Youtube and I think it's THE BEST movie about Marie Antoinette. Ute Lemper is amazing and I think she also has a certain physical resemblance to the queen. I would love to see a movie about Marie Antoinette's entire life with Ute Lemper.
Elena, I remember reading somewhere that Marie Antoinette was terminally ill and that her frequent bleedings were cancer symptoms. Do you know if this is true?
Thank you for your kind words about my blog, Alix. It is a theory that the Queen may have had uterine cancer because of her frequent bleeding and rapid weight loss. However, the same symptoms could have been brought on by the extreme grief and stress of her situation. She was also having trouble with her eyesight. She was definitely in a physically weakened state, but then it was the intention of her enemies to break her.
She was having trouble with her eyesight? I haven't heard of that... reading and learning more about Marie Antoinette make me really sad. She had a very tragic end. how can anyone malign her until today is beyond me. I just read comments from some people saying she deserved to be beheaded and some are very proud to stick to the same old lies told about Marie Antoinette. It's really appalling.
Lemraq, it is indeed terrible how people keep believing the lies when there is abundant evidence to the contrary. Yes, the Queen had some kind of eye infection in prison that made seeing difficult towards the end. I go tried to into those details in my novel Trianon.
http://o-x.fr/6o-, thank you!
Thank you so very much for this link; I have never seen this film but have heard wonderful reviews. I know I will be in tears watching this; especially when you know the outcome. Thank you again.
this film really is amazing ; i bought a random copy on ebay a few years ago after searching for a while. unfortunately it won't play on an american player, but if there are other copies you'd be able to watch on a computer, and there are clips on youtube (dailymotion, too).
to show the accuracy and attention to detail, they even include the queen's bleeding in the film. it's interesting to note that the film came out at the same time as many of the feature films on the revolution (la revolution francaise, danton, etc.) did around 1989 for the bicentenaire. however, it was huge flop. not only was it realistic (meaning it didn't downplay or idealise the cruelty of the revolution but showed it for what it was), but it also came at a time in france when immigration was becoming an even more pressing issue. the film's tagline "sale etrangere" or "dirty foreigner" was, unsurprisingly, not a big help.
if you can see it, i definitely recommend it. youtube also has the amazing "revolution francaise" by enrico and heffner. if you want an incredible on-screen portrayal of louis XVI, francois balmer as the king is amazing. jane seymour plays marie-antoinette. it's divided into about 2 dozen videos, but definitely worth checking out. it was just released on dvd in france this year after 20 years of being inaccessible.
Reading French is so different than trying to hear dialogue in this movie. You may not understand the language but you will believe the wonderful actress in Ute Lemper.I was right in saying I would be crying; the scenes break your heart; especially when she takes out the picture of the Dauphin. The officials of the republic remind me of the communists in Dr. Shivago; cold unfeeling gangster murderers whose intention is to humiliate before they kill their victims. Thank you for this link Elena Maria; we see in this film the humanity of a Queen and the inhumanity of her captors.
here is a link to the enrico/heffron product as it's been completely uploaded on youtube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taRBxR-fxq0&feature=PlayList&p=5B658A58292A7EC9&index=0&playnext=1
It was a good idea I think to use a German actress for the Austrian-born Marie-Antoinette. And I agree with Alix, Ute Lemper does seem to bear a certain physical resemblance to the Queen.
I have only recently come across your blog, and it quickly became one of my favourites. I'm also Catholic like you and very interested in history and kings and queens.
I would like to comment on the youtube links to the full film about Marie Antoinette. I haven't seen the film,but I believe that the entire film is uploaded on youtube without any respect for copyrights - the uploader isn't the person who owns the rights to the film.Watching something that is uploaded illegally is the same as stealing, that is, a mortal sin. Though I don't know you personally, from what you write you are to me a kindred spirit. I believe you did it because of the lack of knowledge.
Sorry for my English, it's not my native language.
Dear Madame, I do not know the circumstances of the person who did upload the film onto You Tube, but I would not accuse those who merely watch it on YouTube of committing a mortal sin. That is ridiculous.
Watching something you haven't paid for is stealing, and what kind of a sin is stealing?
(Of course I mean the impersonal "you" here).
Madame, Google, who owns YouTube, aggressively pursues ANY infringements of copyright law. If they deem it to be illegal, they will remove it.
My dear, taking what you have not paid for is not stealing if it is either a gift or borrowed.
If I get around a bakery at closing hours and ask for unsold left-overs, eating what I am given is not stealing.
And I cannot regard it as fully moral equivalent to stealing to go by train without paying, since the place used is given back when I have done my journey. Besides, St Francis of Assisi is patron of stowaway passengers, since the time he went on board a ship he had not paid for, heading for the Orient.
Now, regarding something on youtube is at worst no worse than stow-away passengers, at best same as taking what is given.
Thank you, Hans. No one pays for anything on YouTube. For that matter, I allow people to read my blog for free....
So do I, but I'd like to get paid if they print it, and I'd like to get printed. Some want to hold the paper, I prefer that format myself when I am not in a hurry to copy and paste a relevant quote or when I have a shelf to leave the book on.
This youtube is free, but from a concert that was paid for, and I'd like same to happen with my sheet music, and to get money for what satisfaction is had not only at home but also commercially from my scores.
I used to really admire this film for the portrayal of the Queen's courage under persecution. But I re-watched it recently and was disturbed by one of the scenes- when she is accused of "disordered pleasures" during her trial and then it flashes to a scene of her misbehaving with another woman with a diamond necklace...In the past I thought that was just an image of the kind of thing she was accused of...I hope it's not supposed to be her actual memories of the past?? Since there are other scenes that seem to be her flashbacks of her life at Versailles and so on, I've become confused. But the film as a whole seems so sympathetic to the Queen that it is hard to imagine the directors trying to perpetuate the old slanders themselves...
It was just showing the kind of thing she was accused of...but others have complained of that scene as well......
This film was one of a handful made to commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution, thus I'd expect it to be biased against Queen Antoinette.
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