Tea at Trianon: Jean Simmons

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

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Jean Simmons

One of my favorite English film actresses has died. Few now rival Jean Simmons in either beauty or talent. The Washington Post tells of her rise and fall. Here are some Tea at Trianon reviews of three Jean Simmons films: Black Narcissus, Young Bess, and Elmer Gantry. Share

4 comments:

Anonymous said...: Yes, an unrivaled Hollywood beauty along with Jennifer Jones who passed away late last year. We still have Liz Taylor, the fairest of them all, alive and twittering".; January 26, 2010 at 5:33:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Twittering, that's for sure.; January 26, 2010 at 5:35:00 PM EST
R J said...: Good grief, I'd totally forgotten about Jean Simmons's standout performance in Black Narcissus, a movie which I saw (for the first time) only recently. I was too busy being riveted by Kathleen Byron (who herself died less than a year ago) as the psycho Sister Ruth. How many Sister Ruths must have been infesting convents before Vatican II, only to "come out" in the 1970s ...; January 26, 2010 at 7:07:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Yes, R.J., BLACK NARCISSUS is in many ways a prophetic film.; January 26, 2010 at 7:16:00 PM EST