Tea at Trianon: The Princess of Montpensier (2010)

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, April 18, 2012

The Princess of Montpensier (2010)

Historical novelist Sandra Gulland shares her thoughts on the film:

Basically, I long to be taken back in time, and I would have liked this movie to have been a somewhat more accurate illusion. Horses galloping for hours arrive in a sweat, please. (It would be such an easy detail to recreate.) A lady would never have travelled alone. Indeed, our princess is rather too often alone — convenient, I know, for a love story, but unlikely in fact.

Also, no wigs?

Also, a woman hard galloping side-saddle for hours and hours? A functional side-saddle is said to have been introduced into France at that time, but it wasn't used universally and it wouldn't have been used for strenuous riding. (Read entire post.)