Tea at Trianon: Historic Costume Gone Wrong

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, August 6, 2013

Historic Costume Gone Wrong

From Reading Treasure. I do not understand why people spend millions of dollars trying to recreate history for a film but ruin it by stupid mistakes that could have been easily avoided. The blonde wig in Farewell, My Queen is all wrong. Marie-Antoinette wore a completely different style, as shown above and in her many portraits below.

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3 comments:

julygirl said...: The costume designers can't resist sneaking in their own ideas and tweaking history even when they have reality staring them in the face from beautiful canvases.; August 6, 2013 at 7:28:00 AM EDT
May said...: Awful. I would love to see a really accurate film about the Queen.; August 6, 2013 at 7:46:00 PM EDT
Jeanne said...: Jefferson in Paris (1995) is a good movie, I think. The designs shown in the film are spectacular and very accurate. L'Autrichienne (1990) is THE best depiction of Marie-Antoinette you'll ever get. I recommend them both.; November 13, 2018 at 12:45:00 PM EST