Tea at Trianon: A New Film About Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

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, August 21, 2019

A New Film About Blessed Franz Jägerstätter

Directed by Terence Malick. From No Film School:

“If our leaders, if they are evil, what does one do?” This is the question asked by the central character in A Hidden Life, which is written and directed by Terrence Malick and stars August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, and Michael Nyqvist. It's based on the true story of conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter, who refuses to fight for the Nazis in World War II. The movie had its World Premiere in competition at the 72nd Festival de Cannes this year and was greeted with highly favorable reviews. IndieWire named “A Hidden Life” one of the 10 best titles at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. And the esteemed film critic David Ehrlich hailed the movie, saying, “A Hidden Life is a lucid and profoundly defiant portrait of faith in crisis." (Read more.)