Tea at Trianon: L’Empereur de Paris

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, 2021

L’Empereur de Paris

From The Inspired Traveler:

The incredible life of Eugène-François Vidocq has inspired a number of films: Vidocq (1911, 1939 and 2001), Scandal in Paris (1946), Le Cavalier de Croix-Mort (1947) and L’Empereur de Paris (2018) ). Vincent Cassel embodies this convict who became an informer and then a private detective in the 19th century, born under the reign of Louis XVI and dying during the Second Empire. Eugène-François Vidocq was sent to prison on several occasions after being convicted in 1796 for “forgery in public and authentic writings”. But he escaped several times in the years that followed, until he agreed to be an informer at the police headquarters. He will also claim more than 16,000 arrests, before finally converting as a private detective.
Passionate about history, Jean-François Richet knew Eugène-François Vidocq well before directing The Emperor of Paris. “He is a man who says no, he analyzes as we can read on Allociné. By taking his destiny in hand, he says no to social determinism. I like that a character is faced with a situation where necessity rules. But action only interests me if it transforms him. Vidocq is on the run, seeks to free himself. Very quickly, the question arises of the price to pay. To obtain his letter of pardon, he undertook to help the police. He realizes that his effectiveness risks locking him into this role. Which is like leaving one prison for another. “ (Read more.)