Tea at Trianon: New Film about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

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

Thursday, May 18, 2023

New Film about Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

From Cineuropa:

Filming concluded last week on The Flood (Le Déluge), a film written and directed by Gianluca Jodice (director of The Bad Poet [+]) which centres on the final days of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before their execution. The film, an Italian-French co-production, stars Guillaume Canet (seen recently in Astérix & Obélix: The Middle Kingdom [+], which he also directed) in the role of the last French monarch, and Mélanie Laurent (seen recently in The Mad Women's Ball [+], which she also directed, and in Ride Above [+]) in that of his wife, and presents itself as an apocalyptic film in the most literal sense of the word: that of revelation.
Written by Jodice together with Filippo Gravino (frequent collaborator of Claudio Giovannesi, Claudio Cupellini and Matteo Rovere), tells the story of the end of this absolutism and of this monarchy which it seemed would never come, laying bare two of the biggest icons of History in front of the people, of themselves and of mankind, for the first time.

The synopsis goes like this: When talking about Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, what immediately comes to mind are lace, tall wigs, flamboyant clothes and colours, Versailles, or… the guillotine. Here, between these two extremes, exists a middle ground, a period of time seldom explored: the few months when the last king and queen of France were imprisoned, with their two young children, in a black castle on the outskirts of Paris, awaiting their executions. A brief and condensed period where, amidst violence and harassment, all masks fell off: those of two royals, as public and private figures; that of the old regime; that of a History that finally turned the page; and that of God who, from then on, was eclipsed by the shadows, leaving man entirely alone.

The film’s cast also includes Aurore Broutin, Hugo Dillon, Tom Hudson, Roxane Duran, Anouk Darwin Homewood, Vidal Arzoni and Fabrizio Rongione. The technical crew includes recognisable names, from director of photography Daniele Ciprì, to two-time Academy Award-nominated costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini (for Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio [+] and Joe Wright’s Cyrano [+]), from set designer Tonino Zera to four-time Oscar-nominated hairstylist Aldo Signoretti (for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Paolo Sorrentino’s Il divo [+], Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!).

The Flood is produced by Matteo Rovere and Andrea Paris from Italian company Ascent Film with Rai Cinema, and co-produced by Yann Zenou of QUAD (France). Director Paolo Sorrentino figures as associate producer. Filming lasted six weeks and took place in Turin and Rome. (Read more.)