Tea at Trianon: The Anti-Communist Film Festival

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, September 17, 2025

The Anti-Communist Film Festival

From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

Since I announced the Anti-Communist Film Festival last month, the response has been fantastic. Conservatives understand that a film festival showcasing some of the great anti-communist movies can be a powerful - and fun - inoculation against a poisonous false god. What’s also been surprising is how many anti-communist movies there are. I’ve heard from people not only in the United States but with ties to Cuba, China, and the old Soviet Union. I’ve also heard from directors and actors in Hollywood. We’re planning the festival for fall 2026 if we can raise the money for it and attract a sponsor or two.
We also want the festival to have not only serious films, but fun ones. We want it to be a party that entertains and brings people together. That’s why I think a great addition to the lineup would be Hail, Caesar! Hail, Caesar! produced and directed in 2016 by Joel and Ethan Cohen, delves into the deepest question of our time - the question of God and our place in the universe. It also makes communists look like absolute idiots.
Set in 1950s Hollywood, Hail, Caesar! tells the story of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a “fixer” at Capitol Pictures. Eddie keeps Scarlett’s unwanted pregnancy out of the news, eases the panic of a director working with a talentless actor, and, most importantly, tries to retrieve superstar actor Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), who has been drugged and kidnapped by a Marxist group called “The Future.” Mannix has also been offered a lucrative job with the Lockheed Corporation, which tries to lure Mannix with photographs of “the future” - an atomic test being performed at Bikini Atoll. Because Hail, Caesar! features musical numbers, the trademark Cohen brothers' oblique humor, and some pokes at the Red Scare of the era, critics described it as a lightweight, second-tier effort. But the film asks, and answers, the most profound question of all: do we have a divine purpose? (Read more.)