Marie Antoinette
by Herman Hoffman, Julien Duvivier, W.S. Van Dyke
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anita Louise, John Barrymore, Norma Shearer, Robert Morley, Tyrone PowerDirector: Herman Hoffman, Julien Duvivier, W.S. Van Dyke
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: Claudine West
Writer: Donald Ogden Stewart
Writer: Ernest Vajda
Writer: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Writer: Stefan Zweig
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 157 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-10-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Marie Antoinette
Movie Review: Hollywood Marie Antoinette is Queen of Tinsel and Camp
Summary: 5 Stars
Marie Antoinette is presented in this movie as a victim of circumstance, an ordinary woman that is trapped in her Royal Destiny. The only actress at the time that could have done dramatic justice to the character would have been Bette Davis, obviously Norma Shearer looks beautiful in her Adrien version of Versailles which is quiet different from the historical reality, and she has a natural grace and elegance that in America, at the time, would have been considered appropriate for this role. However her lack of depth and uniformity in representing a silly, touchingly sentimental creature, although not ideal is good at portraying her early persona. Towards the end of the film she is also good at differentiating the feeling of affection for her husband from the true love she felt towards the Count.
Marie Antoinette was not just ordinary, she was also very naive and not at all intelligent, as when she arrived in France it took seven years for her to get pregnant and it would have taken more had her brother not pushed the husband into the operation that he desperately needed to be able to perform. We don't quite clearly see this in the movie, nor do we understand either that it was this long period of time (equivalent in today's time to roughly 12 years, at least as most people, including princes died much younger) without giving the results they had expected was what really started her on the wrong foot with her people. It is not the youth and lack of experience that were as important as the willingness, the initiative that is missing from her character, which Norma Shearer does convey by an energetic excitement that petters off into vacuity. This is also the reason that she was almost illiterate when she arrived in France, as shown by her primitive handwriting when she signed her marriage document. We don't see this in the movie either, we see Marie Antoinette arriving in Versailles for a splendid wedding, and realizing on that very moment of presentation to the king that she is marrying the worst man in the family. Robert Morley does an excellent characterization, and is by far the shining star of the production by showing the young Louis XVI to be border line retarded, a condition that would certainly explain his actions and disastrous reign as king. John Barrymore is unsurpassed in his interpretation of Louis XV, not only does he look the part, his eyes reveal a connoisseur of feminine beauty when he looks at Marie Antoinette and we can tell he regrets not being young enough to marry her himself. His virilty and gallantry mark all his gestures and moves, one also sees his embarrasement at the complete incapability of his grandson to produce a decent welcoming speech.
Gladys George plays Mme du Barry way much more vulgar and ordinary than she would have been allowed to be. Her repartee session with Marie Antoinette never took place, it is a total Holywood invention. It is however true that the king pushed for Marie Antoinette to greet Mme. du Barry, which she conceded to do, at the request of the ambassador as duly noted in the movie, only once and very briefly at a reception in Versailles. The movie sets the scene in a way that we tend to sympathize with Norma Shearer for humilating Mme du Barry in public. This would have never been permitted, but in any case, the real life incident was proof of Marie Antoinette's consistent lack of tact and political understanding. Her job was to follow the king's guidance on social issues, and she should have realized that being civil was not compromising, and if the king and her mother had approved of it, she should have done it earlier and being nicer at it, her childish approach is a premonition as to what she was to do with the unfortunate necklace situation.
The Duc d'Orleans as played by Joseph Schildkraut is totally wrong. He was a virile man, not the eunuch with bows and ruffles so exaggerated, we sometimes confuse with the women here. He was however an ambitious, unscrupulous character and he can be credited with inventing the system of modern political campaigning by paying for pamphlets, political advisors and organizing his self promotion along the same lines that it has been done since for politicians seeking office everywhere. Sadly we see none of this manouvering and we see him in a position he never had as an intimate of Marie Antoinette's circle who disliked him intensely and was responsible very early in the reign (1778) in removing him in his post as admiral of the navy, which justifies his activities against the king.
Unfortunately the movie misrepresents totally the affair of the necklace. It was the great scandal of the time and the first cannon ball fired against the monarchy. It should have been the center and turning point of this film, not the excuse for Marie Antoinette to wear more feathers than usual to go to the Opera in Paris and hear the verdict from her box. Basically it was the intention of the Cardinal de Rohan (not Prince de Rohan as shown in the movie) to buy his way into her favor by presenting her with a great gift, which turned out to be a great necklace an over ambitious jeweler had produced for Du Barry but had never been bought by her or anyonelse, for years, though it did look exactly like the one shown in the movie and the price too was about right, roughly the equivalent of 20 million today. In comes Mme de la Motte Valois, a far off descendant of the former ruling house of Valois, and a professional hustler in team with her husband. She makes herself a career by passing herself off as an 'intimate of the queen's circle' and convinces the Cardinal that SHE is the ideal vehicle to present the necklace to the queen. She provides false letters signed "Marie Antoinette de France" that anyone would have known were fake because kings and queens sign their first name only, period, no last name, nothing else is required, and he must have known it too, but so great was his desire that the power of denial had the best of him. This is actually not totally surprising as it was an age of deception. (see Barry Lindon, Tom Jones, Les Liasons Dangereuses, Casanova and Cagliostro, which pretty much covers the same swindler-womanizer character and his adventures everywhere in Europe). She hired an actress that looked like the queen and managed an 'interview' at the gardens in Versailles (which were open to the public every day of the year) The Cardinal lost needless to say both the necklace and the money he gave Valois to pay the jeweller. The scenes here merely sketch the plot and are confusing. Marie Antoinette found out about it, like in the movie, from the jeweler directly when he became desperate for payment. The scene of the arrest of the Cardinal was public, at the Royal Chapel in Versailllles the Day of the Ascension mass, and it effectively alinated the court from the king as they obviously sided with the Cardinal. Everyone went to see the Cardinal and Mme Valois when they were arrested and public opinion was against the queen from the minute it happened as by then she was despised and no one could believe her innocence, they all thought she wanted the necklace and had swindeled the Cardinal herself. Had she had any political foresight, Marie Antoinette would have left France right after the scandal. She effectively was no longer queen as she could never go in public without being insulted, loudly and consistently, and this was all happening a full four years before the fall of the Bastille.
The romance with Count Fersen, here excellently portrayed by Tyron Power, was much more involved, and physical, than the idealistic fantasy we see here, which does not make sense even in Disney Land. however, pre-war America was not ready for accepting extra-marital affairs from any woman, even a French queen, and it had to be disguised in this high school-infatuation treatment. She became involved with him after her child birthing duties were over and she naturally turned to a man in her circle that she felt attracted to for a normal relationship she could never have with her impaired husband. Although it is true that he arranged for their flight to Varennes, he never saw her again afterwards. When they return to Paris they do not go back to a prison, they returned to the Tuileries where they lived another full year before the uprising and assult to the palace firmly imprisioned them till the end of their lives. Only her daughter survived into the restoration of the monarchy by her uncles, a bitter witness to the years of terror.
Marie Antoinette's greatest moment was her trial. The absence of it in this movie makes it a complete failure from a historical perspective and dramatically, it is incomprehensible. It shows a deep ignorance of the subject from the director as well as a severe lack of consideration for Norma Shearer. Had she had the scene it would have been almost certain that she could have received the Oscar for best actress, for it is the opportunity of a lifetime. It was the vindication for her entire life and its crowning achievement for she triumphed in it above all her enemies, and her own past, in a truly tragic manner that was courageous, dignified, and noble, and deserving of admiration for the ages. We have the complete transcript and know fully well what went on, which was a great opportunity for her to show the world, and history that she may have lived a frivolous life, but she died a great queen. All her answers are considerate of those who had been loyal, and politically aware. She had learned a lot from the suffering the Revolution brought upon her and her family, and sadly it was too late. It also clearly shows her innocence, as she had never been the ruler, but his wife. His decisions political or not were not hers, all her defense was based on the fact that as his wife, she was to obey him. None of the 40 witnesses could present any definitive, unquestionable proof of the accusations, there was no legal basis for the sentence. At one point she was accussed of incest with her son, and they had procured a declaration from the child, which as she herself explained in her letter to her sister in law, an obvious fabrication "remember how easy it is to make children say things they do not even understand". When she was questioned on the issue she delayed her answered, questioned again she exclaimed dramatically that "nature itself had not allowed her to answer such an accusation, that she called to witness the mothers there present and ask if they would not have reacted the same as her". It is at that point we realize that how low France has fallen in thishistorical period, a once great nation, leader of Europe in arts and sophistication, is here reduced to inventing the inconceivable to justify a crime.
We do get the execution scene in the movie but it is not as dramatic and moving as it could have been. Norma Shearer is fine throughout, though not necessarily conveying the stoic, proud stance that was remarked upon by witnesses and is clear in the drawing by David, who was not out to flatter his subject. But the director does not take opportunity of the moment to make it have the impact it should have had. Actually I had forgotten it totally and thought the movie ended with her fictional reunion with the Count in her prison cell.
Summary of Marie Antoinette
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