La Décadence Part Two

Gérard Depardieu. Sexy leading man. Lover. Winemaker. Think Green Card with Andie MacDowell, think Cyrano de Bergerac. I thought that I would never get tired of watching him work in his movies. When I committed to reading books and watching movies set in France, I guess I didn't really think that there might be ones I didn't love, love, love. I'm really sorry to report that Vatel left me disappointed, but don't think it was Depardieu's fault. A great actor is only as good as his material.

Since France is now on my radar in ways that I have never before experienced, I was excited to see a review about a foodie movie in the North Shore magazine. In the wake of the enormous success of Julie & Julia, Vatel was recommended as another "foodie" costume drama for its depiction of the excesses in the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. I tried to find it at my local rental outlets, but to no avail. After buying and viewing it, I know why it was difficult to find.

Vatel is the fictionalized story of the real-life chef Francois Vatel who was the "Maître d'hôtel" for Prince de Conde in 1671. When Louis XIV came to visit the out-of-favor and perilously "poor" Conde, Vatel was in charge of Festivities and Pleasures designed to feed and entertain Louis's court. Louis brings with him not only his queen, but count them, three mistresses! Then there's his nasty brother and all of the toadying courtiers who treat working people like dirt. It's a political catastrophe in the making, and if Vatel does not succeed in keeping the king and his court happy, the prince won't receive any money from the king and will go bankrupt. As the story unfolds, Vatel becomes disillusioned with how he is regarded by the nobility. I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but I guarantee it will make you sad. It will also make you think about how in the world Europe became so socially divided into the haves and have-nots. It is no wonder that the immigrants coming to America were willing to risk just about anything to get away from their lives under these repressive societies.

Depardieu opened the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and then the $37 million movie was premiered. "Reporters -- virtually to a man -- trashed both the opening ceremonies and the Gaumont film, which was shot in English. They reserved special criticism for Depardieu's performance. Associated Press writer Jocelyn Novak observed: "Some of Depardieu's lines end up sounding silly ... and occasionally he sounds like he doesn't exactly know what he is saying." Sheila Johnston writing in the British trade publication Screen International, described the movie as "this long, bloated piece, " but said that the star cast "might give it a moderate arthouse career' " (IMDb). Although it didn't win anything at Cannes that year, the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction -- Set Decoration, but lost to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I watched the movie again today, and it's kind of a guilty pleasure movie. The viewer is horrified by the behaviors of these real-life characters and the excesses of the time, but it's kind of hard to stop watching because you might miss the next horrible scene. Peter Travers at Rolling Stone said that "Vatel acts like a pre-Food Network Emeril taking time out for bedding a courtesan (Uma Thurman) and stopping the king's brother (Murray Lachlan Young) from buggering little boys. This putrid dish marks a new low for director Roland Joffe and - mon Dieu - he's the guy who gave us Demi Moore in The Scarlett Letter." And that's kind of it in a nutshell. Mon Dieu indeed.

La Décadence Part One

It's time to move away from emotional love letters to my friends and family to what you're all here for -- juicy stories. Any time you study French culture, you're going to run into France's dirty laundry, so today is your lucky day if you're into France's decadent past and its revolutionary history.

For Christmas, I asked for and received a favorite movie, Marie Antoinette, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role. Based loosely on Antonia Fraser's biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey, the movie is a luscious look at the child queen's reign and downward spiral toward her death. The stylized scenes -- shoes, food, clothing -- are mouthwatering and I loved the modern score underlying all of the period costuming and scenery. It got mixed reviews, but I've always liked Sofia Coppola's sympathetic portrait of Marie Antoinette as an innocent pawn. Kirsten Dunst is luminous as Antoinette and is a believable virgin queen who waited seven anxious years for her marriage to be consummated. As I'm sure you are all aware, poor Marie Antoinette's story ends with the beheading of Louis XVI, followed by her execution nine months later. The tragic story continued with the imprisonment, abuse, and eventual death of their third child, Louis-Charles, who should have succeeded his father to the throne. There were many pretenders to his title, but modern-day science has proven that none of the claimants had Louis and Marie's DNA and it is now assumed that Louis XVII died in June of 1795 as was claimed at the time. The movie, however, leaves the viewer in the carriage with Louis and Marie as they leave Versailles for the last time under armed guard and does not force us to witness the violent last months of their lives. If you love costume dramas with a twist, you'll love Marie Antoinette as much as I do.

Every time I write a post, I get distracted by the researching and historical facts that I uncover. This time, I discovered that Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun became Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's court painter and was the most famous female painter of the eighteenth century. Over a six year period, she completed thirty paintings of the queen and her family, including the infamous "muslin dress" painting. Completed and exhibited in the 1786 Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) Salon, Marie Antoinette was shown wearing a straw hat and a white muslin dress with tight pleated sleeves. The Queen was becoming more unpopular by the minute, and critics said that she had portrayed herself in a totally inappropriate blouse. Coppola clearly channeled Le Brun's painting when creating her version of Antoinette's clothing when she was living informally at the Petit Trianon with her cronies.

Marie Antoinette appears to have been a silly young girl who became a loyal spouse and a loving mother. I found this Le Brun painting of the Queen and her children, which also appears in the movie, to be very poignant. Marie Antoinette is shown with her three children, Marie Thérèse, Louis Charles, and Louis Joseph. The empty cradle recalls one-year-old Marie Sophie who died of tuberculosis. One year after the painting was finished in 1787, Louis Joseph died too, and the Queen had the painting moved because every time she passed it it made her cry. The painting was exhibited in the Salon of 1788 and was the last of the thirty Le Brun portraits of the Queen and her family. She was criticized for her choice of the elegant red velvet dress and for posing in the royal Mirror Gallery at Versailles, an inflammatory choice given the unrest brewing in France at the time.

I've always felt sorry for Marie Antoinette; she just couldn't catch a break from anyone. Although this movie shows us in living color why the French people became so disillusioned with their royals, its lavish spectacles are a treat for the eyes. Next time, I'll give you a taste of another period movie that isn't quite so kind...