Versailles
was a place of scandal and indulgence. For
a while, it was all quite amusing to the royal court assembled there, but by
July 1789, it had lost its novelty.
Revolution is in the air, but a loyal reader still faithfully serves her
queen in Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My
Queen (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.
Among the royal hangers-on, it is widely known Marie-Antoinette has developed an
unhealthy co-dependency on her lady-in-waiting, the Duchess Gabrielle de Polignac.
At first, that was all very well for the Polignacs, but times are
changing. A list calling for the
decapitation of 286 heads is circulating and the queen’s is right at the top. Suddenly, the Duchess is indisposed as
Marie-Antoinette faces the long dark night of her soul, such as it might
be. However, her trusted reader Sidonie
Laborde remains eager to please.
As an ambiguously privileged servant,
Laborde presents an intriguing perspective on the French Revolution. Moving relatively freely both “upstairs” and “downstairs,”
she is familiar with the palace’s two contrasting worlds. Though her sympathies lie with her mistress,
she is increasingly aware revolutionary sentiment has infected the servants’
quarters.
Largely
filmed on location at Versailles (including the Petit Trianon), Farewell creates a vivid sense of the
place, including the less than stately back passages and service
corridors. Yet, rather than reduce the
iconic palace’s stature, Jacquot creates a claustrophobic hothouse vibe.
Versailles
might be the star of Farewell, but the
regal Diane Krüger certainly seems at home there. It would be easy to present Marie-Antoinette
as the customary self-absorbed hedonist, but Krüger’s portrayal is deeper than
that, conveying her considerable neediness and even hinting at a measure of
self-awareness here and there. Likewise,
Léa Seydoux gives a sensitive, finely wrought performance as the tragically
dedicated Laborde. However, as Polignac
(first introduced to the audience zonked out on opium seeds), Virignie Ledoyen
hardly has sufficient screen time to explain the queen’s persistent attachment.
