Marie Antoinette: Queen of Versailles
Our Price: $16.98
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $9.94 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Artist: Artist Not ProvidedDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 58 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Delta
DVD Reviews of Marie Antoinette: Queen of Versailles
DVD Review: The absolute worst . . .
Summary: 1 Stars
This is quite possibly the worst historical film/documentary ever made. It is difficult to know where to even begin. The narrator (credited as Jack Roberts) is so inept and amateurish, and Mr. Roberts has absolutely no clue about pronouncing French names, locales, words . . . it is literally a slaughter of the French language. (Mr. Roberts has equal problems with a number of words in his own English language.) The visuals are lamentable beyond comprehension. The onscreen images frequently have absolutely no relationship or connection -- even in the most random sense -- to what is being discussed in the narration. 90% of the film looks like it was probably sourced from free public domain footage. Lengthy portions of Versailles footage are flickering, sepia-toned silent-era film, undoubtedly taken by one of the first movie cameras ever to capture Versailles. But incredibly, some of the buildings pictured during the description of Versailles are NOT Versailles. They are of the Louvre. The flickering of this sequence, however, is so severe as to almost be seizure-inducing. The music is so ill-chosen as to be laughable -- during a long, languid (but dim) pan of Versailles' Hall of Mirrors, the entire Humming Chorus from Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is played -- a piece of music which has no relationship to Marie Antoinette, France, or any conceivable connection to the subject matter, and was composed over 150 years AFTER the reign of Marie Antoinette. At other times, great expanses of Handel's "Messiah" are played, another piece of music which has absolutely no historical, cultural or any other relationship to the subject matter of this film. There is also plenty of Beethoven, and tons of Schubert -- both historically and culturally inaccurate. But not one French composer during the entire film. Where was the music of court composer Francois Giroust, who composed the music for Louis XVI's Coronation, and his wedding to Marie Antoinette; or the music of François Joseph Gossec and André Modeste Grétry, or even those veritable but still-popular holdovers from earlier reigns, the composers Lully and Rameau -- any of which WOULD have been the music of Marie Antoinette's life at Versailles. The footage is equally inexplicable -- at one point, while the narrator is talking about the marriage of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the onscreen footage is of a modern Paris hotel lit by neon and flashing lights, with cars driving by, and shoppers carrying Gucci bags. An earlier description of the Paris of Louis XVI's time pans in on The Eiffel Tour and The Moulin Rouge. A description of the Vienna of Marie Antoinette's 1755 birth shows automobiles on the streets, and motor boats on the Danube. At another point, a reference to smallpox shows a World War I-era black and white photo of a bloated corpse covered with thousands of pustuals that was so grotesque as to be sickening. The worst thing about this film, however, is that the facts are frequently incorrect, the chronology is frequently skewed, and it is often just plain wrong. There is a very limited amount of new footage which was filmed for some of the interstitial sequences, but it looks like it was produced and acted by the local high school drama class, and filmed by the geeks in the AV Club. In short, DON'T BUY THIS. Do yourself a favor, read Antonia Fraser's excellent "Marie Antoinette: The Journey," which while controversial in some quarters, was thoroughly researched and presented a historically fresh portrait of Marie Antoinette. Or buy Sophia Coppola's visually-stunning "Marie Antoinette," which while also controversial to some (I loved it), depicted the court life at Versailles with absolutely extraordinary (and factually accurate) beauty, thanks to previously unprecedented access to Versailles, Le Petite Trianon, the Hameau, and other areas of the royal estate. David Grubin's PBS documentary about Marie Antoinette is also vastly superior to this horrendous DVD, as is the fascinating and eerily beautiful DVD "La Petite Musique de Marie Antoinette," which takes the viewer into the previously-unseen secret inner-sanctum of Marie Antoinette's own jewel-box-like private, personal theatre, where she herself took to the stage. This incredibly gorgeous treasure of a petite theatre is adjacent to The Petite Trianon, and through its walls, nooks, and crannies you can glimpse moments of Marie Antoinette's private life in a way never before seen on film. ("Le Petite Musique de Marie Antoinette" is also an amazing resource for lovers of theatre in general, as it shows the clever stage mechanics of a circa 1780 theatre.) All of these films will be so much more rewarding and satisfying -- and educational -- than this totally lamentable and lame DVD reviewed here, which is just plain bad.
More Marie Antoinette: Queen of Versailles reviews:
1
1
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Artist Not Provided - Marie Antoinette: Scapegoat QueenWEA DES Moines Video; Release date: 2006-11-14; DVD
Best price: $10.04
Price in other shops:
Marie Antoinette: A Film by David GrubinParamount; Release date: 2006-11-28; DVD
Best price: $11.69
Price in other shops: