- Marie Antoinette in popular culture
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Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, is best remembered for her legendary extravagance and for her death: she was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror at the height of the French Revolution in 1793 for the crime of treason. Her life has been subject of many historically accurate biographies, as well as subject of romance novels and films.
Contents
In biographies
As were many people and events involved with the French Revolution, Marie-Antoinette's life and role in the great social-political conflict were contingent upon many factors. Many have speculated as to how influential she actually was on the nature of the revolution, and the direction it eventually took. In light of the varying contingencies surrounding her life that made her a hated and despised figure in the eyes of the revolutionaries, it is interesting to note that during her tenure as Queen of France, these factors caused her to be viewed as a genuine model of the old regime, perhaps even more so than her husband, the king. Due to her frivolous spending and indulgent royal lifestyle, as well as her well-known desire to promote the Austrian empire, her caring, motherly nature was overshadowed, and revolutionaries only saw her as an obstruction to the Revolution.
The view on Marie Antoinette's role in French history has varied widely throughout the years. Even during her life, she was both a popular icon of goodness and a symbol of everything wrong with the French monarchy, the latter being a view that has persisted to this day far stronger than the former. However, there are some that would argue that the common historical perspective on Marie Antoinette is that she was yet another tragic victim of the radicalism of the Revolution, rather than a great symbol of French royal inadequacies. This view tends to sympathize with the plight of Marie Antoinette and her family and focus more on the documentation surrounding the last months, weeks, and days prior to her execution, where she is more clearly seen as Marie Antoinette the penitent, caring French mother rather than the defiant Queen of France.
Some contemporary sources, such as Mary Wollstonecraft[1] and Thomas Jefferson,[2] place the blame of the French Revolution and the subsequent Reign of Terror squarely on Marie Antoinette's shoulders; others, such as those who knew her (her lady-in-waiting Madame Campan and the royal governess, the Marquise de Tourzel, among them), focus more on her sweet character and considerable courage in the face of misunderstanding and adversity.[3] Immediately after her death, the picture painted by the libelles of the queen was generally held as the "correct" view of Marie Antoinette for many years, as the news of her execution was received with joy by the French populace, and the libelles themselves did not stop circulating even after her death.[4]
However, she was also considered to be a martyr by royalists both in and out of France, so much so that the Tower was demolished by Napoleon in order to get rid of all symbols of the oppression of the royal family.[5] The view of the queen as a martyr was a generally held view in the post-Napoleonic era and through the nineteenth century, though publications were still written (such as by the ultra-republican work of Jules Michelet) portraying the queen as a frivolous spendthrift who single-handedly ruined France;[6] This view is not widely accepted as accurate by most modern historians, though it is important to note that even the less biased contemporary sources were quick to point out that the queen did have faults which contributed to her condition.
The end of the nineteenth century brought about some more changes in how the queen was viewed, particularly in light of the (heavily censored) publication of Count Axel Fersen's Journal intime by one of his descendants; theories about a torrid decade-long love affair between queen and count has become an area of debate since then. In particular, the popular theory is that Louis Charles, the second Dauphin (who would ultimately die at the age of 10 from maltreatment) was actually Fersen's child, and that the king was aware of it. Those who argue in favor of this theory point to the words of insiders who knew of the queen's alleged affair and the words of Fersen himself regarding the child's death, which indicate it to be a possibility.[7] Others argue that the queen had a liaison, but that it produced no child; others do not believe that an affair took place at all.[8]
The twentieth century brought about the recovery of some items that belonged to the queen, thought lost forever, as well as a wave of new biographies, which began to show the queen in a somewhat more sympathetic light; even those that were critical of the queen were more balanced than their eighteenth and nineteenth century predecessors. Public perception was also aided in the twentieth century with the advent of movies based upon biographies of the queen, the most famous of them including the Oscar-nominated 1938 Norma Shearer feature, Marie Antoinette, based upon the 1932 book Marie Antoinette by Stefan Zweig and the 2006 Kirsten Dunst feature based upon the 2001 book Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Lady Antonia Fraser. The latter author's book is considered, by some modern historians, as the most thorough and balanced biography of the queen, though it naturally builds upon earlier biographies, first hand accounts, and even the infamous libelles which destroyed the queen's reputation. Another book was written by famous American novelist Upton Sinclair in the form of a play titled Marie Antoinette.
In film
Date Title Director Actress 1934 Madame Du Barry William Dieterle Anita Louise 1938 Marie Antoinette W.S. Van Dyke Norma Shearer 1956 Marie-Antoinette reine de France Jean Delannoy Michèle Morgan 1989 La Révolution française Robert Enrico, Richard T. Heffron Jane Seymour 2001 The Affair of the Necklace Charles Shyer Joely Richardson 2006 Marie Antoinette Sofia Coppola Kirsten Dunst In television
Elizabeth Berrington played Marie Antoinette in the BBC sitcom Let Them Eat Cake
Sue Perkins portrayed in the third episode of the second series of The Supersizers Eat (aired BBC One, 9:00pm Monday 6 July 2009)
Marie appeared in an episode of Johnny Bravo, where she spoke with a French accent.
In The Addams Family, Wednesday Addams has a headless doll named Marie Antionette.
In Toy Story, Buzz has tea with a headless doll named Marie Antionette.
Casual media references
Marie-Antoinette has been referenced in numerous motion pictures, sitcoms and television shows, usually as a figure to denote extravagance or doomed beauty.
Some of the more notable examples include the movie adaptation of Gone with the Wind, in which a portrait of the Queen hangs above Scarlett O'Hara's bed in her new mansion in Atlanta and more recently, in the CW American drama Gossip Girl, a sketch looking very much like Kirsten Dunst in the role of Queen Marie-Antoinette decorates the bedroom of the main character, Blair Waldorf. In The Addams Family Values, Wednesday Addams dresses up her new baby brother as Marie-Antoinette and attempts to guillotine him for crimes against the Republic.
Marie-Antoinette as a reference point in popular culture has also been found in television shows such as Sex and the City, Queer as Folk and Desperate Housewives. In Series 2 of Sex and the City, when the character of Charlotte York criticises one of her friends for dillusionally believing that we live in a classless society, the main character of Carrie Bradshaw refers to her as a Marie-Antoinette. During the wedding of Melanie and Lindsay in Queer as Folk, a decadent French dessert is given as an option for their dinner by a French caterer, to which Melanie sarcastically quips, "And just how much for Marie-Antoinette's last meal?" When the character of Katherine turns up to a Halloween party in Series 4 of Desperate Housewives thrown by a young gay couple who have just moved to the neighbourhood, one of the hosts quips that it is appropriate that the domineering Katherine has come as a "self-important queen who lost all her power." In the novel Popular, one of the novel's lead characters throws a sweet sixteenth birthday party with a Marie-Antoinette theme, but is upstaged by one of her guests, when she arrives in a costume worn by Kirsten Dunst in the 2006 movie.
In fiction
The most famous historical fiction which features Marie Antoinette is the Alexandre Dumas, père novel Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge (The Knight of the Red House,) which centers on the Carnation Plot. It is actually the first of a series of six books written by Dumas with Marie Antoinette featured, called the "Marie Antoinette novels", in which the queen is shown in a sympathetic light, particularly during the "Diamond Necklace Affair".
Some of the more famous historical novels that have portrayed Marie Antoinette in more recent years includes Carrolly Erickson's 2005 novel The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, as well as Elena Maria Vidal's 1998 book Trianon. A 2000 book in the young adult Royal Diaries series is about Marie Antoinette's journey to France as a teenager.
The two best known movie portrayals of Marie Antoinette have been in the 1938 film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, in which the Norma Shearer played the queen, and the 2006 film directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst. The Affair of the Necklace was a 2001 film in which Hilary Swank played Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy and Joely Richardson played Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette features prominently in The Ghosts of Versailles, partially an operatic adaptation of Beaumarchais' La Mère coupable with score by John Corigliano and libretto by William M. Hoffman.
In the film Amadeus she is mentioned twice by her brother, Emperor Joseph II as "Antoinette", and her eventual downfall is foreshadowed when the emperor tells Mozart why he has banned the play Figaro.
In the 2007 film Shrek the Third, Princess Fiona wears a dress at one point in the film that closely resembles Marie Antoinette's oversized dresses.
In the Japanese manga series My Hime, Marie Anoinette is one of two QUEEN Hime who descend to the Earth to remake it. She is associated with roses and possesses a very aristocratic air about herself.
She is also one of the most prominent characters of the Japanese metaseries The Rose of Versailles (ベルサイユのばら Berusaiyu no Bara). In this series of works, she is portrayed as a very sweet and gentle woman, a loyal friend of Oscar and a loving mother, but also as an easily influenced and irresponsible queen. Her voice actress was Miyuki Ueda.
Her popular quote "Let them eat cake" was referenced in the 39 Clues book "One False Note".
In music
Jucifer's 2008 album L'Autrichienne is a concept album about the life of Marie Antoinette, leading up to her death.
Queen also referred to her in "Killer Queen" from their 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack.
Richard Adler and Jerry Ross included a mention of her as one of the devil's own, in their song "Those Were the Good Old Days[9]," from the musical comedy Damn Yankees.
Darryl Way and Sonja Kristina Lockwood wrote a song for their prog rock band, Curved Air, titled "Marie Antoinette[10]."
Wayne Shorter wrote a jazz tune of the same name; it was recorded by Freddie Hubbard.[11]
Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay wrote a musical play, in English but premiering in Tokyo, about the parallel lives of Antoinette and a fictional Margrid Arnaud.
The portrait of Marie Antoinette entitled "Marie Antoinette à la Rose" features as the front cover of the US alternative rock group Hole's 2010 album Nobody's Daughter.
The Charlie Sexton song "Impressed" references Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
In the Japanese song, The Daughter of Evil, made by the producer AkunoP, otherwise known as mothy, the evil princess is based on Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette is referenced by name in the song The Headless Waltz, by artist Voltaire
One of the boss songs of Beatmania IIDX Empress has its name Marie Antoinette, made by Marguerite du Prê.
In Video Games
Marie Antoinette is one of the several bosses in Midway Games' arcade shooter CarnEvil.
Notes
- ^ Wollstonecraft, 33–35.
- ^ Fraser, 457–458.
- ^ Fraser, 129, 291.
- ^ Fraser, 442.
- ^ Fraser, 382.
- ^ Fraser, 455.
- ^ Hermann, chapter 6.
- ^ "Tea at Trianon". Elena Maria Vidal. http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2007/01/fersen-legend-part-1.html. Retrieved 2007-01-24.
- ^ http://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/damnyankees/thosewerethegoodolddays.htm
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r34486 "Phantasmagoria"
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r152856 "Ready For Freddie"
References
- Fraser, Antonia (2001). Marie Antoinette, The Journey. Anchor. ISBN 0-7538-1305-X.
- Hermann, Eleanor (2006). Sex With The Queen. Harper/Morrow. ISBN 0-0608-4673-9.
- Wollstonecraft, Mary (1795). An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of the French Revolution and the Effect it Has Produced in Europe. St. Paul's.
- Lever, Evelyne. Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France.
External links
- Marie Antoinette (2006) - Official movie site for the Sofia Coppola picture.
- Marie Antoinette (2006) - IMDB page
- Marie Antoinette (1938) - IMDB page
Categories:- Representations of people in popular culture
- Marie Antoinette
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