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ADDIO MIA REGINA: DIANE KRUGER VESTE I TRAGICI PANNI DELLA REGINA MARIA ANTONIETTA MA IL REGISTA BENOÃŽT JACQUOT COGLIE IL PUNTO DI VISTA DI DAME DI COMPAGNIA ED ALTRI PERSONAGGI AL SERVIZIO DI VERSAILLES ALL'ALTEZZA DEL TRAGICO EPILOGO DELLA RIVOLUZIONE FRANCESE
62. Festival del Cinema di Berlino (9-19 Febbraio 2012) - FILM DI APERTURA il 9 Febbraio - PREVIEW in ENGLISH by JUSTIN CHANG (www.variety.com)
(Les adieux à la reine (anche 'Farewell, My Quuen'); FRANCIA/SPAGNA 2011; Dramma storico; 100'; Produz.: GMT Productions/Les Films du Lendemain/France 3 Cinéma/Morena Films in associazione con Canal+/CinéCinéma e con il sotegno di: Région Ile-de-France/Sofica Poste Image/Uni Etoile/Soficinéma)
See SYNOPSIS
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Titolo in italiano: Addio mia regina
Titolo in lingua originale:
Les adieux à la reine (anche 'Farewell, My Quuen')
Anno di produzione:
2011
Anno di uscita:
2012
Regia: Benoît Jacquot
Sceneggiatura:
Benoît Jacquot e Gilles Taurand
Soggetto: Dal romanzo di Chantal Thomas.
Cast: Diane Kruger (Marie Antoinette) Léa Seydoux (Sidonie Laborde) Virginie Ledoyen (Gabrielle de Polignac) Xavier Beauvois (Louis XVI) Vladimir Consigny (Paolo) Julie-Marie Parmentier (Honorine) Noémie Lvovsky (Mme Campan ) Michel Robin (Jacob Nicolas Moreau) Lolita Chammah (Louison) Grégory Gadebois (il Conte di Provenza) Francis Leplay (il Conte d'Artois)
Musica: Bruno Coulais
Costumi: Christian Gasc e Valérie Ranchoux
Scenografia: Katia Wyszkop
Fotografia: Romain Winding
Montaggio: Luc Barnier
Casting: Antoinette Boulat
Scheda film aggiornata al:
25 Novembre 2012
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Sinossi:
IN BREVE (* Trama del romanzo di riferimento):
Inverno 1810. In una Vienna assediata dalle truppe napoleoniche un'anziana signora si trova a rivivere a distanza di alcuni anni l'angosciosa atmosfera degli ultimi tre giorni trascorsi a Versailles. Tra il 14 e il 16 luglio 1789, mentre cade la Bastiglia e divampa la rivoluzione che porrà fine all''Ancien Régime', madame Agathe-Sidonie Laborde 'lettrice aggiunta' della Regina Maria Antonietta, osserva la fine di un'era che porterà la sua amata regina, graziosa infelice e sventurata, verso un destino crudele.
SYNOPSIS:
A look at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers during the final days of the French Revolution.
Versailles in July 1789. There’s growing disquiet at the court of King Louis XVI: the people are defiant and the country is on the brink of revolution. Behind the scenes at the royal palaces emergency plans are being made. Although nobody believes that this spells the end of the established order everyone is talking of escape, including Queen Marie Antoinette and her entourage. One of Marie Antoinette’s ladies-in-waiting is Sidonie Laborde who, as the Queen’s reader, is a member of the monarch’s inner circle. Concerned that her escape might fail, the queen gives instructions for the girl to step into her carriage dressed in the queen’s clothes while the queen herself is to escape from the palace unseen at night. At first Sidonie is proud to have such an honour bestowed upon her – but she soon realises that her mistress’ request has nothing to do with her affection for her.
Based on Chantal Thomas’ award-winning novel of the same name, Benoït Jacquot’s film portrays the early days of the French Revolution as seen through the eyes of the servants at Versailles. An historical drama with ironic overtones that also draws parallels to the present.
Commento critico (a cura di JUSTIN CHANG, www.variety.com)
The panic that engulfed Versailles in the early days of the French Revolution is captured from a murky side angle in "Farewell, My Queen," a well-observed but emotionally muted costume drama that might well have been titled "My Week With Marie Antoinette." Pivoting on the queen's relationship with one of her most devoted courtiers, Benoit Jacquot's venom-tipped account of palatial intrigue and royal oblivion scrupulously maintains a servant's-eye view but winds up holding the viewer at an unrewarding distance. Cast names should lend the picture some Euro arthouse traction, though Stateside biz won't far exceed that of Jacquot's recent work.
As adapted by Jacquot and Gilles Taurant from Chantal Thomas' 2002 historical fiction, this French-Spanish co-production filters its momentous events through a realist prism, operating within a tight timeframe -- July 14-17, 1789 -- and adhering to the unspoken requirement that Lea Seydoux's protagonist be present in nearly every scene. These |
ground rules allow for a partial, fragmented view of events while effectively conveying the whirlwind of confusion and gossipy sense of schadenfreude buzzing in the corridors of Versailles before the regime's collapse.
There's barely a ripple of anxiety in an idyllic early scene at the Petit Trianon, the chateau refuge where Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger) enjoys the company of her personal reader, Sidonie Laborde (Seydoux). Quiet and reserved, as crafty as she is literate, this dark-haired young consort treasures her unusually intimate if platonic rapport with the queen; occasionally, Sidonie's mild liberties draw the ire of fussy first lady-in-waiting Mme. Campan (Noemie Lvovsky), ever-attentive to matters of protocol even as crisis looms.
And loom it does, as Sidonie learns the next morning of the storming of the Bastille, an event that throws the palace into a royal commotion. Sidonie's disillusionment is twofold: As it gradually dawns on her that no |
one at Versailles is safe, she also realizes her infatuation with the queen means little to Marie Antoinette herself, who is entirely besotted with the worldly Duchess Gabrielle de Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen). The mildly Sapphic overtones come to a modest boil in an emotionally fraught scene played out in full view of Sidonie, peering through a wide-open doorway that becomes a proscenium arch for the audience.
The spectacle of the queen's endlessly delusional and self-absorbed behavior as perceived by her bemused but duty-bound servants becomes a motif throughout. Indeed, the film's shrewdest aspect is the sly, amused manner in which it observes how clueless monarchs and noblemen react to the news that their subjects want them beheaded; in Marie Antoinette's case, it means tearfully rereading and burning old love letters while ordering her attendants to pack up her jewelry. At the same time, Jacquot proves nimbly attentive to the shifting |
undercurrents below stairs, as Sidonie uses her every secret and wile to glean information and gain the queen's favor.
D.p. Romain Winding's mobile camera takes a decidedly rough-hewn, inelegant view of its opulent surroundings, often chasing Sidonie down candlelit hallways from a position behind the back of her head. Despite this visual strategy, psychological illumination is not forthcoming from either the script's blank conception of Sidonie or Seydoux's recessive performance; the actress gives good pout but reveals little more than a mild talent for deceit beneath her coolly petulant exterior. Her closing lines attempt to provide some pathos and insight into the mind of this commoner who had the brief good fortune to witness the beginning of the end for Marie Antoinette, but Sidonie and, consequently, the film itself remain all too easy to shrug off.
A director who has carved out a strong niche in femme-centric psychological drama, from |
Isabelle Huppert starrers "The School of Flesh" and "Villa Amalia" to the recent "Deep in the Woods" with Isild Le Besco, Jacquot elicits more robust performances from his other actresses. Though perhaps too beautiful to entirely sell Marie Antoinette's bemoaning of her own lost youth, Kruger nicely projects an air of regal desperation, while Ledoyen makes the most of an underwritten role as the haughty and scandalous aristocrat who arouses Sidonie's jealousy and possibly something more. Male thesps register more fleetingly; Jacquot's fellow helmer Xavier Beauvois has a brief, colorless turn as Louis XVI, and Vladimir Consigny stands out as a louche gondolier too quickly dropped from the proceedings.
Though shot at Versailles, never an inexpensive proposition, "Farewell, My Queen" belies its budget with a grungy handheld aesthetic that relies mostly on natural light, at times approximating the look and feel of a neorealist costume drama. Katia Wyszkop's production design |
is well attuned to the squalor of the servants' quarters, where mosquitos and dead rats are always turning up, and Bruno Coulais' score uses sawing violins to usher along the action and summon a sense of dread. |
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Links:
• LA BELLA E LA BESTIA - INTERVISTA all'attrice LÉA SEYDOUX (Interviste)
Galleria Fotografica:
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