Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette probably never said “Let them eat cake,” since the infamous jest, which is actually taken from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, was published when the disgraced Queen of France and Navarre was the nine-year-old Archduchess of Austria.

Nevertheless, since she was guillotined in a crowded Paris square on October 16, 1973, her detractors have utilized the statement to substantiate accusations of profligacy and frivolity, rather than employing actual historical evidence. After two centuries of such abominable treatment, her legacy is that of ignominy. MGM’s colossal masterpiece Marie Antoinette (1938), directed by W. S. Van Dyke (The Thin Man), dares to defy this customary treatment.

Assembling a sympathetic and grandiose tribute, the film utilizes Austrian writer Stefan Zweig’s biography to portray the queen in a favorable light; Zweig attributes any heartlessness she was so often accused of possessing to her enemies in the French court (and the bloodthirsty revolutionaries who ultimately took her life) instead. Canadian actress Norma Shearer is certainly stunning as the doomed queen, but when placed among the intricately-reconstructed spectacle of Versailles and revolution-era Paris, the sheer spectacle of this big-budget film is nearly overwhelming.

Rather than becoming preoccupied with politics, the film primarily investigates Marie Antoinette’s romance with Count Axel von Fersen (Tyrone Power), which remains as nebulous onscreen as it is in the pages of history.

Fersen serves as a much-needed distraction for the young Dauphine of France (Shearer) when she is married to the dim-witted and homely grandson of King Louis XV (John Barrymore) Loius-Auguste (Robert Morley), who famously enjoyed mending locks in his spare time. Alone and inexperienced, the young bride quickly makes an enemy of Madame du Barry (Gladys George), the King’s mistress, and finds her only ally in the opportunistic and underhanded Duc de Orléans (Joseph Schildkraut), who provides false sympathy to disguise his hearty appetite for royal favor. Only Fersen consoles her after Orléans incites her to scathingly insult du Barry at court, and reveals his deceitful nature.
Despite Antoinette’s obvious affection for Fersen, she develops a deeper fondness for her husband after she becomes queen, and the royal couple have two children. Her newfound domestic bliss earns, naturally, the combined hatred of du Barry and Orléans, who seek her defamation. Their vilification of the queen is a factor in prompting the French Revolution, which erupts with the storming of the Bastille in 1789.

As the aristocracy begins to fear the blade of the guillotine, even those who initially support Louis’ eventual abdication find themselves in danger (du Barry and Orléans were both executed within two months of the Queen’s death), Fersen again attempts to serve his beloved queen by aiding in her escape from France, but he is eventually limited to providing comfort to Antoinette in the final hours of her life.
For the film’s elegant premiere, which was attended by such stars as Claudette Colbert, James Stewart and Barbara Stanwyck, the Carthay Circle Theater in Los Angeles was meticulously decorated to resemble the Versailles gardens, reflecting the film’s majestic spectacle. To give some perspective on the gargantuan scale at which the film awaiting the premiere’s attendees was produced, it is perhaps best to consider the film’s costumes. Famed designer Adrian (who created gowns for over 200 MGM films) visited France and Austria in 1937 to research eighteenth-century dress, and paid such close attention to detail that, allegedly, much of the costumes’ embroidery was too small to be seen with the naked eye.

Plans to shoot the film in Technicolor were abandoned when the film’s immense budget reached extraordinary levels (an estimated 2.9 million dollars, nearly unheard of at the time), but not before certain garments were dyed to exactly match the color of the leading lady’s eyes. It seems no surprise, since so much work went into the costumes, that some of Shearer’s gowns (the combined weight of which totaled around 1,800 pounds) were reused in other films, including Singin’ in the Rain (1952).

The film’s sets were just as luxurious, and when the crew was not filming at Versailles (the first time a film crew was allowed to do so), the expertly-choreographed dances and dramatic affairs of the French court were filmed on a set built twice the size of the palace’s actual ballroom. Producer Irving Thalberg (Shearer’s husband) originally wanted Louis XVI to be played by Charles Laughton (Spartacus), but Thalberg died in 1936, while the film was still in pre-production. Robert Morley was cast instead (in his first film role). Despite tragically losing her husband, the newly-widowed Shearer (The Women) remained in the leading role, although she retired from the screen four years later. Not only was Marie Antoinette one of her favorite film roles, but her popular performance was also nominated for an Academy Award (losing to Bette Davis in Jezebel).

It is perhaps the fusion of an exceptional cast with the extravagant nature of the film’s sets and costumes which is the film’s greatest achievement. However, this is not to suggest that the quality of acting is in any way contingent on its backdrop. Rather, during the “last supper” of the royal family before Louis’ execution or Antoinette’s own journey to the guillotine, for which Shearer wore no makeup (in order to most accurately depict the queen’s appearance), her immense talent is especially evident, as is Morley’s. The sets in these scenes may be small, and Shearer’s stylish wigs and frilly gowns are replaced with noticeably-tattered garb and ragged and cropped hair, but she commands the audience fully and inspires a great deal of sympathy for a woman who, although perhaps not suited for the role of queen, did not deserve such a brutal end.

For this sympathetic portrayal of the queen by Shearer, the exceptionally stunning sets and costumes, and the film’s many other aesthetic pleasantries, Marie Antoinette receives a full five stars, and presents one of the most visually-delightful films ever produced.