‘Farewell, My Queen‘ (the original title in French is ‘Les adieux à la reine‘) made in 2012 by Benoît Jacquot is the story of the end of a world seen from a personal perspective. It is also a beautiful and discreet love story. The mixture is charming and elegant, tragic and decadent. At 100 minutes of screening, the film can be considered short nowadays. It is indeed a condensed film, but full of substance and beauty.
The world that ends before our eyes is the French absolute monarchy, the action of the film taking place at Versailles on July 14, 1789 and in the three days that followed. The perspective is that of one of the lower social rank ladies of company, from the entourage of Queen Marie Antoinette, who performed the function of reader the books in the queen’s library and was also secretly embroidering her favorite models. The love story is an unusual love triangle, certainly for that time, composed only of women. The queen is in love with the Duchess of Polignac, a lady of high society. Sidonie, the younger heroine, adores the queen. Devoted royalism, or is there also a dose of attraction beyond the social norms and differences? What happens in the film at the level of personal relationships can be read as an absolute devotion of the young maid to the queen feeling the approach of the scaffold and deserted by almost everyone or as a sacrifice of love. Viewers are left to decide.
Part of the magnetism of the film is due to Léa Seydoux‘s exceptional acting performance as a young and devoted servant. Diane Kruger plays the role of Marie Antoinette and we can only regret that her role is not better developed. ‘Farewell, My Queen‘ is one of those few films that I regret to be too short. I think an additional 10 or 20 minutes including more details about the queen’s psychology, her loneliness and detachment from the world, and the refuge in the forbidden relationship with the Duchess would have added a lot to the film. ‘Farewell, My Queen‘ has been compared to Sofia Coppola‘s 2006 ‘Marie Antoinette‘, a bolder but more conventional film in what concerns story and historical perspective. I liked Benoît Jacquot‘s film more. It is a cinematic synthesis of what the French call ‘fine de reigne’ – the sunset of the kingdom. Under our eyes Versailles passes in three days from the escapist luxury of life in the courtyard to panic over the winds of history, and then to the abandonment of the royal couple by most courtiers and servants. Everything is translated into memorable movie images. The abandoned corridors of Versailles will follow me for a long time. I should also mention another remarkable artistic creation, that of Michel Robin, in the role of the palace archive, keeper of the written memory of the kingdom but also a symbol of the philosophers of the Enlightment which ideologically prepared the French Revolution. History and love meet in this film and the result is both a cinematic delight and an invitation to reflection.