Editorial Review:Amazon.com:The lavish, overstuffed house style of MGM in the 1930s gets a fluffy showcase in
Marie Antoinette, a preposterous epic about the pampered Queen. One of MGM's longtime queens, Norma Shearer (who had been married to head of production/wonder boy Irving Thalberg until his death in 1936), plays the young Austrian girl imported to marry the man who would become Louis XVI of France. The film covers Marie's girly youth at court, through an affair with suave Tyrone Power (then in his early, dewy prime) and finally to the dark days of the Revolution. Like Sofia Coppola's 2006 version of the Queen's life, this film emphasizes glitz, and leaves the Royals mostly innocent of blame for what happens to the starving peasants. Unlike the Coppola picture, this one takes Marie and diffident husband Louis (Robert Morley, his film debut) through their imprisonment and all the way to the guillotine. The parade of enormous sets and opulent gowns contributes to the general sense of stodginess, even if one might pause to note the rather continental attitude toward Marie's extramarital needs. John Barrymore plays the declining Louis XV, but it's the childlike Morley that steals the show. Shearer's glamorous star turn might leave some viewers puzzled as to her appeal, although the very ordinariness of her personality actually works in concert with Marie's out-of-her-depth character. The project had been a pet of Thalberg's, and MGM went ahead with the film after his death, but it marked the end of Shearer's period of major stardom. The opposite of this film's highbrow literary approach can be found in Josef von Sternberg's
The Scarlet Empress, with Marlene Dietrich, a delirious and cinematic treatment of a Queen abroad. (This DVD includes overture and entr'acte music.)
--Robert Horton
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"I cannot wear my crown upon my heart."
Marie Antoinette of Austria (Norma Shearer) is to marry. Her King will be Louis XVI (Robert Morley) of France. Her excitement soon turns to dispair when she realizes that her new husband is the joke of the family with the inability to produce an heir. After years of solitude, she begins to enjoy her wealth by attending parties and galavanting with the royal family. Unfortunately, she puts her trust into the wrong people including those with a thirst for her power. Slowly, the people of France begin to act on their unrest and soon Marie Antoinette is void of a throne and in fear for her life.
Shearer seemed destined to play this role, and it is one of the films she is best remembered for. There is no doubt that her connections with studio head Irving Thalberg who was also her husband held some sway over her getting the part, but no one can say she was not talented enough to play it. She is radiant in the beginning of the film when the idea of being a queen is exciting and romantic. She changes over the course of two and a half hours as she learns just what it means to be royalty until she is a shadow of her former self, withered and broken. All of the other cast members pale in comparison to her including the highly praised John Barrymore who plays Louis XV.
Historically, this film is not quite accurate, although Morley's simple performance is somewhat true to Louis XVI. By this time, the artistocracy had been intermarrying for quite some time, so Louis XVI's genes showed the effects of inbreeding, including impotence. In truth, Marie Antoinette was a bit of a half-wit herself who had no sense of responsibility to her people and who spent her days playing peasant in a reconstructed village. Brought to film, these two would not make a respectable pair, so the facts were embellished for the sake of entertainment.
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Very Impressive!
I've seen the movie before and thought is was only Ok. Now I've seen the Sophia Coppola version and know more about Marie Antoinette's history. This movie is good and pretty accurate in many ways! I thought the Tyrone Power romance was a bit exaggerated and the weakest part of the movie. Norma Shearer and Robert Morley are really good and very engaging. The love between them is more believable and moving. There is a lot of sympathy for the rulers and I think that is accurate. Louis XIV just wasn't up to the job of ruling and it is was a very volatile time. The government was an absolute monarchy and it had no give. The system of governance that had existed for a hundred or more years left a large group of people who lived off the taxes of others. I did have to say I cried when Tyrone Power visits her at the end. Very sad. Highly recommended and very enjoyable. Watch this movie with A Tale of Two Cities with Ronald Coleman, a great pair together.
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NORMA SHEARER SHINES!!!
I BET MANY PEOPLE HAVE NOT HEARD OF NORMA SHEARER THESE DAYS. I KNOW I HADN'T HEARD MUCH ABOUT HER. BUT, SHE REALLY "SHINES" IN THIS LOVELY MOVIE! IN FACT, ALL THE PERFORMANCES ARE VERY GREAT! THIS MOVIE IS "TIMELESS" REALLY! RECOMMENDED VERY HIGHLY!!! Boland7214@aol.com
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"Ma-MA, I am to be queen of FRAHNCE!"
Given the huge success MGM had with spectacle during the Great Depression--and particularly with THE GREAT ZIEGFELD in 1936--it was practically inevitable they would choose to mount a huge production of the life of Marie Antoinette, just so they could get Adrian to do the costumes. The French queen's life story was especially attractive for them to showcase their #1 stockholder, the recently widowed Norma Shearer, who favored playing the great romantic roles (such as Elizabeth Barrett and Juliet Capulet) after her marriage to the MGM chief of production Irving Thalberg ensured she'd get them. To be fair to Shearer, she was one of the biggest stars of the period even without her marriage to Thalberg, although she was much more fun in her sizzling sinner roles in contemporary films of the early Thirties (like RIPTIDE and A FREE SOUL) than in these noble romantic roles she played later. She does work hard, though, and if she gets to shout "Silence!" imperiously to her courtiers a few too many times (when she's not gurgling at them in coy delight), she's still quite likable in her early scenes where she manages to pull off her attempts at girlish coltishness quite convincingly. Her best scenes are with Robert Morley, who continues to impress (decades after the film was made) as Louis XVI, who is here suggested to be mentally limited: something about Morley seems to pull Shearer up to a higher level, and the two seem genuinely fond of one another.
John Barrymore is the corrupt old Louis XV; as Madame du Barry, Gladys George has a grand old time wearing great gowns and trading catty barbs with Shearer; Joseph Schildkraut gets to wear a heart-shaped beauty mark over his whitened face as the Duc d'Orleans to indicate he's the most thorough rotter in the whole piece. The sets are absolutely spectacular (some scenes were even shot at Versailles, a first for Hollywood), and the costumes even better; they make the whole film worth seeing even if the film does go on for too long. W. S. Van Dyke sometimes goes in for very conventional direction, but at other times genuinely surprises you with his intelligence and sensitivity--as when he engineers a great crane shot at Marie's grand ball which starts at the level of the hall where the aristocrats are dancing and then pulls up to a gallery far above where Morley, as the lonely and awkward Dauphin, watches his wife.
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Amazing!! Exceeded my expectation!!
This movie is so amazing! I enjoyed watching it, it has all the elements that makes a great movie. In my opinion, this movie is better than the recent Marie Antoinette movie, you get to related more to her in this one.
Beside the story line, what i thought was great is the choice of actors, the guy who was playing king louis fits the part perfectly, better than the one they choose for the recent movie!
I Highly Recommend Watching this movie!
