There haven’t been many production shots released from the shooting of the upcoming film Les Adieux à la Reine (Farewell My Queen) about the final days of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette’s court at Versailles in October 1789.
The few I’ve seen though look really ropey with just horrible costumes (that eye bleeding shade of green for instance!) and general naffness abounding. I think that the fashion conscious Marie Antoinette would have tittered behind her ostrich feather fan at the outmoded coiffure that Diane Kruger appears to be sporting in this photograph.
It’s always the hair that they get wrong. Tsk.
On the other hand, maybe I’m just bitter that my MAJOR GIRL CRUSH Eva Green won’t be playing Marie Antoinette…
As much af a Marie Antoinette fan as I obviously am, I’m not sure I can watch yet another movie where Diane Kruger ruins another interpretation of one of my favorite historical figures (her Helen of Troy) was the first. That hair is truly painful, I agree, but I think they were trying to do their homework, because MA was indeed a strawberry blonde (i.e. the Coppola/Kirsten Dunst movie was all wrong in the hair color dept.).
The colour looks very close to the clippings of Marie Antoinette’s hair (in youth anyway) that I have seen but oh dear, the styling. It looks like one of those dreadful wigs that fancy dress shops sell. I wonder if she’ll be wearing one of those short Slutty Antoinette dresses in any of the scenes? ;)
Diane Kruger is very pretty but always seems a bit wooden – I wasn’t sure if that was just the characters that she plays though.
It always seems like Kruger is acting in translation, if that makes any sense. Maybe she wouldn’t seem so wooden if the dialogue were in German (and I think she does speak German in the Tarantino movie). But I agree with you, when the dialogue is in English she’s very stilted. But she doesn’t LOOK anything like MA; her bone structure is all wrong. And as for having played Helen of Troy, it’s quite a stretch for me to believe that she was the most beautiful woman in the world and that Greece would even launch a couple of rowboats for her.
At least Diane Krueger was better than Sienna Guillory in the Helen of Troy miniseries where all she did was pout. The costumes for this movie look incredibly garish to me as if they were doing a burlesque version of Marie Antoinette’s life.
Yes, they do look all wrong. I’m very surprised by how horrid the costumes are actually as I thought it was a French production and they’re usually really hot on their accuracy.
Have you read the book? I got halfway through the English translation then was distracted by other things. There were a few annoying glitches in the translation so I decided that if I tried again with it it would be in French. From what I remember, I enjoyed it but the first person was a bit limiting and led to a lot of overheard expository dialogue.
Agreed about the costumes. The caraco outfit on the right is the only one that doesn’t look like fancy dress.
I have read it in English and French and know just what you mean – they did read very differently to me. The English version was very stilted in places.
The costumes are terrible. I’ve seen photos that are allegedly of extras on set in Versailles and, oh crikey, they look shocking.
http://www.pressbook.com/WilfridTHOMAS/book/24317/les_adieux_a_la_reine/1
I really hope they aren’t actually dressing people like this in the film. It’ll use up a whole year’s worth of snark if they do.
None of the women are wearing corsets, are they? That odd dress design with the inverted triangle shape where the stomacher should be is meant to make it look like they are, but they’re not.
And what’s with the two-tone hair? Wouldn’t it be either powdered or not, rather than a half and half badger effect?
The costumes on the website, make it look like everyone is poor. The dresses hang so limply and I agree they don’t look like they are wearing corsets. I took the book out of the library to read and never got around to it. I probably will before the film comes out.
Diane Kruger is awful in both English and German. Trust me. I understand a little German and she sounds wooden and cold in the german version of Troy as well. As if she was reading the dialogue off some piece of paper, with no emotion at all.
As for the ‘odd inverted triangle shape’ of the dress, that is actually historically accurate. I can’t of course see whether it’s done correct in these dresses, but I’ve seen extant original dresses that have this look.
First off, Marie Antoinette was of German birth, Diane is german, and she performs great in her native tongue as well as in French. Of course others will harp that she doesnt, but that is there opinion as mine is that she is excellent in both her foreign tongue and in english. The costumes of course are a bit out there, and of course nothing will compare to Sofia Coppola’s simple but brilliant oscar winning costumes designed by the great Milena Canonero for her version of Marie.
I think we should wait and give this film a chance. I mean they are trying their best, and it is always best that a film like this, should be done in FRENCH not American (however I still loved Sofia Coppola’s version). I think this will be good if not great. The source material is excellent..having read it only in french, and I think Kruger will do justice to the role. From the clips that I have seen, where she is in the petite trianon with Lea’s character, Kruger captured the mood of the scene in the book perfect. Hope this turns out good.
Verulea is correct, the triangle shape where the stomacher should be is correct. This type of gown is known as a zone gown, and was first seen in the 1770s. Zone gowns were at their most fashionable in the 1780s and early 1790s before round gowns took over.
Thanks, Marquise and Verulea, that’s interesting to know. I still think it’s strange not to have them wearing robes a la francaise at Court though.
And. Marquise, love your username!! :D
merci miss moppet ;)
it’s interesting, because by the 1780s court dress included the outmoded robe à la française in addition to styles that resembled more fashionable dress. a 1787 print from a book of fashion plates edited by stella blum has an example of this sort.
also, the woman in green is polignac; the shade of green is actually accurate to the period as well! i’m not so enthralled with the queen’s hair, though, but other stills look like it should be good. it’ll be nice to have another movie as a point of reference after coppola.
The only thing “wrong” in the hair color department in Coppola’s version were the pink wigs (as well as the hot pink dresses) which were obviously included as a symbol-metaphor of the whole pink-punk rebellion of youth/adolescents. Other than that, hair & wigs in the movie (and of course, dresses and fabrics) were absolute wonderful and quite accurate for the period. Oh, and I agree that the dresses for Les adieux a la Reine look pretty horrible. At least it was shot at Versailles so that’ll maybe compensate things…
no creo que diane se parezca mucho a marie pero creo que es buena actriz y en verdad espero con ansias ver la película, sobre todo porque amo a marie y a diane kruger…tienen razón el vestuario es muuy pobre sobre todo el morado me parece que es horrendo pero aun así veré la película extasiada porque se trata de mi amada marie