"Farewell My Queen"

After 3 ‘summer’ movies: Spiderman, Batman and Total Recall, I was ready for a quiet, no special effects, no car chases, no knock them sock them fights movie so I went to see “Farewell, My Queen”  not realizing that it takes place during the French revolution. I don’t know much about that time in history, except that my nephew was born on Bastille Day over 50 years ago, so I was ready to sit back and learn plus enjoy the scenes, which is most of them, that were filmed at the palace of Versailles which became the unofficial capital of France during the revolution..

There weren’t any car chases, special effects or fights but the movie is a love triangle between the Queen Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger), the queen's reader Sidonie Laborder (Lea Seydoux) and Duchess Gabrielle de Polignac (Virginie Ledoyen) as seen through the eyes of Sidonie,

Based on a novel by Chantal Thomas, with a screenplay by Giles Taurant and Benoit Jacquot, the latter also directing, I have no idea if the basic premise of Antoinette being a lesbian, or having a same sex affair, is true or not but the film gives a sort of  “Upstairs, Downstairs” look at the palace during the late 1700s.

Sidonie, like most servants, has very limited knowledge of what goes on between the royalty but also what is happening outside the gates as their life is mainly in the palace. Gossip is the main way of getting news and there is a strict ‘chain’ of command starting with the Queen’s lady-in-waiting and going down to all those who attend the Queen. It is never explained how, or where, Sidonie learned to read and write or are we told anything about her background until, literally, the last minute of the film. While there is no sex shown between the women there are 2 scenes explicitly showing the love shared between the Queen and Duchess and the jealousy Sidonie feels towards the latter and her yearning for the former. There is one quick, sex scene between Sidonie and a gondolier, without nudity, while two of the women have scenes with frontal nudity.

Most of the film takes place within the palace and very little of the revolution is actually shown. All we really learn is what Sidonie hears and sees. The ending of the film will come as a surprise to many people but I am not talking about what is history but what happens to Sidonie.

The cast is stellar from the leads to the supporting players and the production values are first rate, except at times I found the background music more annoying than effective. While the history of the film held my interest the story did not get me involved.