The V&A's current exhibition 'Marie Antoinette Style' is the first exhibition in the UK centred on the Austrian-born French Queen Marie Antoinette. A complex fashion icon, Marie Antoinette's timeless appeal is defined by her style, youth and notoriety. So revolutionary was Marie Antoinette’s style that centuries on, we’re still talking about it. Artists, designers, and filmmakers—from Alexander McQueen to Sofia Coppola—have been captivated.
Our final film in the Court Life series captures the final days of the Sun King Louis XIV.
The much celebrated director Albert Serra (Birdsong, Pacifiction) continues his contemplative series of studies of legendary figures, both real and fictional (Don Quixote, the Magi, Casanova) with this elegant, mesmerising evocation of the last days of the Sun King. The legendary Jean-Pierre Léaud brings ineffable presence to the title role. Beautifully shot by Jonathan Ricquebourg, the film portrays the arcane system of court protocol while powerfully evoking the distance between the physical body of a decrepit mortal and the mythical being of the monarch as God. A film of stately beauty and philosophical depth.
2017, 115min, directed by Albert Serra
FULL PROGRAMME
Farewell my Queen (Les Adieux à la reine)
Thursday 29 January, 7pm
Summer 1789, the French Revolution has commenced. Far from the turmoil, at Versailles, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their courtiers continue their carefree lives. But when the news of the
storming of the Bastille reaches them, panic sets in and aristocrats and their servants desert the
sinking ship. But not Sidonie Laborde, the Queen's reader. Entirely devoted to her mistress she stays on. What she doesn' t know yet is that she'll soon become a pawn in a bigger game …
2012, 100 minutes, directed Benoit Jacquot
Mary Queen of Scots
Tuesday 10 February, 7pm
Based on Stefan Zweig's book Maria Stewart the third film in our series was adapted for the screen by Andrea Staka, Thomas Imbach and Eduard Habsburg. A queen who lost three kingdoms. A wife who lost three husbands,. A woman, who, like Marie Antoinette, lost her head. The film traces the first 25 years of Mary's life, using flashbacks inspired by the letters she never sent to the queen she never had the opportunity to meet.
2013, 119 minutes, directed by Thomas Imbach
