Marie Antoinette (1938)

The greatest movie ever made..!

just watch it!

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

You know you're in for an epic and one of M.G.M's most opulent productions when you begin with an overture, (it even precedes the lion's roar), and before you have time to say The Palace of Versailles, a thousand extras are flooding the screen and a teenage Marie Antoinette, (played by the 36 year old Norma Shearer), is being wed to Robert Morley's Dauphin. The fact that Shearer gets away with it shows what a good actress she could be and the fact that Robert Morley holds his own against the assembled company shows what a better actor he was.Unfortunately Miss Shearer was only good up to a point. She seemed to have two acting styles, 'giddy and gay' (in the old fashioned sense of the word) and 'tremulous and tragic' and she was slightly better at giddy and gay. As the film progresses, and she's apt to lose her head, she reverts to the kind of acting that went out of fashion around 1910. As for the film itself, it's pretty terrible. It may have been expensive and gorgeously designed but it's badly written and the director, W.S. Van Dyke, seems to have forgotten when to say 'cut'. Scenes go on and on long after they have made their point and an otherwise decent cast is wasted.A somewhat dashing Tyrone Power may be cast as the romantic lead but he's hardly in the picture. John Barrymore, who plays the old king, must have been strapped for cash; Gladys George as his mistress, Mme Du Barry, is lively if out of place. The previous year's Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor, Joseph Schildkraut makes an excellent foppish villain, mincing around as if he should be Queen in the early part of the film before scrubbing off his make-up so he can blend in with the mob, (rough trade, all), later on. Worst of all, that appalling child actor Scotty Beckett is cast as Shearer's son, the young Dauphin. I kept praying Mademoiselle Guillotine would fall on his little neck from the outset.As for historical accuracy, let's just say the main facts of the case are there in school-book fashion. I don't recall hearing Marie say 'Let them eat cake' at any point but then with Shearer in the role she had to be made to look as sympathetic as possible. In the end it's Morley's picture; he gives it a touch of class all the fancy sets and costumes never could and he should have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1938.

Probably the best word I can use to describe this film is "splendid". It was meant to be, and it is probably the most opulent and lavish film ever produced by Old Hollywood, and undoubtedly one of the most expensive. Incredibly, Norma Shearer manages to dazzle over and above the glittering jewels in an outstanding Oscar- winning performance. Tyrone Power is dashing and John Barrymore is great as aging monarch Louis XV. Robert Morley steals the show creating an unforgettable character as the Dauphin and later King whose reign ended tragically but inevitably in a bloody manner. The history seems generally accurate although necessarily somewhat speculative and condensed because it spans two decades and a great number of events. It is of course impossible logically to feel any sympathy for the pampered remnants of a cruel old royal society. Nevertheless, everyone should view this film for Shearer and Morley and their tremendous acting accomplishments to see how logic can be overcome by emotion. This film is a classic Hollywood demonstration of how superb technique and style can soften and twist the ugly truths of aristocratic privilege into something more sympathetic, at least as far as empathy for individual characters in a script. Hollywood was very talented at such twisting of the optics of myth and did it frequently.

This is a wonderful film, bitter-sweet, stupendously realised, incredibly acted and one that left me bereft and hear-broken at its conclusion. The final scene actually had me in tears, truly heartbreaking. Norma Shearer's acting is incredible, she displays a naivety and innocence that must have been how the famous Queen really was. After all, the monarchy in France suffered very little from lack of anything AND they really were quite unaware of their population's plight.I loved Tyrone Power's acting, he is amazing. The scandals that were obviously part and parcel of the life of an the ruling class were chilling tinged with false-modesty, poison-smiles and knife-in-the-back glances...chilling. From a view point of costumes and settings (despite being in black and white) it is truly breath-taking. The crowd scenes are to be seen to be believed (tried as I might, I couldn't find a wrist watch there!). This is MGM at its sumptuous best. Incredible.

This beautiful black and white film literally sparkles with the most beautiful costumes in cinematic history. Shearer and Power are luminous and the performance of Robert Morley is a gem. I believe he IS Louis XVI! It is SO much better than than that tedious monstrosity directed by Sophia Coppola. If you've read Antonia Fraser's brilliant book, you'll see the tragic history she describes so vividly come to life. The old-fashioned nature of the film making actually contributes to our ability to surrender our modern sensibility to see a long-ago style of living recreated. And unlike the Coppola film, it is not dull and boring and static, but is filled with action and excitement. Like Fraser extraordinary book, the life of Marie Antoinette is dramatized from her becoming queen of France as a teenager to her white hair and ravaged countenance as she meets her fate. It also dramatizes the so-called Affair of the Necklace much better than the 2002 film of that title. If you can get past the somewhat corny style, you'll really enjoy what old films could do better than all our contemporary technology.