(This is part one of a two-part episode. Join patreon.com/reelhistorypodcast to support the show and access part two immediately!)
Powder your wig, lace-up your corset and try not to lose your head as we cordially invite you to dine at Versailles and feast on Sofia Coppola ‘Marie Antoinette’ (2006)! Kirsten Dunst mesmerises as the divisive Habsburg who took 18th century France by storm when her marriage (in 1770) to the future Louis XVI sealed an alliance between erstwhile continental rivals, Austria and France.
Over two roller-coaster episodes, we seek to do justice to this highly contentious character and fashion icon who continues to split opinion to this day. Did Marie Antoinette really deserve her reputation as a perverted, oblivious Austrian toff whose lavish lifestyle earned her the nickname ‘Madame Déficit’? Or was she simply a concerned mother who fell victim to fevered, dehumanising propaganda which made her a convenient scapegoat for all the ills of pre-revolutionary France?
Join us in this first episode as we sort fact from fiction and chart her descent from carefree, youthful princess to care-worn, scandal-ridden bête noire by the eve of the storming of the Bastille (1789). Mark will kick us off with a potted history of the Habsburg royal dynasty whose spider web of influence (and distinctive jaw!) dominated Europe for centuries. Then, we will learn how the 14 year old Marie Antoinette adjusted to life under the coercive control of the French court which resembled a Disneyland for the nobility dominated by Madame Etiquette. We will see how the overwhelming pressure to produce an heir and a daily life ruled by stifling tediousness would lead Marie Antoinette to seek solace in distraction and possibly the comfort of friends like Swedish stud-muffin Count Axel Von Fersen! However, this would only sow the seeds of her unpopularity, as such secretiveness would provide ample fodder for the propagandists of Paris who churned out endless outrageous allegations against her.
Likewise, we will see how her apparent penchant for gambling, cakes and shoes would make it only to easy for others to portray her as a spendthrift. Such a reputation for selfish obliviousness would only be further compounded by her cosplaying as a peasant in her idyllic ‘Queen’s hamlet’ while millions suffered severe poverty outside the gates of her gilded cage. All this disastrous PR would then be crowned off by the Shakespearean farce of the ‘Diamond Necklace Affair’ (1785). These factors all combined to ensure that Marie Antoinette was derogatorily known as ‘L’Autrichienne’ by the time the blades of the first guillotines were being sharpened.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Join us next time as we explore the absolute state of France and follow the momentous revolutionary events that would become intertwined with Marie Antoinette’s life and ultimate death.
Sources
‘Marie Antoinette -The Journey” – Antonia Fraser
‘The Ancien Régime and the Revolution’ – Alexis De Tocqueville
‘Citizens – A chronicle of the French Revolution’ – Simon Schama
‘The History of Modern France’ – Jonathan Fenby
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