The Secret Versailles of Marie Antoinette Documentary (2018)

[Music] they're say the ultimate expression of the power of the kingdom builted louis xiv at the very limits of the domain of Versailles stands an odd little village from another time it seems abandoned but in fact it was never populated the Queen's Hamlet is the secret refuge of Marie Antoinette where she escaped her ceremonial life at the court of Versailles it's here she sought happiness the one thing forbidden to a queen over time humidity and neglect have taken their toll the buildings were never meant to survive her but her dream lives on two centuries off two revolutions sealed her fate craftsmen are restoring the house of the Queen with the same gestures as the original builders [Music] mary antoinette transformed Versailles and beside transformed Mary Antoinette the hamlet was her last creation it's just three kilometers from the palace but for Mary Antoinette it was a voyage of 19 years [Music] Rochester [Laughter] [Music] but when I say stay on this autumn morning of 1789 Marie Antoinette learns that 6,000 angry women are marching on Versailles demanding bread returning to the palace for safety she goes back in time lost her memories not long ago happiness seemed possible here far from the court and politics the Queen doesn't yet know it but this will be her last day in Versailles she remembers the first time she passed through the gate of Versailles as if it was yesterday a child just 14 years old she entered a world of wealth and extravagance that even a Habsburg princess found daunting and she didn't come by choice she was dispatched from Vienna to marry the meat can stew Dias 15 year old heir to the French throne Louis Auguste the two were polar opposites in temperament but they were just political pawns the real marriage was between france and austria an alliance engineered by her mother Empress Maria Theresa and Louis the 15th it was designed to remake the face of Europe this Franco Austrian marriage results in what is known as the diplomatic revolution good been a reversal of alliances in which Frances historical enemy Austria becomes her ally the young princess found herself alone in a closed and frozen world called Versailles a freemason imagine Mary Antoinette discovering Versailles she arrives in a century-old chateau whose decor is just as old it's like living with your great grandparents the furnishings have barely changed since louis xiv for the past hundred years versailles had functioned explicitly as the ultimate symbol of the absolutist monarchies grandeur louis the xiv had actually conceived of the palace as a showcase for his limitless riches and limitless power louis xiv the Sun King placed himself at the center of his creation every surface reflected the glory of the monarch as he passed more than a building Versailles was a system of ceremonial spaces where Nobles vied for the supreme privilege of being close to the body of the king [Music] the decor was pure global propaganda and marie-antoinette detested it thus I was a political theater where everyone knew their role except mary antoinette [Music] on her wedding night she discovers the public ceremony by which the royal family guarantees the bloodline of its heirs the newlyweds find themselves in bed lying side by side with all the curtains wide open the entire court gathers in front of the two young people and officially wishes them a good night with that then the curtains are closed they are not being spied on per se that everyone knows what is going on the fourteen-year-old bride is shocked and humiliated the court of her childhood in Vienna was much less severe in its etiquette she discovers that at the court of Versailles there is no privacy for members of the royal family for Marie Antoinette what this meant in practical terms was that she was surrounded from waking up in the morning until going to bed at night by a large retinue of courtiers including about twenty eight women from the high nobility and the local bourgeoisie who attended to her physical person the ladies of honor were handpicked by the king they were not people that Marie Antoinette had the freedom to select herself the whole day is planned in advance waking up washing getting dressed dinner supper and bedtime the schedule is set ahead of time like a performance and is carried out with the precision of a ballet courtesans participate according to their rank [Music] the most famous moment described to perfection by her lady-in-waiting is the dressing of the Queen my Antoinette is surrounded by a swarm of courtesans the Duchess pulls up the right sleeve of the Queen's dress while someone else pulls up the left one suddenly there's a scratch at the door a princess enters her rank is higher than the Duchess's so they have to start all over again and there is Mary on Toinette standing in the dead of winter shivering and losing her patience with this endless ballet [Music] the clothing that was worn by the courtiers and the members of the royal family was subject like everything else at the palace to a strict elaborate and very subtle code mary antoinette rebels she throws off the constraints of the grog call a punishingly tight corset that only royal princesses were entitled to wear for refusal to wear the gong pearl provoked a dramatic diplomatic incident it was an insult to the women of the court that their future Queen should not be willing to wear a garment regarded as a supreme mark privilege is the importance of such a tea caddy which is a huge error of judgment on her part because behind each tiny privilege hides a courtesan her rejection of his etiquette provokes jealousy and resentment and ultimately hatred Envy owner Maria Theresa understands what Marie Antoinette does not that enemies in the court threatened the Alliance Maria Theresa asks her ambassador in France count mercey are gentle to keep her informed on her daughter's every move through secret reports battle of uhud Gosselin and Maria Theresa fires off her own letter counseling her daughter to act responsibly my dear is daughter a wife must always be submissive to her husband and should have no other concern above and beyond pleasing him and doing his bidding as for the king love him obey Him and try to read his mind as a young doe fien Marie Antoinette was essentially in the same position as virtually all of the other courtiers at Versailles in that her survival at court her prestige it poured her advancement at court all depended on the degree to which she succeeded in currying favor with the king King Louis the 15th hunts almost every day along with her husband and she takes up riding to accompany them the Convention for highborn women was that they ride sidesaddle and Marie Antoinette decided that she preferred riding astride almost every French King has been pictured on horseback but it's rare for a queen and never at a gallop never astride she had her portrait painted straddling a horse in a pose that looked strikingly similar to some of the most famous equestrian portraits of louis xiv so Marie Antoinette identifying herself with this iconography of male royal power essentially seemed to be suggesting that she was the one who wore the pants in her marriage with the necklace louis xvi [Music] throughout the kilometres of corridors and private apartments that form the backstage to their side rumours spread the Austrian princess is controlling the heir to the throne Marie Antoinette ignores the gossipy old courtesans she calls them packages to their old-fashioned addressee and dismisses the elderly daughters of Luud of 15 thurs the centuries Marie Antoinette is a genuine queen who yearns for genuine friendships she prefers to take into account her feelings or a person's qualities over their rank she selects friends her own age younger light-hearted fun people who will be referred to as a coterie or more precisely the Queen's Society Marie Antoinette's first real friend at court is princess Lamballe sweet beautiful and bland from the House of Savoy shall Philippe the count of Artois her husband's witty and extravagant brother introduce his head of the pleasures of Paris night life and she is dazzled by the Countess of Pauline yak beautiful charming charismatic and almost penniless [Music] the little group adores Paris and masked balls of the Opera are a favorite nighttime escape from the rigid predictable routine of life of the Chateau she was out every night at the Opera boards in Paris so that's pretty much all night in Paris back to Versailles at 7:00 in the morning few hours sleep go to mosque cuckoo vert do what you have to do and then get ready to go out for the next evening it was a pretty normal teenager I have to say I mean it wasn't terribly shocking what she did screw Marta Marta Antoinette likes most about these Bulls is the anonymity they afford her she can be someone else and take part in certain conversations but you must understand that despite her little black mask as soon as she enters the ballroom everyone recognizes her but they all pretend not to to please her one night in January 1774 she meets a visiting Swedish student of the opera ball and he really doesn't recognize it for a brief moment she truly escapes Versailles and her tiresome roll of dough Phoenix Anderson axel von Pearson was such a romantic figure he was a Swedish count he was dashing he was handsome he was rich he was foreign which meant that he steered clear for the most part of all the petty palace intrigues and he fits so well into Marie Antoinette's intimate circle of friends his diary records the dough fiend talked to me for a long time without me knowing who she was at last when she was recognized everybody pressed round her and at 3 o'clock she retired into a box I left the ball some weeks later he departs France but a spark had passed between them on May the 10th 1774 a rain of 59 years comes to an end Louis the 15th dies of smallpox hopes for a renewed France free of corruption and decadence rest with the promise of the young monarchs Queen Mary Antoinette 19 years old and King Louie the sixteenth twenty the young queen views her accession as a sort of liberation madam my very dear mother although it was God's will that I be born into the rank i oq pie today I cannot help but admire how fate chose me for the most beautiful Kingdom in Europe a platonic Madi Antoinette believes that her status as queen will free her from her obligations she takes more and more liberties with court etiquette however what might be forgiven at door foon cannot be forgiven a queen because from that moment on her every action takes on an official nature the first actors queen is to ask her husband for a palace of her own his first act as king is to give her one the Petit Trianon a small chateau 15 minutes from the Grand Palace of Versailles [Music] Marial Toinette turns the Petit Trianon into the statement of her independence and independence is truly her key word image she immediately makes it her exclusive estate even the King only visits upon invitation after four years in Versailles the young queen embraces the petite Rihanna as a refuge from the rigid obligations of the court he or she will say I'm no longer Queen I am me the luminous intimate spaces offer possibilities a cultural Oasis a laboratory of style but absenting yourself from the protocol of the court is not without consequences she was playing with fire she was turning the courtiers competition with each other into a kind of animosity between the high nobility and herself and that shift would have far-reaching and disastrous implications for the throne [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the Petit Trianon is a woman's building Louis the 15th had it built for his mistress Madame de Pompadour on her death he was occupied by her successor Madame Du Barry it's a jewel of the neoclassical style [Music] but when Mary Antoinette took possession in 1774 the jewel was in an inappropriate setting the sweet country palace was surrounded by greenhouses and experimental plantings right in the middle of Louis the 15th botanical garden because it Louis the 15th loved botany they say he even plowed the fields of the tree along himself proof that he was truly fascinated by the art of garden the Draenor boosted an incredible botanical collection Louie the 15th sent his ships around the world to bring back plants that were incredibly beautiful and rare the vast garden held the most prestigious collection in Europe over 4000 varieties of plants and a world-renowned horticultural school but Mary Antoinette didn't want to see greenhouses when she stepped out of her job the first thing she did when she inherited the estate was to ask her gardener and her architect to destroy Louis the 15th botanical garden this decision is very poorly received at the time by both men how could anyone destroy such rare plants one of the world's greatest botanical gardens was all but he raised she only keeps one part of Louis the 15th garden the French garden which still exists today with its magnificent pavilion in the center everything else is redone she demolishes the experimental greenhouses removes the rare plants to the Kings garden in Paris the ancestor of today's Java and a plant above all she creates something entirely new modern and stylish mary antoinette had commanded a garden in the english star nature idealized through softly sculpted pastoral landscapes fashionable with English aristocrats for 30 years they were just coming into style in France replacing the rigorous geometric French gardens created for louis xiv lucien elephants the french garden is a reminder of the Kings Authority it's a garden that's all about power and authority in this style of Garfield plants are aligned with impeccable precision the French garden is created by a garden architect who wants nature to bend to his will in a landscape door English style garden if the designers becomes a poet he imagines nature but not as it is but as he would like it to be this new style was the expression of a new spirit of the age that mary antoinette responded to almost instinctively skilfully it's important to understand that at the time people were turning away from the classical louis xiv style garden who saw is a big influence in julie or the new Eloise he describes a new style of idyllic garden and Eden with ancient style temples and winding irregular paths Rousseau preached natural simplicity but he also preached social equality amused aristocrats read him as a romantic future revolutionaries read him as a political manifesto the idea that somehow the French Queen was taking the radical social ideas of an Enlightenment philosopher and incorporating them into her new lifestyle at her private estate was one of the many ironies of Marie Antoinette's position as a harbinger of revolution almost in spite of herself City C we love you sweetie huh Marie Antoinette put the project in the hands of rashaam meek the King's architect and the chief gardener aunt Wanda Chou plans were drawn up by the count of caramel a gifted amateur gardener and personally approved by the Queen [Music] atmosphere and sentiment were inspired by you bear a bear the acclaimed painter of picturesque landscapes [Music] not one add both commissions and oversees the work on the Trianon Gardens she is personally involved in this new project she knows what she wants and doesn't hesitate to have a Grove or an ornament reshape ten times in order to get it right nothing is natural on the tree on all grounds there isn't a single body of water on the property until Marie Antoinette sets foot in the garden she moves around tens of thousands of cubic meters of Earth she creates hills ponds and even lakes the scale is unprecedented and hundreds of people are paid over a 6 or 7 year period to make Queen Marie Antoinette's dream come true an alternate Suchi those who knew the Petit Trianon from before are shocked they include the Duke of Cleve who had not set foot in the Petit Trianon since the death of Louis the 15th in his memoirs he recounts I thought I was crazy I thought I was dreaming when I saw Europe's biggest greenhouse replaced by rivers rocks and Hills in her garden the Queen trades power for a month and she embraces the fashion for the antique past the Golden Age her garden will be a pastoral Arcadia about several fabric are built these are small architectural elements designed to decorate and punctuate landscape this is Marie Antoinette's touch of genius [Music] foremost among the extraordinary fabric in the Queen's new garden is the temple of love an ersatz Roman temple to cupid there is a harmony between the temples with its height and the arch of the dirt everything is absolutely further of them the architecture beautifully represents the aesthetic ideals of antiquity [Music] and placing this temple on an island in the middle of the river is an absolute stroke of genius [Music] overlooking an artificial lake from a man-made Hill the Belvedere is an octagonal stone structure in the neoclassical style doors and windows open on all sides to form an open-air music salon the luminous interior is adorned with flowery arabesques delicate echoes of the garden that surrounds it sits well with steel Maria this is Maryland to annex style extraordinary elegant classical very in Luna 16th on my say but in the nature and very floral with lots and lots of flowers and Garland's the flowery motifs create a harmony between house and garden between inside and outside or if there was a beef she brings this landscape and the temple of love seen through the windows inside the room and conversely the decorative patterns on the furniture and art works are inspired by the surrounding nature a spirit a natural and given northern us wild called flowers sunflowers pine cones and bucolic motifs blend with her very favorite feminine motifs such as pearls medallions and bows most pieces of course the furniture decorates with the wheat motif in the Queen's bedroom at the Petit Trianon the woodwork is by Jacques painted in natural tones with jasmine flowers miraculously these pieces are still upholstered in the original silk dispersed in the revolution the furniture returned to Versailles 150 years later the rare silk coverings still intact to decorate only rules may odwin had Commission's numerous works of art become among the Kings best artists she personally and carefully selects all the fabrics with the tapestries and porcelain vases from Savoie making her one of the greatest art patrons of the century [Music] the artisans now renovating the Queen's house are the heirs of the masters of the past they are specialists in technique but also in the histories and traditions of their crafts the French luxury industry was formed under louis xiv to further his prestige [Music] his Minister Colbert flippant fashion is to France but the gold mines of Peru are to Spain in the Paris of Mary Antoinette 30% of workers were employed in luxury trays the work requires taste the finest of materials the most delicate of gestures [Music] and it costs a lot of money when news of her expenses becomes public marie antoinette's extravagance is blamed for the shortfall in the royal treasury in reality her expenses are a tiny part of the national debt but this first inkling of discontent darkens her success a garden and Palace are beautiful but they cost her the sympathy of her subjects [Music] over three hundred thousand pounds was spent to transform the Queen's garden the price of a fine Chateau similar sums could be found on the gaming tables of the petite piano at private parties when it loves to gamble the problem is that in a younger day she played a hellish cur winning and losing colossal summer school Asad [Music] in 1776 mousey estimates the Queen's losses at 400,000 pounds an unfathomable sum of money she also spends a great deal on jewellery in 1776 she purchases a pair of dangling earrings with six enormous diamonds from the Julis to the crown for four hundred and sixty thousand pounds near the sixteenth yet again agrees to pay this astronomical sum from his personal treasury but on a four-year credit this decision will be used against him making him look like a weak King with dominated by his wife but Marie Antoinette was not seeking power she was seeking escape from the empty formal role of French queen ironically she would hide in plain sight fashion was a kind of play was dressing up it was being frivolous it was being whimsical it was loosening the strictures of port formality and protocol but Tasha gave her a form of public notoriety a form of empowerment that she could lay claim to and really shape the contours of her own identity Mary Antoinette Stahl was celebrated in early fashion prints she was the first supermodel a true fashion plate Marie Antoinette effectively decided she was going to make herself this incredibly splendid riveting physical object for all the world to gawk at and to admire in fact Molly Antoinette wasn't fashionable and what she was fashion - the Queen's good fortune the French fashion industry was in full transformation long restricted to the role of seamstress women had taken on the new profession of mahjong demurred Rose Beth Terra the most talented an audacious would become her trusted collaborator minister of fashion - women are a perfect match on one hand mary antoinette loves constant style changes and his dazzled by the designers neverending creations on the other hand was better with her flair for business sees Mary Antoinette as a rich woman in the public eye and an ideal model for her new fashions daddy Mao Shan did the mode were not allowed to make or sell new dresses but created accessories and adornments their clients could dramatically change their look from day to day by adding flounces to their skirts or ornaments to their hair women's fashion became a means of self-expression but it was shocking to have the Queen set the style previously French fashions were created by women of low birth and low morals actresses prostitutes and royal mistresses Louie the sixteenth has no royal mistress in a tragic twist of irony this will be held against the two of them at first against louis xvi who appears wheat provoking the people's contempt then against Mary on to Annette herself if the favorite is a French monarch plays an important role providing the people with an escape first she fascinates them then she's idolized then hated and eventually disgraced ultimately Marie Antoinette always in the limelight dressed in the latest fashions acts like a royal mistress herself Maria Theresa admonishes her in a letter why are you acting like pompadour into Barrie you are not his mistress you are the queen mary antoinette bell tower and the hairdresser leona pushed the boundaries of taste and style to the limit with their most daring creation the poof the poof was the ultimate flexible easily changeable fashion accessory it was a towering edifice of hair where the wearer's hair was kind of teased up and piled and twisted around an under structure of chicken wire and horsehair padding and then different decorative objects were placed in the pouf the pouf was a miniature theater and a personal billboard it might communicate sentiments announce personal events or celebrate political causes opinions were worn on the head like the proof in honor of a French naval victory in the controversial American Revolutionary War so Marie Antoinette wearing a replica of a victorious French ship to a big public opera ball in Paris was her way of essentially endorsing her husband's decision to enter the American Revolution and it was her way of signaling to the French people that this was a decision that they should all feel good about inevitably for the extravagant and impractical fashion became the target of ridicule as it was adopted by women of every class and spread to England and Spain I mean the talero even accounts of women who couldn't get into their English star carriages with low roofs you had to travel on their knees with their head sticking out the window unfortunately living by the poof also meant dying by the poo the poof's marie-antoinette favoured happened to be covered in powder and flour was a key ingredient in the pomade that held her hairstyles in place by walking around with these conspicuous flower covered hairstyles at a time of grain and flour shortages she looked like she was wearing on her head foodstuffs that her subjects couldn't afford to eat alerted by her ambassador spy the count of mercy maria theresa tries to regain control when will you finally be yourself it is degrading for a queen to dress herself up and even more so if this involves such considerable sums and in such times I cannot be silent in loving you for what is good in you and not to flatter you behind all the urgent pleas and encouragement of Maria Teresa was the fact that Mary Antoinette and Louie had not produced an heir after seven years the marriage was still unconsummated solo the Queen of France has one job to produce an heir to the throne Maria Theresa fears her daughter may be repudiated which would lead to the collapse of a strategy for France if the marriage still isn't consummated it must mean that they are simply too different it's a sort of casting error they have very different tastes they have opposite personalities she is cheerful and he's rather gloomy even physically they are opposites louis xvi is a huge man of six foot five and she is graceful and delicate eNOS rumors abound that the king is physically deformed or intimidated by a queen whose eccentric tastes are signs of decadence Maria Teresa dispatches her son Emperor Joseph a second Marie Antoinette's brother to resolve the crisis [Music] a delicate discussion of the King reveals certain failures in the tutoring of his tutors and a vigorous scolding of his sister confirms her in her duties [Music] joseph reports to his brother Leopold problem diagnosed a timid King mission accomplished [Music] he has strong fine directions he introduces his member and stays there without moving for maybe two minutes then he pulls out still hard without having released himself and says goodnight he should be whipped to make him ejaculate in Anglia like a donkey my sister is hardly feisty when it comes to this the two bumbling fools [Music] I am the happiest I have ever been in my life it is already more than a week since my marriage was consummated and again since then and yesterday even more fully than the first time I don't think I'm yet birth child but at last I can hope to be anytime now eight months later the Queen informs her mother that she's pregnant with the Kings child [Music] spring brings the Queen's garden to life under the benevolent gaze of Cupid verdant poetry bursts of color a garden the refuge she had dreamed of embraces her she is seduced by her own creation [Music] and marie-antoinette welcomes an old friend after four years of absence except on first to pay his respects she was a dolphin with no important when he came back she was the queen and of course he was still very handsome she was still very beautiful and they still liked each other a lot and it's within a fairly short period of time that we start getting the rumours at court that she was in love with him they had both fallen under the enchantment of the garden a theater set carefully arranged for a love story there was gossip at Versailles people were starting to talk about this relationship that she was in love with him he was always everywhere with her so she would have probably thought if I send him away for a few months to a year it will all die down and then we'll see what happens when it comes back I doubt it but they thought it would be three years he was away for three whole years and the American war of a developed [Music] the greens garden has served its purpose she has fallen in love in it December the 19th 1778 the corridors of Versailles erupted him pandemonium at long last mary antoinette goes into labor courtiers rush to her bedside it is chaos in the apartments everyone climbs on the tables and up the curtains to get a better view it's the middle of winter and the air is thick but since everything has been sealed against draft the windows can't be opened the birth is a public event because in a hereditary monarchy where power is transmitted through blood everyone must be certain that the child has not been substituted at Birth it's a girl princess mary torres called Madame Royale but all the court bears witness that after eight years of marriage Mary Antoinette has still not produced an heir just four months after the birth Marie Antoinette falls sick she starts shivering develops canker sores and comes down with the measles it was so she goes to the Trianon where she surrounds herself with unlikely nurses she done her favorites who were all infatuated with her quarantined with witty and charming young men mary antoinette reconvenes the Society of the Queen at the Petit Trianon this is when rumors of infidelity began people start to wonder if these men who were alone with Mary Antoinette at the Trianon are merely friends or are they special friends and why does the Queen have such a need to isolate herself she must have something to hide [Music] rather than challenge the accusations marie-antoinette employs a system to close off the view into her study it only increases the curiosity and the intensity of the rumors [Music] that was the root of the problem is the way Mary Antoinette uses the tree enemy she behaves like the lady of the castle and closes the doors of the Trianon her permission is required to visit Seco it's quite a perilous sighs over Doyle at anyone who wants to get inside if you go one needs a sword and a hat at the tree oh no you need the Queen's special different this is a coin that's presented to the guard who may or may not grant you access to the estate the quarter their side doesn't appreciate the idea that they might be refused entry and hatred towards Marie Antoinette who continues to grow limits [Music] starting in 1780 those few selected for entrance to the petite Vienna were offered a new amusement a theater built to the Queen's orders Marie Antoinette always adored music theater and dance even as a child in Vienna she performed with her brothers and sisters in the family's private theater again she entrusts rashanna with this new project he builds her a small paper theater in shades of blue and gold why is small theater made of paper because everything is inward painted to look like marble even the sculptures are made of papier-mache instead of stone the decor was splendid but completely ephemera rumors of precious stones embedded in the walls were completely unfounded however this tiny theater is equipped with sophisticated machinery for set changes making it a sort of miniature version of the great Royal Opera of their side she invited the great troops of Paris to perform the Opera the Comedie Francaise the comedy italia the backdrops were conventional a temple a rich salon a rustic cottage a garden a dark forest just a few sets accommodated the entire repertory of the 18th century soon Marie Antoinette took to the stage herself met is accompanied on stage by what is known as the troupe of Lords which includes her friends but also some of the court Nobles including Artois and Porthos louis xvi two brothers they perform in front of 100 people an audience made up exclusively as the Queen's guests when there aren't enough guests the servants are allowed to watch the performances from a box screened off by a lattice on this room scandal ensued not due to including the servants but for excluding the nobles leave the court VIPs who under normal circumstances would follow the Queen at all times a refused entry the ladies-in-waiting aren't necessarily invited to these performances this is something totally new at their size the Queen of France who completely disappears from public life whenever she is at the Trianon tellurian [Music] in the privacy of her domain Marie Antoinette creates a parallel Court in her own orbit with a relaxed data gate and courtiers chosen by affinity rather than birth but in keeping the court at a distance Mary Antoinette is closing herself in the Petit Trianon it's garden becomes a world in itself this is a queen who has her own chateau she creates regulations in her own name proclaimed by the Queen when normally this is the Kings prerogative the origin of the crisis is this 2-headed aspect of the court aristocratic factions opposed to Mary Antoinette disseminate extravagant tales of debauchery assigning the German Vice lesbianism to Mary Antoinette and Madame de Polignac the sexual slander had political aids if she had royal mistresses then the King must be weak impotent inconsequential but Marie Antoinette nestled in her secret garden was impervious to the lightens [Music] for the back to nature lifestyle that Marie Antoinette sought to cultivate the Lizbeth on pioneered a style that became the signature look for the Petit Trianon this was the chemise or gold dress a kind of white cotton or muslin almost slip dress that was relatively unstructured but it was a very simple comfortable style even so simple a dress could lead to controversy if worn by Mary Antoinette a portrait by Elizabeth VJ Lebrun presented at the salon of 1783 proved the point by Wright's Marie Antoinette should have appeared in her portrait with all of the accoutrements an ermine robe a scepter a crown instead she posed in a golden ax with no marker whatsoever indicating her royal status there were pamphlets published saying that Marie Antoinette had tricked herself out like a servant girl that she looked like a wench serving lemonade at a roadside stand in the country to protect it from the outraged public the painting was removed from the cellar quickly painted the exact same portrait of the Queen wearing a sumptuous blue silk court dress where the figure in the painting looked every inch the Queen [Music] this painting was meant to mollify the French public but the damage had been done it's paradoxical Marie Antoinette in the 1770s at the moment of the flower shortages was criticized by her subjects for seeming to spend too much money now she was dressing down and now the public was saying that this was unworthy of a queen that this was undignified that this was an insult to the institution she was supposed to represent as usual the Queen was detested but imitated women took to the comfortable style little white dresses were everywhere but adding fuel for her detractors the fashion used imported cotton driving the domestic silk industry into a tales the silk industry was one of the most important luxury trades in France only silk was worn at Versailles and the bourgeoisie ached for fashion all the world war French silk but suddenly thousands of jobs were lost rumors spread that the Austrian was out to destroy the French economy only a few so producers exist today such as de Klerk still producing trimmings for the house of the queen copied from their vast archive of ancient patterns [Music] in November 1780 the bi-weekly letters Marie Antoinette received from Vienna stopped her mother Maria Theresa was dead no more would she be spied on no more would she be guided 11 months later morning at an end the Queen gives birth to her second child a son after 11 years of marriage the French throne as its heir Louis Joseph named for Marie Antoinette's brother his birth saves Marie Antoinette because she's now untouchable having finally fulfilled her duty as Queen of France with the death of her mother and the birth of her son a change comes over the Queen celebrated by her people her position is secure at 27 years old sure in her authority she looks out further in the garden imagines rustic pleasures and embarks on a new project [Music] as usual Rochelle meek is recruited he will again build a sort of theater but this time this stage will stretch over several acres encompassing an entire village she wants her village she doesn't want to be queen of France she wants to be queen of a small village and in fact Marie Antoinette's estate is the perfect representation of a small typical local village in the 18th century again Mary Antoinette was not inventing on her own several moguls already had villages on their estates she visited shanthi heat weather count of calm days model village had seven rustic cottages in the norman star Antoinette thinks big she doesn't want to fuse thatched cottages she wants a whole village was he across from Lulu I moved in and the whole village is organized around a pond in a sort of amphitheater a semicircle because the village is designed above all as a new garden de corazon work begins have been 1783 [Music] you betcha see you play so much instead is it ready Placido Olivia it will take three years to complete the twelve buildings but the village is hardly more than a stage set when Marie Antoinette Commission's a village the architect understands that this is her dream so he designs a dream village everyone is instantly charmed by its simplicity and beauty [Music] after 200 years the dream still resonates it looks like a rustic retreat but it's just a few kilometers from the Palace of Versailles nothing here is quite what it seems so a more fit sir presents for Hamlet is a kind of Chateau but a deconstructed version with several structures it's a whole new vision of royal architecture that you'll see underneath Fitzroy Yannick scattered small buildings give the illusion of a working village a boudoir and dressing room for the Queen a guardhouse disguised as a peasant cottage a fishery a dairy where fresh milk was served in the finest porcelain a Duff copy just across the river a working farm with sheep and goats to serve the dairy and fresh eggs for the Queen a decorative mill whose wheel never turned this construction was essentially made for Mary Antoinette in line with the tastes of the time don't for the Queen and not necessarily built to last over time the centerpiece the house of the Queen shows the effects of weather time neglect and revolution Mary on Trinette spent just three years here for the better part of its existence it has laid abandoned the Queen's hamon it is clearly the most fragile construction in all of their size but it's also the one that has received the least care this estate should definitely be maintained with a great deal of subtlety and intelligence it was once a place for daydreaming we must still be able to dream and lose ourselves here today like every dream the hamlet is built on muddy ground without foundations out of flimsy and perishable materials completely ephemeral and like a dream it persists [Music] the hamlet is first represented in a remarkable series of albums commissioned by the Queen as gifts for favored visitors [Music] it's presented as the crowning achievement in the romantic transformation of her domain who MOA pickles Hamlet was conceived as the receptacle of the garbages it receives the gardens beauty and reflects it back but the style is rustic as opposed to the English garden with his chic elegant construction has he gone [Music] the earlier fabric of the English garden looked to the past or to brute nature for inspiration they evoke an antique gold image but the hamlet is a contemporary pastoral village a golden age in the present the foreground figures are active enterprising in the other prints the figures have their backs to the viewer all regard the monuments which fill the space like stage sets everyone is watching waiting for the show to begin person arrived back in France in June 1783 his feelings hadn't changed and we know that from a letter that he sent to his sister he wrote I cannot belong to the only person I want to belong to the only person who truly loves me and so I will not marry she wasn't gonna let him go again if I let him go that's it it's over she had a son so she provided the heir to the throne so she'd done her her duty as Queen and that's when they became lovers he will stand by her side as the revolution rips their lives apart but he will fail to save his damsel in distress [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] with the revolution romanticism will take a new turn the Golden Age will be looked for in the future and no matter how modern they might seem Thurston and Mary Antoinette will belong to the past [Music] only her dream a village endlessly falling into ruin survives it has deteriorated mainly because it was neglected for 150 years it's our responsibility to preserve its admirable authenticity it is virtually in ruins and we must act before it disappears we're lucky to have incredible documentation on royal we know the details of various building processes we have drawings and designs above and beyond the documentation the primary document is the monument itself ceremony mode villain every restoration is an act of archaeology the house speaks to several periods restored by Napoleon for his wife Mary Louise repaired under Napoleon the third for his Empress Eugenie always undergoing changes in style and function the Queen's Hamlet is associated with Marie Antoinette but its story doesn't end with her Odyssey poverty cannot be on twin it the website was impacted by the French Revolution the important part of French history the restorations and alterations carried out under Napoleon are also key historic elements that should not be forgotten [Music] Alamut in fact the building state of abandon over the past century and a half is undoubtedly its most long-lasting historical feature probably could who Roger could you deciding among these different styles and layouts is an architectural choice a Tom Schwartz [Music] for some six generations the Queen's Hamlet has stood crumbling and abandoned no one alive has ever seen the house of the Queen furnished at the revolution the hamlet became a den of thieves Marie Antoinette's furnishings were destroyed or auctioned off the inventory of Mary Louise's furniture installed some 15 years later is the only guide to the interior decoration on that prove em all we've managed to really recapture the spirit of Empress Marie Louise's Hamlet which it must be said did not betray the spirit of Marie Antoinette but it was perhaps a little less elegant because the Empire style is stiffened with thicker wooden structures but overall feminine ante through graceful and flowery spirit mary antoinette hamlet found in Louise's on the exterior traces of Marie Antoinette's decor still exists as for the exterior decorations we have known all along that the new building built for Marie Antoinette by Nick was painted like a theater set commander Korda Thea the work was done by the same craftsmen who created the Queen's stage sets intentionally making them look aged over time Tom and that's been the victory ste the hamlets entire set design was conceived to be viewed from the other side of the pond in other words as far as a hundred meters from certain structures dzifa some visual effects must be exaggerated and contrived in order to be seen if all see when I met earlier with the restorers I used these very terms in order to match the original provisions for each construction with this position [Music] we shall meek gave a final country touch to each cottage adding small gardens today's gardeners carefully maintain the vegetable plots keeping them in their original condition our main objective is to restore the queen's hamlet to its original state by replanting the garden according to the lists of flowers and vegetables that were selected at the time if Marie Antoinette were able to come back one day you know were to be standing next to her I would love her to compliment me on how well I took care of her guts I really like the idea that a dreamer could feel they had traveled back two centuries in times [Music] in 1785 her second son little Louie Charles the future Louie the 17th is born Mary Antoinette is a real model of maternal love she demonstrates her affection for children both in private content publisher Koons nicknames for all of them nice lean Madame cou shoe demure and gets down on all fools to play blind man's buff and other games with them when she turned 30 Marie Antoinette's approach to the way she dressed really changed a dramatic way she was a mother of young children her complexion though by all accounts as beautiful as ever was in her mind starting to fade a bit some of the portraits of EJ LeBlanc painted of her between 1785 and 1786 shift to a more mature style she looks like a woman who's comfortable with her privileged station but who isn't making a big show of her splendor anymore the hamlet took on the spirit of a homey refuge where she took personal responsibility for raising her children it was an imaginary reproduction of the warmth and freedom of her own childhood family life and also an attempt to redeem her reputation educating the future King of France was a public service fully worthy of her role as Queen makes herself available to her children she writes that when she denies them something she always provides an explanation they can understand and with true psychological insight she recalls their personalities and the childhood troubles in great detail for example she notes that excessive Stern las' only makes Louie Charles take his heels in and that despite his gentle character he is unable to say he is sorry but when he does its with tears in sighs she gives them a modern enlightened education and although she herself hated reading as a child she makes them read la fontaine Voltaire and Rousseau she also oversees this spiritual education and teaches them values Marinette believes the hamlet has educational value she's intent on showing them what she believes to be the realities of peasant life but the hamlet is just a stage set but for critics educating the Royal children in a model theatrical farm showed a dangerous disconnect with the real peasants of the countryside mired in family what is Mary Antoinette really want she wants to be happy she's searching for happiness and this is a modern concept once again who so expands upon it in his work confessions this idea that true happiness is found in enjoying the small things in day-to-day life a happy family and marriage happiness in friendships and in motherhood the problem is that happiness has never been the job description for a queen of France [Music] Marie Antoinette's domestic pleasure of the hamlet was only achieved by turning her back on everything outside her domain the people clamoring for bread the aristocratic factions plotting to influence an indecisive monarch Louis the sixteenth was a weak King the monarchy was weak and falling apart so there were plenty of members even of the royal family itself that were hoping that maybe louis xvi and marie antoinette could somehow be pushed out of the way to make room for a better and stronger King as the Queen withdraws into bucolic life bowls are less frequent she even resolves to abandon the theatre planning one last performance with her troupe - c'est mieux The Barber of Seville by Beaumarchais but the King knows what the Queen does not beaumarchais is a subversive it takes months of entreaties before he allows the performance but finally rehearsals begin with Marie Antoinette in the role of the azure new war scene [Music] in the middle of rehearsals a scandal breaks that will force the Queen back into the public eye it involves a diamond necklace of astronomical value an ambitious and venal cardinal and an elaborate hoax it's called the affair of the Queen's necklace but the necklace never belonged to the Queen is business straight out of a play by Molly a it involves cardinal Dolan a ridiculous character who is enamored with a queen but is upset because she disapproves of him he falls prey to Madame de la Motte a con artist is an unscrupulous adventurer the tale revolves around a nighttime meeting where Cardinal or bra is introduced by madame de la mort to a mysterious woman dressed in a gold in the darkness he takes her to be the queen letters follow under the name of Mary Antoinette asking him to procure a necklace for her the jeweler's deliver the necklace to count in Idaho and who gives it to Madame de la Marck mother to give to the Queen once she has the necklace Madame de la Motte flees to England for free with the diamonds the jeweler who made it astounded the Queen and King when he let them know that he would need to be paid for the necklace bought on Marie Antoinette's behalf I'm the queen who has no idea what's going on he dismisses the whole thing saying that he must be dreaming he's crazy but she's finally little by little the Cardinal realizes that he's been played and a scandal breaks the king furious to have the name of the Queen associated with the scandal as the Cardinal arrested who Lanka turtle soup an investigation is launched by the Parliament in Paris madame de la Motte is rapidly apprehended this proves a terrible trap for the Queen the coup de Grasse comes when Parliament announces its verdict and acquits cardinal de run crucially and disastrously for Marie Antoinette the fake queen who hornswoggled the cardinal de Waal was dressed in a goal and the goal was the sartorial smoking gun in the case that was brought against her in the court of public opinion it was thought that because Marie Antoinette was the kind of woman who would run around in the gardens in a nightgown after dark a myth of at her time at the Petit Trianon had certainly fostered she somehow seemed like she was guilty in the swindle even though she had had no knowledge of it and had had nothing to do with it the affair is the great media sensation of the 18th century the press mercilessly inflames the public against her if the Cardinal is innocent the Queen must be guilty the police authorities go to town extremely violent caricatures are published attacking the Queen's expenditure and her private life as well she's accused of having affairs with both men and women of being a heart the drawings are incredibly offensive and truly pornographic images are passed around [Music] but the press is simply relay these accusations are coming from much higher art directly from the court and even from the royal family madam Adelaide one of Louie the 15th daughters poised the nickname the Austrian which will follow me on to a net to the gallows and the Count de Provence her own brother-in-law open questions Louie the 16th paternity and the court doing its best each day to further slander and discredit the Queen never imagines the political consequences which will eventually lead to its own destruction mmm in July 1786 with her popularity at an all-time low Marie Antoinette gives birth to her last child so feet bare trees just 11 months later the infant dies in the monumental family portrait by VJ Dubois the little princess is memorialized by an empty crib her brother points to the void yo Scott she is devastated by the loss of her last child in 1787 but at court no one understands how she could be so saddened over just a baby baby but the court shows much more interest in the health of her first son the heir to the throne Olivia deals multiplied for this loving mother and now the health of the Dauphin heir to the throne is declining he suffers from bone tuberculosis and has stopped growing the anatomist Bertie makes him a sort of corset that he has to wear every day which causes him terrible pain [Music] one year before the Revolution Marie Antoinette takes her family on a last summer retreat to the Petit Trianon [Music] she is surrounded by her society of friends but the mood is somber there are few festivities her heart is not in it political realities can no longer be kept at a distance the beauty Trianon like the Queen's Hamlet isolates Mary Antoinette more and more from reality even what she sees from her window is just a sort of theater holed up inside her estate she doesn't see the ideological revolution taking place she doesn't hear of the new ideas promoted by the men of the Enlightenment nor does she hear the rumblings in the capital growing closer to Versailles in the mid 1780s the French Treasuries accounting books were made public for the first time and the French people were shocked to discover that the crown was running a gigantic deficit Marie Antoinette even though she was living a bucolic life mostly away from the splendor and formality of court became a convenient lightning rod for public anger about how broke the crown was she was being reviled in the French press as madam deficit just accused directly spending she's accused of causing the kingdom's catastrophic financial State Mary Antoinette reduces her spending at home to counselling in games is forbidden in the salons she cuts back on the stables she lets go of Madame Beto but these efforts go virtually unnoticed amidst the general turmoil and it is too late anyway it taught too late is the phrase that will describe all of her efforts [Music] the financial crisis was only worsened by an indecisive King counselors pulled him in opposing directions the government ground to the vault a vacuum was forming in the heart of the monarchy a vacuum that would inevitably draw Mary Antoinette back to the Chateau the queen has dishonored herself this is how the French people see Mary Antoinette the queen is the target of all accusations she has become a martyr queen which is how the myth is born all the blame is put on her much more than on louis xvi the queen could no longer turn her back on the growing crisis for the first time she enters politics inviting jack nikhyl a popular finance minister dismissed by the king years earlier to sort out the problems of the treasury a letter addressed to the Austrian ambassador finds her resigned but determined I have written to mr. Nick heir asking him to come here tomorrow there is no time to waste the sooner he begins working the better the situation is urgent I tremble forgive me my weakness it is I who seek to bring him back it is my fate to bring bad luck and if the infernal machination x' caused him to fail again nor to weaken the authority of the king they will hate me even more Nakia will not prove the savior she hopes for the estates-general a national convention called by the came to resolve the issue of taxation convenes in May 1789 it will become the vehicle for revolution [Music] just one month after the sitting of the estates-general on the night of June the 3rd 1789 personal tragedy compound's political crisis the dough FARC Louie Joseph Marie Antoinette's seven-year-old son dies the estates-general refuses to acknowledge the Kings pain there is no pause in the proceedings [Music] if there was a single time the King broke his word and came to the Queen's domain unannounced it might have been this moment when the outlines of their shared destiny first took shape in the gathering gloom [Music] [Music] it's marriott Wynette's last day at Versailles never again will she see a secret refuge after 19 years she again confronts the palace she has neither conquered nor escaped of her family only her daughter Madame Royale who survived the revolution meek will be guillotine rose bath town will find exiled in London fasten will be murdered by a Swedish bog and the Hamlet will be saved by the Queen's gardener on to a knavish are loyal to the end as for the house of the Queen it will wait over two centuries for the renovation that revives its original splendor [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] like every tale of destiny Versailles and Mary Antoinette is a story that does not end it is fulfilled [Music] [Music] you

Channel: france 18th century

Views: 374,077

Rating: 4.8966408 out of 5

Keywords: marie antoinette, the secret versailles of marie antoinette, documentary, marie antoinette documentary, history documentary, palace of versailles, versailles, petit trianon, let them eat cake, louis xiv, louis xvi, axel von fersen, history of france, monarchs of france, european history, french history, the queens hamlet, marie antoinette movie, french revolution, 4K documentary, documentaries about france, classroom resources, french fashion, marie antoinette documentaries

Id: w6PZlHvYbBg

Length: 90min 2sec (5402 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 20 2019