Farewell, My Queen () is a 2012 French drama film directed by Benoît Jacquot and based on the novel of the same name by Chantal Thomas, who won the Prix Femina in 2002. It gives a fictional account of the last days of Marie Antoinette in power seen through the eyes of Sidonie Laborde, a young servant who reads aloud to the queen. The film stars Diane Kruger as the Queen, Léa Seydoux, and Virginie Ledoyen. It opened the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012 and has subsequently been screened at other festivals. It was released on 21 March 2012 in France.
Plot
In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the court at the Palace of Versailles still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a mere twenty miles away. The routines are seen through the eyes of the young Sidonie Laborde, who serves Queen Marie Antoinette.
When news about the storming of the Bastille reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace and abandon the Royal Family, fearing that the government is falling. But Sidonie, a true believer in the monarchy, refuses to flee. She feels secure under the protection of the Royal Family. She does not know these are the last three days she will spend by the Queen's side.
The Queen orders Sidonie to disguise herself as Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac, and serve as bait so that the latter can safely flee to Switzerland. This Sidonie does, despite a prior warning from one of the Queen's ladies in waiting. Sidonie is stripped naked and then redressed in a green gown. The coach carrying Sidonie is also occupied by the real Duchess and her husband, dressed as her servants. They treat her with disdain during the journey but she plays her role convincingly enough to enable the party to safely cross the border. As the film ends, she remarks that she has no connections other than her position as reader to the Queen, and soon she will be a nobody.
Cast
Léa Seydoux as Sidonie Laborde
Diane Kruger as Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France
Virginie Ledoyen as Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac
Xavier Beauvois as Louis XVI
Grégory Gadebois as Louis, comte de Provence
Francis Leplay as Charles, comte d'Artois
Noémie Lvovsky as Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan
Vladimir Consigny as Paolo
Julie-Marie Parmentier as Honorine
Michel Robin as Nicolas Moreau
Lolita Chammah as Louison
Marthe Caufman as Alice
Jacques Boudet as Monsieur de la Tour du Pin
Martine Chevallier as Madame de la Tour du Pin
Jacques Nolot as Monsieur de Jolivet
Serge Renko as Marquis de la Chesnaye
Anne Benoît as Rose Bertin
Dominique Reymond as Madame
Jean-Chrétien Sibertin-Blanc as Monsieur de Polignac
Jacques Herlin as Marquis de Vaucouleurs
Pierre Rochefort as Le valet Antonin
Production
Farewell, My Queen was directed by Benoît Jacquot and based on a script by him, Chantal Thomas, and Gilles Taurand. They adapted the script from the novel of the same name by Thomas. She won the Prix Femina for her book in 2002. After reading Chantal's feminist novel, Jacquot wanted to create a film from this perspective.
The German actress Diane Kruger was cast as Marie Antoinette. Recognizing that many audience members had preconceptions of Marie Antoinette, Kruger approached the role by "trying not to judge her... We have the same origins, the same age. I could relate to her as a woman." While the actress Léa Seydoux is younger than the age of the lectrice character in the novel, Jacquot cast her as Laborde because "she brought this carnal dimension. She has incontrovertible sex appeal."
He also added to the plot the same-sex relationship between the Queen and duchess of Polignac; he thought it might be possible, given women's strong relationships with each other in that time period.
Release
The film opened the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. It was later shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival (19 April) and the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival (27 April) and as part of the L'Alliance Française French Film Festival, in Australia, in March 2013. Farewell, My Queen opened in theaters in France on 21 March 2012, and was released on a limited basis to American theaters on 13 July 2012.