Christian-Jaque carefully wraps his film in many layers of artificiality, like a beautifully dressed and made up actress, to prevent any misunderstanding about what we are about to see : « Historytainment », rather than a scholarly lecture in colour about the roots of French Revolution, though we shall witness the joyful deliquescence of a « Régime » which, before the century ends, shall have become « ancien », or past.
In this film of make believe, all the Paris scenes, including the fair sequences, make no effort to hide they are shot in studio, while the palace in Versailles provides the only real location, as if the heart and symbol of the Ancien Régime had withstood the test of times while nothing was left of the city about to seize power by revolution : could the political changes have been as much a « trompe-l’oeil », an optical trick, as the film studio sets ?
« Madame du Barry » is nevertheless no Alexandre Dumas’s tale in « Les trois mousquetaires » style : the film is faithful to basic historical facts, even as it slightly twists their arm for our indisputable pleasure.
Madame du Barry was indeed born Jeanne Bécu, from an unknown father. She worked in fancy « La toilette » fashion shop on rue Saint-Honoré, had few qualms about trading her charms to the best of her interests, but was no street prostitute. She became the lover, and partner in tricks, of Comte du Barry, a gambling aristocrat always on the verge of ruin ; nicknamed « le roué » for his cynical cunning, he in turn brokered her to rich beds to the best of his, and eventually their, interests.
In one of his daring schemes, du Barry had tried to put one of his former « lovers » into the King’s bed, but the candidate had not passed the preliminary health exam.
As he tries again with Jeanne, who now bears his name, though not by marriage, because « le roué » already has a wife, who refuses to die, he will succeed, but only after pulling himself and Jeanne out of several tricky situations, which should have led them to jail or worse.
As Court « etiquette » required that the king’s mistresses be of aristocratic condition, at least by name, Jeanne was hurriedly forced to marry du Barry’s older brother whom she would never meet again after their wedding and one first and final kiss ; her husband was promptly dispatched back to his far-away Languedoc, a substantially richer man, though not as much as his « roué » brother.
When the film veers from historical accuracy, it is because History does not fit the requirements of a clear and speedy narrative or paints some of its characters in excessively dark tones : the Queen was not quite dead yet, when Madame du Barry completed her first excursion to the King’s bed ; the 1950s cinema audience might have had stricter moral rules than the 1760s Versailles Court : why run the risk that they hold their carnal hurry against the film leading couple ? and why not take a short cut rather than bother with a boring death scene ?
0
Leave a Reply