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2

University of Southampton

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Department of Film

Memories of Versailles and the Ancien Régime in French Film by

James Jackson

Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

June 2021

3

University of Southampton

Abstract

Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Department of Film

Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Memories of Versailles and the Ancien Régime in French Film by

James Jackson

While the French Revolution brought about the end of Versailles as an active seat of politics and the Ancien Régime as a political and social system, both Versailles and the Ancien Régime remain important symbols of the past, and what Pierre Nora calls lieux de mémoire, in the cultural fabric French Republic, not least because they serve as a frame of reference for that With specific reference to film as a repository for historical memory, this thesis will examine the ways in which historical films that deal with Versailles and the monarchy (I will focus in depth on four case studies: La

Marseillaise, 1938; , 1946; conte,

1953, and La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV, 1966) use this specific aspect of the past

to speak the concerns of the present moment, to provide a sense of historical continuity, to affirm a particular social contract based upon a set of national traditions, or to ast together into a common or shared culture predicated upon the existence of a national heritage. Ultimately, this thesis argues that Versailles and the Ancien Régime (as symbols, metonyms, epochs) hold such cultural, historical, and political weight that their memory is firmly embedded within French culture and regardless of their idiosyncrasies, differing tones, textures, and political or artistic perspectives, the various films about them, including the films under discussion. Moreover, it maintains (with close reference to the films) that in addition to being conduits for memory, historical films hold the capacity for doing 4

Table of Contents

Table of Figures ........................................................................................................... 6

Declaration of Authorship ............................................................................................ 9

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 10

Chapter One: Introduction.......................................................................................... 11

1.1 Versailles va au cinéma! ........................................................................... 11

1.3 Film and Historical Representation ........................................................... 20

1.2 Historical Memory and Lieux de Mémoire ............................................... 30

1.4 The Age of Louis XIV ............................................................................ 50

1.5 The Age of Louis XV and the Enlightenment ........................................ 56

1.6 The Age of Louis XVI and Revolution ................................................... 61

1.6 Chapter breakdown ................................................................................ 67

Chapter Two: La Marseillaise (Jean Renoir, 1938) ................................................... 73

2.1 Romantic Portraits: The Fall of Versailles as Political Allegory ............ 73

2.2 Le jour de gloire est arrivé! : La Marseillaise as a Call to Arms ............ 81

La Marseillaise as a Traditionally

Radical Film .................................................................................................... 87

characterisation of history? ........................................................................... 110

Chapter Three: .............. 116

3.1 Fragile institutions ................................................................................... 116

3.2 War, Occupation, Trial: The historical backdrop to

de la reine ...................................................................................................... 119

3.3 The Path to Self-Destruction? : The Necklace Affair and its Historical

Memory as Allegory ..................................................................................... 126

3.4 The Critical Response ............................................................................ 149

Chapter Four: (Sacha Guitry, 1953) .............................. 154

4.1 History: The Path to Self-exculpation .................................................. 154

4.2 Authorial Presence and Mise en Abyme in the Promotion of Si Versailles

.................................................................................................. 160

...................................... 164

4.4 : The Response ............................................ 190

Chapter Five: La Prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV (Roberto Rossellini, 1966) ........ 197

5.1 A Historiographical Study of Versailles .............................................. 197

5.2 Charles de Gaulle, Louis XIV de nos jours ?....................................... 203

5.3 A Historical Study of the World of Louis XIV ..................................... 206

5

5.4 The medium is the message? The Response t

Approach to History ...................................................................................... 231

Chapter Six: Conclusion- Echoes of History ........................................................... 238

Appendices ............................................................................................................... 248

Appendix I: Key Dates in the history of Versailles and the Ancien Régime. 248 Appendix II: Timeline of Films/Television Programmes/Documentaries that are either about Versailles and the Ancien Régime (this includes the epoch in general) or were Filmed at the Estate in some capacity ................................ 251

Filmography ............................................................................................................. 255

Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 258

6

Table of Figures

Peep show slide day/night (1848). .............. 36 Peep show slide day/night (1848). ..................... 37 Figure 3 A spectacular shot of the Latona Fountain as water spurts up and cascades down each tier of the structure with hand-painted colour added (Les Grandes Eaux

de Versailles, 1904). ................................................................................................... 38

Figure 4 A film poster for Le Règne de Louis XIV (Lorant-Heilbronn, 1904). The

illustration is by Candido Aragonez de Faria. ............................................................ 40

Figure 5 Marie-Antoinette and her family resting gracefully in the gardens of the

Petit Trianon. .............................................................................................................. 41

.............................................. 42

Figure 7 Protesters in the city head to Versailles. ...................................................... 42

Figure 8 Allegory of Louis XIV, Protector of the Arts and Sciences (1672), Claude

Lefèbvre ..................................................................................................................... 51

Figure 9ring race and horseback parade near the Great By Isral

Silvestre (1664). ......................................................................................................... 52

.................. 53 Figure 11 View of the Orangery in 1695, by Étienne Allegrain and Jean-Baptiste

(1695). ......................................................................................................... 54

Figure 12 View of the Château de Versailles from the Place d'Armes. By Pierre

Denis Martin (1722). .................................................................................................. 58

Figure 13 Bal masqué donné pour le mariage du dauphin. By Charles Nicolas

Cochin fils (1745). ..................................................................................................... 59

st, 1789). .................................. 62 Figure 15 Execution of Louis XVI. By Isidore-Stanislas Helman (1794). ................ 63 Figure 16 Marie-Antoinette dit " à la Rose ». By Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

(1783). ........................................................................................................................ 66

Figure 17 La Marseillaise early film poster in La Cinématographique Française - 26th

March 1937. ............................................................................................................... 84

Figure 18 R.A.C film poster with the character, Bomier. .......................................... 85

Figure 19 R.A.C film poster with the National Guard and fédérés. ........................... 86

Figure 20 Title card- - 14th July 1789. ................................... 90 Figure 21 Medium close-up of Marquis de Saint-Laurent lost in his own thoughts. 95 Figure 22 Medium-long shot of the Marquis gazing contemplatively at Madame de

Saint-Laurent singing. ................................................................................................ 95

Figure 23 Aristocrats attempting to relive their time at Versailles in the drawing

room. .......................................................................................................................... 99

Figure 24 Wide shot of the parade in Paris. ............................................................. 100

Figure 25 Wide shot of the nobility watching a Chinese shadow puppet show ...... 102 Figure 26 Close-up of King Louis XVI reading the Brunswick Manifesto. ............ 104 Figure 27 A medium shot of Queen Marie Antoinette giving her verdict on the

Brunswick Manifesto. .............................................................................................. 105

Figure 28 Wide shot of the King and fellow officers descending the stairs to seek

protection from the Legislative Assembly. .............................................................. 106

7 Figure 29 Wide shot of the King and his family departing the Tuileries Palace for the

last time. ................................................................................................................... 108

Figure 30 Wide shot of the Swastika being hoisted up a flagpole on the roof of

Versailles. ................................................................................................................. 122

............................. 123 ...................... 125 .............. 127 Figure 34 Close-up shot of the cadran d'horloge de la cour de Marbre. .................. 128 Figure 35 Wide shot of the courtiers of Versailles strolling up and down the escalier

de la reine (taken from near the top balustrade). ...................................................... 130

Figure 36 Long shot of courtiers of strolling up and down the escalier de la reine. 131 Figure 37 Medium two-shot of the Comtesse and Cagliostro dining at the table. ... 132

Figure 38 Long shot of courtiers dining. .................................................................. 132

Figure 39 Medium shot of Cagliostro revealing his elixir. ...................................... 134 ............................................... 134

Figure 41 Long shot of Cagliostro addressing courtiers. ......................................... 136

................................................................ 136

Cagliostro. ................................................................................................................ 138

................ 140 Figure 45 Medium-long shot of the Comtesse watching on from within the grove.140 Figure 46 Wide shot of the Cardinal walking through the Hall of Mirrors. ............ 142 Figure 47 Wide shot of the Cardinal addressing the Queen. .................................... 143

Figure 48 Wide shot of the ............... 144

Figure 49 A close-up of th ....................... 146 Figure 50 An illustrated strip depicting the events of the Necklace Affair in

Carrefour. ................................................................................................................. 151

Figure 51 Versailles-themed postage stamp circulated in 1952. .............................. 158 Figure 52 A blown--on-canvas in colour. ............. 159

Figure 53 Film poster for Remontons les Champs-Élysées. .................................... 161

......... 162 Figure 57 Courtiers curtsy before the king and queen in the Hall of Mirrors. ......... 165 Figure 58 Sacha Guitry sits at a desk in the Palace of Versailles, ready to give us the

story of Versailles. ................................................................................................... 167

.................................................... 169 Figure 60 King Louis XIV admires the workmanship that is going in to building

Versailles. ................................................................................................................. 171

Figure 61 The King doffs his hat to the workers of Versailles. ............................... 173 Figure 62 A long shot of the workers doffing their hat in the presence of the King.

.................................................................................................................................. 174

Figure 63 Wide ................................................................... 175 Figure 64 A wide shot of the King in his bedchamber. ........................................... 176 Figure 65 A long shot of Voltaire hunched in his chair while Louis XV pontificates.

.................................................................................................................................. 179

Figure 66 Long shot of Fragonard painting Madame de Pompadour. ..................... 179 Figure 67 Extreme- ............................. 181 8 Figure 68 High angle wide shot of courtiers leaving the Palace of Versailles ........ 182 Figure 69 Extreme-long .................................... 183 Figure 70 Long shot of a Versailles salon in which Robespierre outwits the King and

fellow courtiers......................................................................................................... 185

Figure 71 Wide shot of Édith atop the golden palace gates of

Versailles. ................................................................................................................. 188

Figure 72 Extreme-long shot of the cast descending the One-hundred Steps Stairway.

.................................................................................................................................. 195

Figure 73 Extreme long shot of

flown above. ............................................................................................................. 195

Figure 74 A long shot of courtiers kneeling in the presence of the king, who is saying

morning prayer. ........................................................................................................ 209

Figure 75 A medium two shot of the king and his wife in bed. ............................... 209 Figure 76 A long shot of the king surrounded by servants who dress him and

courtiers who watch the spectacle unfold. ............................................................... 212

Figure 77 A long shot of the king seated next to his mother, Anne of Austria, whom

he is confiding in about Mazarin and his future plans. ............................................ 213

Figure 78 A medium-long shot of Louis revealing to his mother his ambitious future

plans. ........................................................................................................................ 215

Figure 79 A medium two shot of Suzanne and Louise. ........................................... 216

entrance. ................................................................................................................... 219

Figure 81 A wide shot of Louis scrutinising the blueprint of the future palace on the

building site. ............................................................................................................. 221

Figure 82 A wide shot of the Orangery under construction, with workers toiling

away against the backdrop of the palace façade. ..................................................... 222

Figure 83 A wide shot of the completed Orangery in all its glory. .......................... 223 Figure 84 A wide shot of the serving area, where we can see the chief chef presiding

over the process. ....................................................................................................... 224

Figure 85 A wide shot of the king sat at the table waiting to eat the food that is

brought to him, with many courtiers spectating. ...................................................... 226

Figure 86 A wide shot of courtiers watching the King. ........................................... 227

Figure 87 A wide shot of courtiers waiting to greet the king with their show of

deference. ................................................................................................................. 228

Figure 88 A wide shot of courtiers addressing the camera in the South Parterre. ... 228 Figure 89 A long shot of Louis ascending the stairs on which courtiers bow and

kneel in his presence. ............................................................................................... 229

Figure 90 A long shot of a dressed-down Louis reading a copy of La Roche ............................................................... 230 9

Declaration of Authorship

Print name: JAMES JACKSON

Title of thesis: Memories of Versailles and the Ancien Régime in French Film I declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research.

I confirm that:

1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree

at this University;

2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any

other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated;

3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly

attributed;

4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With

the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work;

5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help;

6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have

made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself;

7. None of this work has been published before submission.

Signature: Date: 26th June 2021

10

Acknowledgements

I am eternally grateful to all those who have given me practical help throughout this project. My primary supervisor, Professor Michael Williams, has been a tremendous source of encouragement, as have my secondary supervisors, Dr Louis Bayman and Dr Mike Hammond. I would also like to give a special mention to Professor Lucy Mazdon, who was my main supervisor when I first started my PhD in 2017. Despite leaving the University of Southampton to take up a new post the University of Hull in

2019, she generously continued to read sections of my thesis and offer constructive

feedback on my work. On a more personal level, I am grateful to friends and family for their unfailing support. This thesis received financial support from the University of Southampton in the form of the Vice-, so I am grateful to the institution for this. 11

Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Versailles va au cinéma!

O Versailles, par cette après-midi fanée

-t-il ainsi ?

Albert Samain, Versailles.1

ituated eleven miles west of Paris on marshy land that was little more than a humble village and farming community in medieval France is the grand Estate of Versailles. While imposing in its size and the way in which it ruptures the landscape, from the point of view of architecture and garden design, the culminative effect is one of intense harmony, where the place forms an agreeable part of the environment rather than being an obstruction of it. Inspired by the Baroque style of Vaux-le-vicomte but infinitely more ambitious and grandiose in scale, Versailles tames the surrounding environment with a topography that creates a meaningful aesthetic experience. Intricately designed parterres form a labyrinth of wonder, with each parterre sharing a relationship to another and contributing to the harmony of the whole garden. Symmetrical patterns and design are equally appealing to the eye both in architecture, reinforcing a harmonious relationship between the building and the façade on to which the environment opens out. The intensity and rigour of form and style could almost be described as cinematic, almost anticipating the highly visual stimuli associated with the spectacle of film. Versailles is a cinematic space, and has accommodated filmmakers since the early 20th century, with at least two-hundred films having been shot at the Estate.2 Louis XIV was only keen on allowing painters and engravers approved by the stringent bureaucracy of the

1 Albert Victor Samain, "Versailles", in Mercure de France, issue 13 (Paris: Mercure de France,

January-March 1895), p.270 O Versailles, on this pale afternoon/ Why does your memory obsess me so?/The ardour of summer is fading away/ and now the faded season is bowing towards us.

2 LISTE DES FILMS TOURNES SUR LE DOMAINE NATIONAL DE VERSAILLES 1904 - 2011,

1st edn (Paris: Chateau de Versailles, 2011)

[Accessed 1

November 2021].

S 12 Académie to record Versailles in all its glory, but by the 20th century, when Versailles had long ceased to be the centre of political power in France, no longer were the spaces of this Estate restricted to an élite. Following Louis- Musée de l'Histoire de France at the Palace in 1837 to reconcile the conflicting positions of monarchy and revolution that had tainted the period, Versailles could be seen up close by the tourist, individual painter, poet, or flâneur. A place that would have once prohibited the gaze of the masses now opened its doors and invited them in, but for those not physically present, the proliferation of photography, daguerreotypes, magic lanterns, and peep shows during the 19th century meant that Versailles could be seen and admired by growing numbers of people in a growing number of ways. Coupled with technological innovations, rapid modernisation and burgeoning tourism, the wealth of images that could capture such places of historical interest as Versailles anticipated own interest in depicting or remembering the past, whether it be to document historical landmarks themselves; to use a historical landmark as a reference point to retell the events of something which happened there; to inform us about the people who inhabited such a place; to construct a fictionalised account of historical figures and events, or to exploit the texture, look, and feel of a historical site to create an entirely new story whose plot, themes, or characters lend themselves to such an environment. But the question of how historical films depict or remember the past with reference to particular landmarks, and to specific events and people, is not complete without some consideration of why it might the case that said films depict such places, events, and people in the ways that they do. This thesis will investigate the ways in which historical films use the past, where it be to speak to the concerns of the present moment, to provide a sense of historical continuity, to affirm a particular social contract based upon a set of national traditions, or to bind the various shared culture predicated upon the existence of a national heritage. The question then becomes: what can the depiction of events, people, and places in historical films tell us about the moment of their production and the way said history is remembered by the culture, society, or nation at large? Tis used quite deliberately here because the primary concern in this thesis will be memory, or the way in which individuals, society, and culture shape the way we think about the past, rather than history, which is chiefly concerned with what happened in the past, where it happened, and how such people of a particular world lived, thought, loved, argued and so on. The 13 semantics of the nouns will be returned to shortly, as will the methods and approaches used by historians and adopted by filmmakers, but firstly, the subject matter at hand will be fleshed out, as will the particulars of the argument and the context for this study. the production of historical memory within a nation, culture, or society, as well as the fact that understanding of film as a form of cultural memory can help clarify arguments around the approaches filmmakers take to brining the past to life, such observations are not in and of themselves original. Nevertheless, such observations facilitate the potential for original scholarship in the following ways: through close examination of the film (to look at the ways in which they do history), historical and cultural analysis (to investigate the relationship between film and other ways of remembering the past, and to explicate the significance of allegory, allusion, symbol, metaphor, conceit, and so on in the depiction of history) and archival research (to scrutinise the ways in which release responded to said depictions of history, and what this can tell us more generally about the importance of cultural memory). This thesis will address all of these factors, but where it fills a gap in scholarship (within film studies, memory studies, cultural studies, and history) and makes an original contribution to knowledge is through its content, which pertains to a very specific epoch within a very specific national and cultural context. The main focus will be on the epoch ranging from the era of Louis XIV through to the French Revolution, Ancien Régime Despite the French Revolution bringing to an end Versaillesrole as an active seat of politics and the Ancien Régimes integrity as a political and social system, both Versailles and the Ancien Régime remain important symbols of the past, and what Pierre Nora calls lieux de mémoire, in the context of modern France (for reasons I will go on to elaborate). The thesis will examine depictions of Versailles and the Ancien Régime (as a place, epoch and symbol) in French film, unpacking what insights they can give us into the present moment and to historical memory in the French Republic. constitutes more than the Palace and is now a city and the regional capital of Yvelines in the Western part of Île-de-France, I use the word primarily to refer to the Palace of Versailles and its grounds during its time as the primary seat of power from the reign of Louis XIV through to the start of the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the word is equally a metonym, for as Édouard Pommier Lieux de Mémoire: The construction of the French past 14 (drawing on eloquent descriptions of the place), Versailles epitomized the entire universe3 It is worth quoting in full words, not least because they epitomise that inextricable link between Versailles as a place and

Versailles as a symbol:

Ce n'est pas un palais, c'est une ville entière,

Superbe en sa grandeur, superbe en sa matière.

Non c'est plutôt un monde, où du grand univers

Se trouvent rassemblés les miracles divers.4

Versailles more than the physical place to which the name is given. If we think of the place as a museum of time, where, down each corridor, in every public salon and private bedroom, every stairway and parterre, there once contained real people, who thought real thoughts, and who did real things, the word Versailles becomes more evocative. It comes to denote something much more than an elaborate palace and gardens. It was many grand fêtes, ballets and extravaganzas presided took place; where courtiers gathered in salons to talk and mingle; where distinguished members gathered for the premiere Tartuffe Iphigénie; where Voltaire was welcomed to the court for his poetry and plays; where the intrigues of Madame du Barry and Madame de Pompadour took place, and where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would be met should be understood as a place, a period of history, an idea (though these ideas were not static and evolved over time) and a symbol of national significance. Although

Versailles , and with its history of despotic

Kings and self-indulgent courtiers seems to epitomise the very antithesis of democracy, progress and liberty, it nevertheless paved the way for modern France and L'Ancien Régime et la Révolution, published in

1856, argued that although the Revolution was an attempt for the French to disentangle

themselves from the past and create new structures that were wholly different from those of the Ancien Régime, in the decades after, France reverted to a centralised

3 Pierre Nora, Les Lieux de Mémoire, Gallimard, 1992, [English translation: Realms of Memory: The

Construction of the French Past Volume III: Symbols, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, 1998], p.293.

4 Quoted in, Ibid - / Superb in its grandeur, superb in its

substance/ 15 government, one akin to the processes of modernisation (in the arts and sciences) and centralisation which started under Louis XIV.5 For Tocqueville, there was greater continuity the disjuncture that had been thought previously.6 This argument of this thesis has been conceived on this paradox of continuity and disjuncture between the two worlds and that memories of chy in modern France reveal both their symbolic importance to France and that of the French state more generally, which sees itself as the chief custodians of its own history and culture. I will demonstrate, by unpacking the significance of Versailles and the monarchy in French film, that such ideas of cultural transmission permeate so deeply that how and why these films remember history in the way that they do can be interrogated by placing them within the broader cultural memory. has been acquainted with the moving images since the early 20th century. Its history on the screen could be described nothing short of eclectic, not least because the vast range of filmmakers and television directors who have incorporated it into their films have brought their own artistic, cultural, political, or even philosophical perspective to them. Nevertheless, the perennial interest in Versailles as a place, an epoch, a set of ideas or a symbol by filmmakers values, this particular historical phenomenon (the pre-cursor to the birth of the

Republic) remains A comprehensive list

of films shot at Versailles, listed in the appendices, but if I were to briefly Versailles on- screen, I would break it down as follows:

1. Films and television programmes that put Versailles and the court at

the centre of story (Un Caprice de la Pompadour, Joë Hamman and

Willi Wolff, 1931;

1946; , Sacha Guitry, 1953; Marie Antoinette

Queen of France, Jean Delannoy, 1956; La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV, Roberto Rossellini, 1966; Ridicule, Patrice Leconte, 1995; Le Roi danse, Gérard Corbiau, 2000)quotesdbs_dbs46.pdfusesText_46

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