Customer Reviews

Affair of Necklace [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I understand that historic episodes adapted into film must be changed to a certain degree in order to be viewable in the movie theaters.However, in this case, real History is far more interesting and complex than the horror they made when writting the script of this movie and this is why:

-In the movie, Jeanne de la Motte descended from the Valois royal family, and her wealthy father got killed because he wanted people to be free and he could lay claim to the French throne...False! In reality, Jeanne claimed to descend from an Ilegitimate son of Henri II of Valois(The Bastard of Angouleme) which means her father had no legal rights on the French throne.Moreover, her father was a drunk in real life and her mother was a prostitute.

-In the movie Jeanne also is presented as a victim of the Monarchy, by writting her memoirs. The movie doesn't mention however that Jeanne falsely implicated Marie Antoinette in the Affair of the Necklace and she blackmailed her up untill the revolution.The Queen was innocent of everything.

In other words, the movie presents a rather innocent almost angelic Jeanne de la Motte when in reality she was a far darker, more corrupted woman who never stopped intriguing untill the time of her death.

The only thing worth seeing about this movie are the costumes and sets: they are extremely accurate and they got the chance to film some scenes in Versailles which is very rare.

Let's hope Sofia Coppola makes this story more justice in her upcoming picture "Marie Antoinette"...

What a wretched piece of cinema. I mean, truly wretched. And the fault lies almost totally with Hillary Swank. She plays Jeanne de la Motte with such-over-the top mellodrama. She never seems to totally connect with the character, giving us this wide-eyed, fast-talking character that is neither compelling nor sympathetic.

What an utter shame. For she was surrounded by some true talent. The actor who plays Cardinal de Rohan is fantastic. In fact, all of the secondary actors and actresses do a decent job.

There's also the matter of the wildly inaccurate retelling of history. Clearly the writers and director wanted viewers to feel terribly sorry for poor little Jeanne. They perverted history in the telling of the story, casting Jeanne in the role of the poor, innocent, misused and discarded aristocrat who is justified in her actions. The truth was, Jeanne de la Motte was a whore and a thief, a con-woman who helped topple the monarchy and murder a queen. For more information on the affair of the necklace, read Simon Schama's book Citizens, or visit the award-winning website, Let Them Eat Cake.

The costumes in this movie are phenomenal. Truly eye candy. If it weren't for the wonderful sets and splendid costumes, this movie would have rated a ZERO.

This historical drama is very nearly fabulous - but just misses it. It is a famous tale of intrigue and scandal, one that lent fiery fuel to Marie Antoinette's bad reputation, which in turn led to her beheading. It is the story of Countess Jeanne St. Remy Valois, played by Hilary Swank in her first role after winning an Oscar for *Boys Don't Cry*. Perhaps the point was to see how Miss Swank could act while wearing a dress, but the results are mixed, to say the least. Made out to be completely sympathetic, the Countess sees her father murdered and their property taken from them, and she wishes to avenge the wrong done to them. Begging for an audience with the Queen (Joely Richardson *is* fabulous as Marie Antoinette), the Countess is rebuffed. Meanwhile, in an unrelated episode, the Queen's jewelers have designed a magnificent diamond necklace, but the Queen, though she allegedly covets the necklace, does not purchase it, leaving the jewelers in a tight spot. The Countess falls in with an attractive courtier and also forms an alliance with Cardinal de Rohan (played magnificently by Jonathon Pryce), who is out of favor with the Queen, and convinces him to buy the necklace to smooth things over between them. Of course, the Countess is planning on stealing the necklace so that she may live happily ever after. Through machinations such a stolen letterhead, mistaken identities and other deceptions, the story comes to a boil when the details of the scandal begin to see the light of day, and unravels the careers of everyone concerned (especially Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette). It is a gripping story in the right hands. Clearly director Charles Shyer's oeuvre is comedy, and he's written, directed or produced many fine ones, such as *Private Benjamin*, *Irreconcilable Differences*, *Father of the Bride* and *The Parent Trap*. But historical drama is not his long suit. The supporting cast, cinematography, costumes and art direction are superb and engaging, but Swank is the weak link in the equation. She is simply not skilled enough to handle the role - she is passionless and wooden, but fortunately there are many scenes without her that sizzle with drama. All in all, there is a great deal of entertainment here, and if you though Hilary Swank was good in *Beverly Hills 90210*, then you'll love her in this.

This film tries to make a believable drama out of what was in fact one of the most hopelessly bungled con jobs in history. While the Affair of the Necklace did, indeed, help to blacken Marie Antoinette's reputation, it didn't do all that much new damage; as Hilary Swank's character remarks near the end of the film, the king and queen had already pretty much ruined the monarchy well before 1785-86, when the events of the story actually took place.

Overall the outlines of the plot are accurate in so far as the actual swindle is concerned, but the film has one unforgivable deliberate fault.

The historical Jeanne de Lamotte-Valois (to use her correct birth name, Jeanne de St-Remy) was indeed descended from one of the many illegitimate sons of the Valois king Henri II, who died more than 200 years before Jeanne got her hands on that necklace. Jeanne's ancestor was legitimized and created baron de St-Remy; his offspring used that surname and not the royal Valois name--Jeanne herself used it to give herself some social leverage, and then added it to her husband's surname, Lamotte. Otherwise the film's representation of Jeanne's background is false.

Nicolas de Lamotte was not a genuine count any more than Jeanne was the unfairly dispossessed daughter of a high-minded socially reforming baron killed by the government. Her father was a wastrel and drunkard who, before his early death, gambled away whatever was left of the family fortune (and it wasn't much to begin with). Jeanne had a brother and sisters, though none of them seems to have come to much good. Her mother was an illiterate peasant, not a member of the noble class.

All the folderol about Jeanne's idyllic childhood in the family chateau, and her determination to win it back, was apparently added by the film's writer and producers to whitewash Jeanne's otherwise disreputable story. Simply put, she was an adventuress and a con woman whose real social standing was typified by the ease with which she and her husband found a prostitute to impersonate the queen during the midnight meeting with Cardinal de Rohan in the gardens of Versailles.

While most of the events the film represents are accurate, the story thus rests upon heavily fictionalized foundations. The film's unevenness, however, is not exclusively for that reason.

Its main drawback is Swank, who lacks the dramatic presence for a film of this nature. She looks nothing like an eighteenth-century Frenchwoman and fails to create a remotely believable characterization of such a woman. Some of the other characters succeed rather better, especially the House Minister, Baron de Breteuil, and Jeanne's lover, Retaux de Villette, who forged the real queen's correspondence with Cardinal de Rohan (a third excellent performance).

Unfortunately the other weak spot here is Joely Richardson's Marie Antoinette. Not that Richardson is not a bad actress--for that matter, neither is Swank. But both are out of their element here. Richardson tumbles into every pitfall that awaits when as heavily-cliched an historical figure as Marie Antoinette is portrayed. Her performance gives the beleaguered queen no hint of humanity, though we know that the queen was in fact troubled by her unpopularity though she never understood how to reverse it. Richardson can be seen to much better advantage in the TV series "Nip/Tuck" and Swank in pretty much every other film she has ever made--just not this one.

Costumes, sets and photography are excellent across the board. But the sound track is dominated by the music of Georg Frideric Handel, a Germano-British composer who died nearly 20 years before the events in the film took and whose splendid music by the 1780s was hardly ever heard outside England. Marie Antoinette was fond of works by Haydn, Gluck, Mozart and-auugh!-Salieri, and their music would have been much more appropriate here than Handel's.

The Affair of the Necklace is an entertaining and lavish retelling of the infamous scandal, in the years just prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution, that invloved a disgraced countess, a lecherous cardinal, the Queen of France, and a fabulous diamond necklace.

Hillary Swank plays the Comtesse de la Motte Valois, the daughter of a disgraced and murdered nobleman who is obsessed with reclaiming her title and her lands. Though married to a rakish philanderer, she falls in with a handsome though disreputable courtier named Rateux de Villet and the two hatch a ploy to use the rich and influential cardinal Rohan to buy the necklace, supposedly for Marie Antoinette, but in reality so that the Comtesse can use the diamonds to buy back her estate and reinstate her family's reputation. Once the cardinal realizes he has been duped he sets out to bring down the conspirators, but before he can, he himself is accused of complicity in the affair, along with his shady and mysterious "mystic" advisor Count Cagliostro, played by an outrageously wonderful Christopher Walken. The ensuing scandal enflames the country as the public, already resentful of the extravagance and indifference of the aristocracy, blame the ostentaciously elegant Antoinette as the true architect of the affair. The resulting backlash over the scandal helps to ingnite the Revolution and sends Antoinette and Louis XVI to the guillotine.

The Affair of the Necklace has its faults, but overall it is engaging and beautifully filmed, with sumptuous costumes and lavish sets. Swank is a little out of her element as the noble Comtesse, but even her American accent and sometimes cheesy dialogue can be overlooked. Walken is over-the-top but enjoyable as the charlatan seer Cagliostro, Jonathan Pryce is excellent as the sleazy cardinal Rohan, and Joley Richardson gives a good performance in her role as Marie Antoinette. This is an enjoyable piece of historic drama.

One not so very special saturday morning, I decided to watch this movie since it was about to start on HBO. And on this not so very special saturday morning, I was sucked into this not so very special movie.

Perhaps it was the haughty elegance of this period in time that made me watch this movie from start to finish. Maybe it was the dashing Simon Baker, or the intriging Adrien Brody. It was certainly not, I assure you, because of Hillary Swank.

Perhaps that isn't fair of me. After all, it would be a hard task to make such a controversial and not very admirable person in history someone you can be empathetic towards. For my part, I felt that Swank's character was not fiery enough to like, not pathetic enough to feel sorry for, and certainly not emotional enough to feel sad for. As for Simon Baker; one moment, a flirtatious gigalo who helps Swank through her scandalous plan. The next moment, he's a romantic hero sacrificing everything in the name of love. And Adrien Brody, an almost comical character that is vengeful and then willing to join the scandal about, oh, five seconds later. Marie Antoinette's protrail was well done, but suprisingly, not a key factor in the overall plotline. Why? As a whole the cast did a good job considering the script was dry and didn't give much for character devolpment.

The costuming was superb, the acting splendid at parts and drab at others, the truth bent and curled in hollywood's image. Overall, this is the perfect Blockbuster rental, but certainly not the perfect anything else.

About 5 minutes into this, I realized that I had to suspend knowledge of everything I know to get though the movie. Once I put this into a neat little pile of "fiction," I loved it. The film itself is just beautiful, amazing camera work, the shots from/in Versailles, the music - just fantastic. The script itself was fine...as a work of fiction. In terms of historical accuracy - ay, dios mio - what #$&*@. Jeanne's genealogy is off all the way from the beginning of the line to the depiction of her parents and her siblings are nonexistant. Poor siblings. The cast does a great job, except for Chris Walken (shocking right?). He couldn't pull it together and manages to deliver only one great line in his first scene.

But with all of its historical failures, I seriously loved it. Really I could watch it again and again.

"L'Affaire du Collier" may be based upon a true story, but it is also an enthralling historical romance, "The Queen's Necklace," by Alexandre Dumas, who certainly had more than the "Three Musketeers" up his sleeve. Dumas relates the identical story of Joseph Balsamo (aka Count Cagliostro), Jeanne de la Motte Valois, the lecherous but charming Cardinal de Rohan and the great diamond scam, although the movie makers give Dumas no credit whatsoever (I note that the book is available on Amazon.com, and I highly recommend it!).

The costume designer, Malena Canonero, deserves plaudits for the swathes of silks, satins, and lace jabots that recreate the opulence of the 18th-century court of Louis XVI magnificently. The settings are also splendid. I found much of the music jarring, however, in that the composer insisted on giving it a modern beat at times, and also used a mish-mash of Mozart's "Requiem," among other things. I find such cuts and rearrangement of a bar here; a bar there, to be both lazy and a bit of a cheat. In the featurette, the director explained that he wanted to make the period "accessible" to modern audiences. Such "accessibility" not only insults the intelligence of the modern audience but also weakens the movie.

Because the story is so strong, I nevertheless enjoyed the film. I was particularly impressed with the performances of Jonathan Pryce as the suave Cardinal, Adrien Brody as Jeanne's feckless husband, and Simon Baker, who is especially engaging as her love interest. All of them are believable and move well in their silks. Although Hilary Swank is an excellent actress, I thought she was miscast in this role. She looks a trifle uncomfortable in her costume and moves more like a woman of the twenty-first century rather than one of the eighteenth.

These reservations aside, I shall keep this film and doubtless watch it again.

Much as I loved Hillary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry", she should not have been cast in this movie. She's too contemporary, too American, and not believable as a scheming, manipulative social climber.

Christopher Walken has a Gary Oldman hairdo, and a strange role. He also is miscast.

The film is beautifully shot, the costumes are gorgeous, but the uneven accents and inconsistent performances are annoying.

As a long time Marie-Antoinette fan, I have studied closely her tragic story, particularly the infamous Affair of the necklace. When I saw the film poster a few weeks before the movie was actually released, I could barely hide my excitement.
I ended up tremenduously disappointed. If it had not been for the amazing costumes, the beautiful settings and Joely Richardson who plays a credible Marie-Antoinette (the 3 reasons why I am going to buy the DVD), I am not sure I would have watched until the end.
Let alone that the story is not historically accurate, the director never seems to know what he wants to make of his main character, Jeanne de la Motte (Hilary Swank). Is she the poor orphan trying to regain her tittle or the con artist who plotted to steal a stunning piece of jewellery for her own benefit? The script continuously struggles with those two options, and it reflects poorly on the end result.
The movie had the potential to match "Dangerous Liaisons" or "Ridicule". Instead, it turns into a farce, and not a credible one at that!