FAREWELL MY QUEEN

Perhaps because I am not a great scholar of French history, I could simply sit back and enjoy this film which took place in four days in July of 1789, inside the insular walls of Versailles, as seen through the eyes of the Queen's reader,"Sidonie."  The Queen, Marie Antoinette, played by the gorgeous Diane Kruger, is presented as a charming, if somewhat like a temperamental, spoiled child, but she is nevertheless quite appealing and likeable. Wonderfully directed by Benoit Jacquot, the audience is pulled into the very corridors and rooms of the palace, creating the "you are there" feeling" as you follow the absolutely loyal and devoted young "Sidonie" who is happiest when she can serve her Queen. Gossip abounds, some of it accurate, some not, as the days lead up to the actual Revolution. That Marie was enamored of another woman came as a surprise to me, I had never heard that before (remember, I'm not a student of French history). Based on a novel by Chantal Thomas, the beautiful costumes and excellent cinematography deserve appreciation.