18 thoughts on “18th Century Quest: Madame du Barry (1954)

  1. Sleeping Beauty, the World’s Oldest Waxwork https://images.app.goo.gl/o18adB1sp2oi3MnN7 Images may be subject to copyright
    I don’t know if you have ever seen this at Madame Tussauds in London, Kendra. It is Madame Du Barry modelled from life in 1768. I don’t know if the dress is reconstructed or original but this has always fascinated me.

    1. She really is pretty cute, and had a reputation for being kind and good-natured. But OMFG, the FLOOF! I would have just adored those dresses when I was a little girl–pure Disney, only you could do what my mother called “waving her bosom” in them.

    2. Actually it”s a complete myth, and quite a recent one, that “The Sleeping Beauty” was modelled from, or even was supposed to represent, Madame du Barry. From the earliest years of the emigre Mme Tussaud’s exhibits in London until at least the 1930s, this figure was shown as ‘Mme de Sainte Amaranthe, widow of a colonel in the Kings bodyguard, who virtuously refused the advances of Robespierre and was sent to the guillotine in revenge’. This was not only blatantly anti-Jacobin propaganda but also a just-pain-garbled story – Mme de Sainte Amaranthe (who, by the way, was a rackety type who ran a posh gambling club) wasn’t guillotined, but her beautiful daughter, the Marquise de Sartine, was. The mould from which this waxwork was cast (this is certainly not the original wax) may indeed be of her.

      My guess is that the figure was re-identified in response to increasing popular interest in du Barry in the cinema; a string of movies were made about her from 1915 onwards, starring famous names such as Theda Bara and Pola Negri.

  2. Jeanne seems to have been a good natured girl with a soft heart, no doubt a refreshing change from hard as nails court ladies.
    She was guillotined in 1793. She was neither brave nor dignified, crying and struggling. The crowd was said to have been deeply upset by her execution possibly because they could identify with her in a way they could not with other victims.

    1. The haughty aristocracy were appalled by her behaviour but the crowd were stunned into silence by it and it has been said that if more people had behaved like poor Jeanne, the Terror would have ended far earlier.

      1. Her obvious terror made her real to the onlookers, imo. A person not unlike themselves in terrible distress. No wonder they were upset.

  3. The bodice silhouette of the supposed robe de cours is atrocious.The lack of the train in informal occasions is fine,but the court events especially with the king would have called for a train on those gowns.After all,it was created as a court uniform.Those sleeves on the robe de cour might be accurate though,as certain paintings(albeit a minority)do feature flaring cuffs.I have seen lace cuffs towards the elbow on simple sleeves in robe de cour-esque dresses worn by young girls,but perhaps the very early time period of those paintings does not match the time period in which this film takes place nor the era that the costume designer went for.
    https://www.pinterest.com/pin/15481192454520846/
    That hairstyle on the blue court dress might be referencing the sort of low in the front,wavy ringlets in the back sort of updo,except those ringlets start almost at the nape.I think that the Russian court portraits before 1760s show this hairstyle style much more often.Marie Leszczyńska sports a similar hairstyle in many of her portraits,but the back is never seen to reveal the styling details.
    Those 1740’s-50’s hairstyles are inappropriate to the time period,but they do look gorgeous.The actreses almost look like Dresden Figurines in them(the towering 1770’s hairstyles and the hedgehog of the 1780’s look a bit too fussy to me).

  4. The bodice silhouette of the supposed robe de cours is atrocious.The lack of the train in informal occasions is fine,but the court events especially with the king would have called for a train on those gowns.After all,it was created as a court uniform.Those sleeves on the robe de cour might be accurate though,as certain paintings(albeit a minority)do feature flaring cuffs.I have seen lace cuffs towards the elbow on simple sleeves in robe de cour-esque dresses worn by young girls,but perhaps the very early time period of those paintings does not match the time period in which this film takes place nor the era that the costume designer went for.
    That hairstyle on the blue court dress might be referencing the sort of low in the front,wavy ringlets in the back sort of updo,except those ringlets start almost at the nape.I think that the Russian court portraits before 1760s show this hairstyle style much more often.Marie Leszczyńska sports a similar hairstyle in many of her portraits,but the back is never seen to reveal the styling details.
    Those 1740’s-50’s hairstyles are inappropriate to the time period,but they do look gorgeous.The actreses almost look like Dresden Figurines in them(the towering 1770’s hairstyles and the hedgehog of the 1780’s look a bit too fussy to me).

  5. Goodness. After all that sweetness and sugar, I am fairly certain I now have a cavity.

    Note: Be sure to indicate the correct Louis — you have the XVI in one screen descriptor (which was M-A’s hubby) and not the XV (M-A’s father-in-law).

  6. It’s obvious, that the filmmakers didn’t really had the historical background in their mind.

    The men’s coats etc. are as typical for the period to short (more like Prussian uniforms then proper French court dress). However what surprised me was to see Louis XV with his small sword worn in the authentic way (you find the sword often in swordbelts worn OVER the waistcoats or even the sword’s handle cut through the waistcoat (Sachsens Glanz und Preußens Gloria)).

    I would try to see the movie at least for realizing what they did wrong, as the life of Madame du Barry is very well known in detail.

  7. The engraving(?) of a young Du Barry…. MUST be played by Maisie Williams in some movie that needs to get made.

  8. “Mr. du Barry throws some kind of dinner with Jeanne and a couple of male courtiers. It appears they are discussing putting Jeanne in the king’s way. Jeanne is very rough-table-manners-in-a-charming-way and at some point gets pissed (I think about the whole king thing?) and leaves, locking the men in the room.”

    This para had me imagining a RADICALLY different scenario from what you meant to convey, because on this side of the Pond “get pissed” means “get drunk”!

    FYI, over here, if you want to say that a someone has got annoyed, they are “pissed off”, never just “pissed”. Although one can, of course, be both at the same time.

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