18 thoughts on “TBT: Royal Affairs in Versailles, Part 1

      1. What about Nancy for the lovely Art Nouveau architecture and Villa Marjorelle for example as well as the Victor Prouvé Gown in l’Ecole de Nancy?

        See I had another question but I believe Claudette Colbert spoke 3 languages, but can’t remember the third.

  1. Is it me, or do those blue satin monstrosities look like the same dress? :)

  2. Ahem – those are absolutely not ‘medals’! Medals are metal discs with a suspension loop. From the 16th through the 17th century political, personal, commemorative and devotional medals were made and could be worn on a chain round the neck. (Medals for military service or similar didn’t exist before the late 18th century.) What Louis XIV is wearing is the badge of the Ordre du Saint-Esprit, on the blue riband (= shoulder sash) of the Order, known in French as ‘le Cordon Bleu’. Henri IV and hs lad are wearing a smaller version of the badge on neck-ribbons, also blue. (That’s how you can tell it’s the Saint-Esprit: no other French order of chivalry has a blue riband.) Cardinal Mazarin is wearing one too.

    1. Poly baroque Satin looks like poo 💩 in any colour, but light blue says ‘I have diarrhea and am ….’ tons of 💩 💩 💩 💩 ensue. First comment bc I might be distracted by really neat snark.

  3. Wow, that looks just terrible, apart from Louis XIV’s wigs. (Perhaps cheap satin looks worse when pale blue because of Disney’s Cinderella-at-the-ball and all those awful little-girl dress-up costumes that emerged from it.) And I had no idea Colbert ever played Mme. de Montespan. She was way too old for the role, but I’ve always liked Claudette’s sparkly quality.

  4. It was the 50’s; polyester was the new wonder fabric (except in case of fire, when it melted onto the body.) If you want a better look at that period, hunt up a copy of Elliott O’Donnelll’s “Old Court Life In France,” vols 1 & 2. Probably to be found in used book stores. I was in Paris in 1955 and saw Guitry twice drinking with friends on Boulevard Michelin. Don’t remember much what he looked like, but I do remember a strong sense of his presence.

  5. Oohhh…I can’t wait to see more of this film! How exciting! I didn’t even know it existed.

  6. About the weird fathinghale of queen Marie-Thérèse, I read somewhere that it was called a “garde-infante” and had to do with no one coming at their side or something like that…
    Also come one day to Lyon, we have the best food and an awesome museum of cinema, which has a lot of costumes and setting, including those of Le Parfum!

  7. Madame de Maintenon wore black when she was second mistress of the robes to the Dauphine Marie Anne Victoire. It was the dress that went with the job. As she wrote to a friend, ‘Now that I belong to a princesse I shall always wear black.’

  8. I love this movie (despite the costumes).
    But, as all the Guitry’s plaus and movies, its interest lies in the brillant and sparkling dialogues.
    There is no point watching it without subtitles

  9. Guitry was a strange director. He produced some masterpieces and a lot of boring stuff. It’s strange how he sometimes tried to reflect historical images on screen and otherwise made poor pictures. He obviously loved colours. It’s difficult to comprendre his films today when we all are familiar with that grey and darkness on all pictures in historical films.

  10. Did women routinely wear long white gloves with their formal dress in this period, that is, the mid- to late-1600’s? I don’t remember seeing a whole lot of imagery of long gloves as part of ladies’ formal costume before the Revolutionary/Napoleonic/Regency era.

Comments are closed.