16 thoughts on “WCW: Anne of Austria

  1. The Three Musketeers (2011) is absolutely banana crackers with all the steampunk and vaguely martial arts fight scenes but it does have one of my favorite set of actors for the Musketeers (after the 2014 series) – and the costumes are pretty (even if Milady’s action girl corset combo is a little OTT).

    If I recall the episodes properly, Anne’s blue dress from the 2014 Musketeers is when she’s in hiding/on the run so presumably it was their interpretation of ‘queen dresses down like peasant girl.’

  2. Geraldine Page is right up there for me with Angela Lansbury in M-G-M’s 1948 “The Three Musketeers”. I hate this film because Frank Morgan as Louis is the definition of ridiculous; but Vincent Price as Richelieu opposite Lana Turner as Milady is delicious enough to make up for it. And D’Artagnan’s sword fight with Rochefort is so fun!

  3. I’m now wondering how in how many of those Three Musketeers movies, did the trio actually use muskets?

    Also, I don’t remember if Anne of Austria ever showed up in the “Wishbone” Three Musketeers episode. If she did, then that would be my favorite version of her.

    1. I know that the 1970s Musketeers (Messers Reed, Chamberlain, Finlay and York) showed Our Heroes do a spot of shooting as part of their war service.

  4. The extraordinary gold-edged-petals ruff on Geraldine Chaplin is weird, but it’s beautifully achieved and I have a sneaking sympathy for its designer; it looks like something s/he saw in a dream and just really, really wanted to create.

    1. I have always loved the Geraldine Chaplin version of Anne of Austria. I really like the short waisted style being seen on film (it’s rather rare). In so many of the others the waist is either 16th or later 17th century. That style of the 1630s, 1640s is so distinct! (I always think of Van Dyck portraits!) I also like that Geraldine Chaplin, while pretty, does not have just a normal actress prettiness. She is a mixture of her very attractive parents with extraordinary cheekbones!

      1. It was only today that I did some digging into the Chaplain family tree and was quite impressed by the sheer number of beautiful ladies it has produced, in more than one generation.

        I was also a little amused to note that Ms. Oona Chaplain bears a strong resemblance to her Aunt Josephine, even stronger than the resemblance to her own mother (I’ve noticed at least one ‘lateral’ resemblance like that in my own family).

  5. Could you miss Catherine Deneuve as queen Anne in that stupid version with Tim Roth as her major opponent and with the strange idea that the obviously old queen Anne never had born Louis XIV?!!!

    But there are so many adaptations (most very bad) of the “Three musketeers especially from France.

  6. I have a soft spot for the characters played by Ms. Juno Temple and Mr Freddie Fox, though the latter is comprehensively unlike the rather dark, gloomy and just a little bi-curious Louis XIII.

    On a related note, for some reason it always amuses me that Louis XIV was quite close with his mother, especially as a very young child (Lady Antonia Fraser’s mentioning that Queen Anne loved bathing her baby boy is quite touching) – having done his formidable best to come across as the untouchable Sun King, it’s rather charming to be reminded that he was a mortal human person.

  7. I think my all time favorite might be Angela Lansbury, if only because it’s Angela Lansbury!

  8. The wired petal collar Geraldine Chaplin I’ve seen in a black and white etching, or wood engraving somewhere… but I cannot find it on the internet anywhere. The soft one in the portrait is interesting, but there is , somewhere I swear! a period depiction of a wired one like she wears in the film.

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