The Affair of the Necklace (2001)

Regisseur:

Charles Shyer

Drehbuchautor (WGA):

John Sweet (written by)

Premierendatum:

30. November 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Werbezeile:

This summer, one woman wins.....

Plot:

In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country, must avenge her family's fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace.

Plot Keywords:

Affair Of The Necklace | 1700s | Historical | 1770s | Illuminati

Filmpreise:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Nutzerkommentare:

A well known tale ...and a redeemed Comtesse de la Motte!

Besetzung

Hilary Swank	...	Jeanne St. Remy de Valois
Jonathan Pryce	...	Cardinal Louis de Rohan
Simon Baker	...	Rétaux de Vilette
Adrien Brody	...	Count Nicolas De La Motte
Brian Cox	...	Minister Breteuil
Joely Richardson	...	Marie-Antoinette
Christopher Walken	...	Count Cagliostro
Hayden Panettiere	...	Young Jeanne
Simon Kunz	...	Minister of Titles
Paul Brooke	...	Monsieur Bohmer
Peter Eyre	...	Monsieur Bassenge
Frank McCusker	...	Abel Duphot
Simon Shackleton	...	Louis XVI
Hermione Gulliford	...	Nicole Leguay d'Oliva
Geoffrey Hutchings	...	President D'Aligre

Alternativ:

Halsband der Königin, Das (Deutschland) [de]

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality.

Länge:

USA:118 Min

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch

Farbe:

Farbe (Technicolor)

Seitenverhältnis:

2.35 : 1

Tonverfahren:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Altersfreigabe:

Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 | USA:R (certificate #38526) | Iceland:12 | Canada:A (Ontario)

Drehorte:

Alincourt, Ardennes, France

Firma:

Alcon Entertainment

Dies und das:

In the 1938 film Marie Antoinette (1938), Norma Shearer refused any complimentary make-up for the final scene showing her character going to the guillotine. She wanted to look as haggard and exhausted as the real queen had in her final moments. In the final scene for this movie, Joely Richardson expressed the same effects as she tried to convey as her reflection can be viewed in the water bucket beside guillotine before the beheading.

Dialogzitate:

Minister Breteuil: [to Louis about Antoinette wanting public vindication] The queen offers up a sweet plum before ravens. Pray none takes a bites.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Verweis/Anspielung/Erwähnung in Designing Affair: The Making of 'Affair of the Necklace' (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Turkish Lute

A well known tale ...and a redeemed Comtesse de la Motte!

This storylike true story had already been filmed by Marcel Lherbier in 1946,with Vivianne Romance -famous for her bitchy parts-,a more than adequate comtesse de la Motte.

This is the first mistake of this "remake":Hilary Swank portrays a genuine heroine,whose properties have been stolen by an unfair monarchy,whose father was some kind of Robin Hood who protected the poor against the cruelty of times.She appears most of the time as a victim,a noble adventuress,with a romantic love affair with her sidekick,but it's the ending in London that takes the biscuit,when she reads her memoirs to old posh sobbing ladies "oh poor thing!oh poor dear!" Les "memoires de madame de la Motte" -which were published in France during the revolution are obnoxious,trash stuff..Historian Jean Chalon quotes this line in that notorious book "the voluptuous princess -she's speaking of Marie-Antoinette- was waiting for me in her bed ,and I must say she took advantage of her husband's absence..."Actually Marie-Antoinette never met madame de la Motte and the scene under the snow when the queen accuses la comtesse of ruining the monarchy is pure fiction.

The scenarists are as naive as the cardinal de Rohan,and as the people of Paris 1786,who thought Madame de la Motte's punishment was unfair.La Motte wouldn't stay long in la Salpetriere anyway,and some say she was helped to escape.As for cardinal de Rohan ,he was far from being a saint,but he was naiveté itself.how could he believe that Marie Antoinette ,who had always despised her and never spoke to him,could use him as an emissary?

The film is entertaining and a lot of scenes are more historically accurate -such as the grove of Venus and the trial:that's was the queen's mistake:the king did not need the parlament to judge somebody-. Walken is ideally cast as comte de Cagliostro ,as Brody as Nicolas de la Motte.But the Queen's execution (1793) comes at the most awkward moment ,and La Motte was dead (in 1791) when it occurred anyway.The scenarists suggest her death might have been a crime :never a French earnest historian made a hint at that.At the time,the royal family had more important problems to solve .

The scenarists say that the affair of the necklace was the direct cause for the French revolution,which is a narrow-minded view.It might have been the straw that broke the camel's back but the reasons were much more complex and the students should take a better look at it.

The movie does not tell that after his exile,Rohan was restored to favor during the revolution ,became part of the Etats-Généraux" in 1789 ,and died in Germany in 1803,the last of the dramatis personae