Marie Antoinette Queen of France (1955)

Original title

Marie-Antoinette, reine de France

Directed by

Jean Delannoy

Genre

historical film

Country

France, Italy

Runtime

2h

Rated

U

Rating

6.1 of 10 from 11 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film follows the life of Marie Antoinette from her arrival in France to her execution. It focuses on the political and personal challenges she faced as queen.

statelyhistoricalrestraineddramaticelegiacformalsomber

What happens

Marie Antoinette Queen of France (French: Marie-Antoinette reine de France and also known as Shadow of the Guillotine) is a 1956 French-Italian historical drama film directed by Jean Delannoy who co-wrote the screenplay with Pierre Erlanger and Bernard Zimmer. The film stars Michèle Morgan and Richard Todd. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or (Jean Delannoy) at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. The film was shot in England and French versions. Richard Todd says Nancy Mitford wrote the English language script. It was shot at the Billancourt Studios in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director René Renoux. Todd recalled "Delannois’ style of direction bothered me. He was most meticulous and had worked out every move and gesture himself prior to rehearsal. This I found inhibiting: I didn’t always feel it natural to move exactly where and when he had done, or to gesticulate as he had in his very Gallic and excitable way. I know that Michéle frequently had the same difficulty; most often we played the scenes our own way in the English version, but tried to follow his instructions in the French one. He was a renowned director and a patient, charming man, but not easy for me to work with." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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