The Flood (2024), aka Le Déluge, is opening in late December in France. It tells the story of the final days/weeks/months of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France, as the French Revolution gets going and the two eventually lose their lives. Given my interest in the period and all things Marie-Antoinette-y, you can bet I’m waiting impatiently for this to be released in the US!
As the trailer just dropped, let’s take a watch. FYI there are English subs on this if you click on the CC (closed caption) button:
The film stars Guillaume Canet (Cézanne et moi) as Louis, Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, Operation Finale) as Marie-Antoinette, and Roxane Duran (The White Ribbon, Mary Queen of Scots, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Marie Antoinette, and Interview with the Vampire) as the Princesse de Lamballe.
The film’s costumes are designed by Massimo Cantini Parrini, so they’re going to be good!
Here’s my thoughts on the trailer:
What’s your thoughts on what we can see so far of The Flood?
I rather like that when they are banged up together she gets to take the waistcoat from her first ice-blue redingote and wear it over her chemise a la reine. It’s not something that would ever have been done socially (and I get what you’re saying about the chemise gown not being a tactful look), but the message that ‘what the heck, here we all are in prison, there’s nobody here to impress, and it’s COLD without an extra layer’ is well conveyed, IMO.
The costumes and wigs look promising for sure in this production. I love the shades of blue and white.
I am always slightly disappointed though that all of the actors that are cast a MA are nowhere near as full in the face or chest as the real MA. Not a huge deal for me but maybe someday!
I think the only actress rightly cast in terms of figure and likeness is Charlotte de Turckheim in Jefferson in Paris.
I’m more disappointed by the consistent lack of The Nose – but then we all have our own fancies.
One more unnecessary movie about the same topic. It’s looking very artificial. I can only say that I hate this white hat on the king’s head.
Louis XVI’s limited wardrobe is odd, but he was a rather simple soul: liked tinkering around in his workshop with clocks and such. (Like the late Betty Windsor, he would been happier as a prosperous country gentleperson.) For all we know, he dressed quite plainly much of the time, and had some favorite suits for king business. But those portrait miniature buttons! I want them–or a close-up of them–so bad. And the satins are truly gorgeous.
It might be a small thing, but I’m very happy to see minimal/light makeup on the eyes and eyebrows for the women! Dark eyeliner and shadow and heavily done brows are so off for a lot of periods and especially this one, as the portraits attest, though I know to that to the modern eye it’s odd to see what otherwise looks like a full face (face powder, rouge, and lipstick) without them
Also it should be notes that he only wore the blue ribbon of Ordre du St Esprit on ceremonial days, otherwise he would have had the Star of the order sewn in on his everyday clothes (at court at least)
I’m not going to lie, it’s a little bit delightful to see an actress from BBC Marie Antoinette pop up in a film set at roughly the same time (Deeply amusing to see ‘Madame’ shift from anti- to pro-MA in the process).
All about women’s underwear! The LRB site is behind a paywall, but everyone gets at least one free article.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n22/clare-bucknell/at-the-rijksmuseum
In my opinion, the hair nitpicking is a bit silly, given that they’ve obviously been allowed only a tiny bit of space in the long gallery in which to do most of their living. From the trailer, we have no idea where or how often they were allowed to clean up and do their hair, but we do see that their servants and companions were taken away. You try keeping your hair period-perfect when you’re in jail!