New Marie-Antoinette Biopic by Benoît Jacquot Hints at Lesbianism {Movie Teaser}

Les adieux à la reine (Farewell to the Queen) is the new movie about Marie-Antoinette played by Diane Kruger under the direction of Benoît Jacquot to open tomorrow in France. The scenario is based on the eponymous novel written by Chantal Thomas, which received a Prix Fémina in 2002...

Beyond the heritage-movie aspect of this type of film production, which can be more pointedly underlined when the film is directed by a national citizen, this new biopic aims to lift the veil on yet another controversial facet of "The Austrian". This time, it goes further than the unofficial Sofia Coppola biopic in that Marie-Antoinette here turns from having been painted as a straying heterosexual wife with long-time lover Hans Axel de Fersen to being portrayed as a lesbian lover whose known feminine friendships are interpreted as coverups.

Of course, you will need to watch the movie to see how subtle and central to the movie the argument is. You may ask yourself whether it is not simply one more chapter in the mythologizing of the Queen's character.

The sexual thematic at hand at least is nothing new since it appeared in anti-Royalist and xenophobic pamphlets during the lifetime of Marie-Antoinette.

There is a potential slippery slope here since Marie-Antoinette d'Autriche was also accused by revolutionaries at the time and during her trial which led to her death sentence of having an incestuous relationship with her son. Honestly, you'll have to ask yourself the question of whether or not Marie-Antoinette's creative biographers are well-inspired to tap into past political propaganda to enable them to come up with "creative" - doubtful - voyeuristic - no doubt there - twists.