Seydoux and Kruger shoot Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen

by Fabien Lemercier

20/06/2011 - Shooting has been underway since May 23 at the Palace of Versailles on Benoît Jacquot’s twentieth feature: Farewell, My Queen, an adaptation of Chantal Thomas’s eponymous historical novel retracing the collapse of France’s monarchy on July 14, 15 and 16, 1789.

Co-produced by Spain, the film stars Léa Seydoux (Dear Prudence [trailer]), Diane Kruger (Unknown [trailer]), Xavier Beauvois (Villa Amalia [trailer]), Virginie Ledoyen (All That Glitters [trailer]), Noémie Lvovsky (House of Tolerance [trailer]) and Michel Robin.

Scripted by Gilles Taurant (nominated four times for the Best Screenplay César) and Jacquot (selected in competition at Cannes in 1998 and at Venice in 1997, 1999 and 2006), the film centres on Sidonie Laborde (Seydoux), the Queen’s young reader.

Carefree and entirely devoted, not to say enamoured, she makes the most of her moments of closeness with Marie-Antoinette (Kruger) whom she so admires. However, she is unaware that these are the last three days she will spend with her highly controversial mistress, in a Versailles full of pomp and extravagance, at the time of the French Revolution.

Beauvois plays King Louis XVI, while Ledoyen appears as Duchess Gabrielle de Polignac and Lvovsky as the Queen’s first chambermaid, Madame Campan.

Produced by GMT Productions for around €6.5m, Farewell, My Queen is executive co-produced by Les Films du Lendemain and also has co-production support from France 3 Cinéma, Euro Media and Spain’s Morena Films. Pre-bought by Canal+ and Ciné+ (formerly known as CinéCinéma), the feature also has backing from the Ile-de-France region and Sofica La Banque Postale Image, Uni Etoile and Soficinéma.

Shooting will take place until July 11 in Versailles and other locations in the Paris area. French theatrical distribution will be handled by Ad Vitam and international sales by Elle Driver.

(Translated from French)