Watched this last week. My local affiliate moved it to midnight and put in a warning about explicit content.
I suppose the explicit content was the pamphlets with illustrations of Marie Antoinette’s purported lewd behavior. The drawings that PBS showed included bare breasts but nothing else. Several of the drawings had parts that were blurred.
Who did the blurring? Did PBS do it, or my local affiliate?
Did you watch it? Was it censored in your area? Seems like if they’re going to show it at midnight, they could have left it alone. I felt like a 9-year-old, watching it.
Good production, but the superficial part of me kept wondering what was up with Marie Antoinette’s hair. I assume she wore wigs, but why gray ones? Most of the paintings showed her with gray hair, or a gray wig. Was there a time when gray hair on women was in?
Y’know, I wondered about that too. A week or two ago, Entertainment Weekly reviewed a book about Marie Antoinette called Queen of Fashion, by Caroline Weber. A quote from the review says, “Whether by refusing to bind her young figure in prisonlike corsets, popularizing her signature wedding-cake-high pouf hairdos, experimenting with menswear, or indulging in fancier costume-ball disguises than even Project Runway’s Kayne Gillaspie could whip up, Maire Antoinette made headlines with every outift she wore.” (Emphasis added.) Maybe this book answers the question?
The sidebar also notes that “According to Weber, Marie Antoinette’s signature pouf hairdos were ‘almost impossible to wash and so became breeding grounds for all manner of vermin.’ Though special head scratchers were designed, some itchiness proved unavoidable.” I, for one, was disappointed that the PBS special didn’t dedicate time to these issues. I’m considering reading the book.
I’d like to have seen more of the practical side of being an 18th century fashion maven too. This was sort of a Classics Illustrated version, hitting the political and personal points, almost in outline style.
I also wondered why her mother didn’t send some advisors with her, some Austrian relatives who might have helped (forced) her to tone it down some. Sending the brother to help Louis in the bedroom was something, but Miss Marie needed political guidance.
A couple of the commentators believed that Marie’s early frivolous behavior sealed her doom, but I wasn’t convinced of that. Even if she’d been a “good queen” all those years, it seemed like nothing less than royal bloodshed would satisfy the revolution.
I really need to do some reading on this. I’ve read some historical novels about the Revolution, but they were bodice rippers.
I’m not sure of the complete why and wherefore of powder use, but powder helps blend false hair with your own. As hairdos got bigger and bigger, powder use became more prevalent among women. La Couturiere Parisienne has a good article on 18th-century hairstyles here.
Gr8Kat, I’ve heard that the vermin stories are widely exaggerated. Most women (as in middle class and lower class) wouldn’t have worn the enormous styles, and women at court would have changed theirs frequently. Even portraits of court women usually show them in something much more modest than a ship at full sail. Not saying that there weren’t a few among them that had headlice, but the stories of mice and such in hair? Exaggerated.
Well, no, I wouldn’t imagine mice or anything like that running around up there. I guess I’d have to read the book to see what exactly she meant by “vermin,” but I’m picturing headlice, maybe fleas, creepy little bloodsuckers like that that might be hard to dig out of mountains of hair. I’m feeling itchy jsut thinking about it.
An interesting bit in that article (thanks, Miss Purl) was about washing hair without soap – just water – and how it preserves natural oils and leaves hair shiny.
I’m tempted to try that for awhile. I’m tired of dry dull hair, and maybe it’s the shampoo’s fault.
I recommend Antonia Fraser’s Marie Antoinette. It describes the life and death of the Queen in great detail, including explaining the great friction between France and Austria, which might have led the populace to hate their Austrian Queen and her advisor.
