Sunday television viewing is ultra-competitive. Prestige television abounds.
It is so competitive, in fact, that one of the great breakout shows is in danger of not even actually breaking out entirely. Why isn’t PBS Masterpiece Theater’s Marie Antoinette getting any social media love? It is quite wonderful and almost entirely ignored on Twitter. Is there even a hashtag? Who handles PBS’s social media, for that matter?
PBS’s Marie Antoinette, which was renewed for a second season (despite the lack of social buzz), is the latest feminist re-consideration of the eighteenth century queen. She is not just remembered here for the unfortunate “s'ils n'ont plus de pain, qu'ils mangent de la brioche (a misquote, besides).” Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) is portrayed here as a multi-dimensional human personality as well as an historical force, sidelined, but ready to break out.
The ravishingly beautiful Emilia Schüle (swoon), who plays the last queen of France before the Revolution, does a pitch-perfect job portraying a bird in a very gilded cage. Her entire life has been spent in the courts of the Hapsburgs and then those in France. The writing, the production, the performances — everything, quite frankly — is leagues above Sophia Coppola’s vapid rock and roll princess film. And I am not alone in this. "I did get a bit mad about the Coppola film because it really just scratches upon the surface of everything she went through,” Emilia Schüle told InStyle. “I don't think it really gives does justice to her. She's just so much more complex than that." Charmed, I’m sure.
In Coppola’s defense, she had two hours to capture the essence of the last queen while PBS’s Marie Antoinette will have, after next season, about sixteen. And granted, Coppolla, a highly talented nepo-baby, was trying to portray in those two hours an excess more suited to a rock playlist. But I draw the line at historical dramas that willfully eschew period music for something more exotic and teen friendly. Why? Period music is organic to the drama of a period piece. There was a thing at the turn of the millennium where period films, in trying to capture the imagination of the MTV-obsessed, interspersed rock and roll music into the narrative to be — I don’t know — irreverent? Outrageous? Rolling Stone loved when films like A Knight’s Tale did so, but that time, thankfully, has passed us by and we are back to organicity.
Which leads me to the show’s inclusion of Chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bologne. “The Chevalier” — also known as the Black Mozart — is having a bit of a risurgimento himself, which is about time. As aggrieved monsters like Tucker Carlson fall, forgotten — and suppressed — history rises to fill the void. The Chevalier’s story, referenced strongly in PBS’s Marie Antoinette, is showcased in an new, lush historical biopic directed by Stephen Williams. As Jim Hemphill writes in IndieWire:
Bologne’s story is so incredible that it’s hard to believe no one has made a major film about it before. The son of a French plantation owner and an African slave born in 1745, he was a celebrated violinist and composed symphonies, operas, and string quartets — as well as serving as confidante to Marie Antoinette. Then, the man President John Adams once described as “the most accomplished man in Europe” drifted into obscurity while his white counterparts became world-famous figures.
Both Abels and Bowers were excited by the opportunity to take a deep dive into Bologne’s life and work. “I remember when I first heard of him because it was a kind of revelation to me that he existed and wrote what he did,” Abels told IndieWire. For Bowers, an article describing Bologne as “the black Mozart” first alerted him to the composer’s significance. “I read that before I came on to this project, then when I started work on this I really got to dive into his work and know it on an intimate level,” Bowers said. Bowers quickly realized that Bologne had a bold confidence that he wanted the score to reflect. “It was really about trying to create a score that was modern and represented Joseph relative to the times he was living in. It needed palpable energy and urgency, but we had to balance that with making sure it still felt rooted in Joseph’s music and what Michael had done.”
Bologne’s story, like so many others, have been forgotten. Pushed aside; suppressed; relegated to the women and colored section of History. Like Marie Antoinette’s, whose story has been distilled into that of an aristocratic, well-dressed cake eater. The men — always men and always white — are what matter in the Tucker Carlson version of reality.
But in this new Masterpiece Theater version of the story, we see her, navigating as a young girl the intrigues of Versailles. Only Versailles, in the telling of this story, is a theater of cruelty, it’s Hall of Mirrors reflecting the treachery of its participants, vying for power. We see Marie trying to have a baby, in service to her family dynasty, her raison d’etre for being. We see her championing Bologne, another bird in a gilded cage, in her salon. And we see her, most of all, rebelling, as any sensible person would do if trapped in a gilded cage for the amusement of cruel captors. The age’s costume — heavy fabrics, stockings and corsets — which the show accurately depicts, forced Schüle to rely on crew to eat and drink and get around the set, as she imagines Marie Antoinette must have done with her very own ladies-in-waiting. "They really did just oppress women," she says of Eighteenth Century fashion.
On Sunday, Episode Six: Deus Ex Machina aired. In it, the Queen and King finally achieved sexual congress. Next episode, Seven: The Ostrich Bitch. Marie gets pregnant, easing a lot of her -- and her Hapsburg family -- anxieties. Still, outside the walls, revolution is brewing.
But don’t just tune in for the Masterpiece Theater “castle porn,” which is so cliché. Really dig into the feminist take of a story from the perspective of this almost entirely maligned historical figure. Emilia Schüle, who is breathtaking to look at, gives us a nuanced portrayal of a talented young woman of uncommonly good taste. She is interesting as a human character. And, of course, the organic addition of the music of Chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bologne, wholly welcome, is a part of the story up until now untold.
“While Sudan has faced multiple civil wars before, this clash is the most catastrophic because of its threat to civilians and state institutions.” (Foreign Policy)
A Bloody Turn in Africa's Story of Hope (Spiegel International)
Tucker, Twitter and Taibbi (The Time of Monsters)
Uganda’s Twitter Battleground (CJR)
“So Tucker Carlson believes he’s a world-beater, that he’s in control. But the company is in control, never think you’re bigger than the company. (Bob Lefsetz)
‘Chevalier’ Breathes New Life Into the Music of the ‘Black Mozart’ (IndieWIRE)