L'affaire du collier de la reine

This is,by large, an accurate account of the famous story which was widely talked about during the years before the French revolution.The version featuring Hilary Swank was overblown,making countess de la Motte a romantic heroine .L'Herbier's version shows la Motte as she was: a smart crook who could put anyone on ,including the unfortunate Rohan.The part was tailor-made for Viviane Romance,who often played the bad gals (she was also "la voisin" in "l'affaire des poisons").In this version,there is neither Cagliostro nor la Motte's father-Robin-Hood.This is the one to recommend.Marcel L'herbier,one of the pioneers of the French cinema offers one of his best latter days works.

Viviane Romance is of course the star here who sustains the entire picture and who succeeds in even outshining queen Marie Antoinette who is ousted out into the shadows, which she also was in reality by this astronomical deceit perpetrated by Jeanne de la Motte (Viviane Romance) who succeeded in duping even a royal cardinal in outrageous manipulation. The tragedy of the story is that the queen got all the blame and never recovered from her sullied reputation, although she was completely innocent - she actually turned the offer of the necklace down, probably the most expensive jewellry ever manufactured, while others saw a great opportunity for personal greed and used it ruthlessly. Although Jeanne de la Motte was sentenced and justly punished by lashing and branding, she actually got away, fled to England and from there carried on a ruthless propaganda campaign against Marie Antoinette, claiming to be a victim of the queen and asserting her innocence in flamboyant and outrageous insolence. The film includes most of the very complicated turns of this mess of a scandal and even gives an excellent rendering of the perhaps greatest charlatan of all times, the Sicilian Count Cagliostro, also known as Joseph Balsamo and many other names, and ending up badly like all the others of this crooked game. Maybe the peak of the scandal was that the poor gullible cardinal de Rohan actually was aquitted, while he must be held accountable for having allowed himself to be duped and not even resigning as a cardinal from church. He was considered as much a victim of the court as Jeanne de la Motte, and although he was innocent in his naïve stupidity and a victim of his own folly of credulousness, he did have a heavy responsibility as a prince of the church, while the criminality of the woman Jeanne de la Motte will remain a wondrous mystery for all times as a most incredibly destructive and abnormal mind.

One of L'Herbier's best talking pictures. He had at his disposal of course some of the most illustrious names in the business: Hubert as cinematographer, Thiriet as composer, Douy as art director/production designer, Annenkov as costume designer and Spaak as dialogue writer. Viviane Romance is magnificent as Jeanne de la Motte as is Maurice Escande, for years a luminary of the Comedie Francaise, as the dupe Cardinal de Rohan. The scene where Jeanne is publicly whipped (though tame by today's standards) still impresses. Although the film finishes with her imprisonment she later escaped dressed as a man and sought refuge in that traditional sanctuary for crooks and fugitives from justice: England! The previous reviewer is mistaken in saying that 'there is no Cagliostro'. He does in fact appear in the person of Pierre Dux. As a postscript the last silent film to be shown in Paris was L'Herbier's 'L'Argent'. There are two films which vie for the distinction of being the first French talkie, one of which is directed by Tony Dekain and called.....yes, you've guessed it: 'La Collier de la Reine'!