Jeanne du Barry

Lush and big-budgeted costumer retells life of title role from an illegitimate girl to influential favorite. Epic on life of famous French favorite has Maiween in title role but lacks perspective and historical accuracy , though sets & costumes are excellent , being marketed for a large audience. This is a sympathetic biopic of the 18th-century favorite, the most notorious French courtesan , retelling the iconic figure, as Du Barry (Maiwenn) went on to rise through the Court of Louis XV to become his last official mistress. At the beginning, her lover, the Count du Barry (Melvil Poupaud) , who is getting rich thanks to Jeanne's lucrative gallantry, wishes to introduce her to the King. He organizes the meeting through the intermediary of the influential Duke of Richelieu (Pierre Richard) . This one exceeds his expectations: between Louis XV (Johnny Depp) and Jeanne, it's love at first sight... With the courtesan, the King rediscovers his taste for life - so much so that he can no longer do without her and decides to make her his official favorite.

Delicious eye candy, but lacking in substance, this is a glamorous as well as opulent film of life of 18th century French courtesan filled with agreeable drama , luxurious gowns , impressive palaces but lacks good pace and historical events ; so this story is not historically accurate. Maiwenn captures somewhat essence of title character giving a passable acting. She shines in this enjoyable but uneven, lavish & sadly neglected film .Maiwenn co-writes, directs and stars in this majestic biopic about Jeanne Du Barry, illegitimate daughter of a priest, the most hated woman at the court of Versailles and the favorite of the king, Louis XV, who regained his will to live thanks to this courtesan. We walk through the life of this rebellious woman who broke with the codes of the corseted Versailles of the 18th century, scandalizing an entire country and was always exposed to all kinds of mockery, insults and harassment from those who always wanted to remind her of her origins. Maiwenn decided to make a film about Du Barry, after seeing her character in ¨Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette¨, and also influenced by ¨Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon¨. Maiwenn stated the following: Jeanne Du Barry seduced me because she is a magnificent loser. The movie had hundreds of costumes and lavish set designs . Some gowns became extremely heavy due to the embroidery, flounces and precious stones used . This film is really a historical/"pseudo-historical" drama , with the Versailles Court as the back scenery, for all kinds of entertaining intrigues . Spectacular and colorful scenarios , in fact , crew was allowed to film on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles, Yvelines; along with colorful and brilliant cinematography by Laurent Dailland. Adding evocative musical score by composer musical score Stephen Warbeck . The motion picture unevenly written, produced and directed directed by Maiwenn , though she later admitted that this was too much for her, and swore to never direct and star at the same time in a movie again.

The film based on historical deeds and adding more happenings , these are the following: Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry (19 August 1743 - 8 December 1793). Jeanne Bécu was the illegitimate daughter of Anne Bécu, a 30-year-old seamstress. Jeanne's father remains unidentified; however, it is possible that her father was Jean Jacques Gomard, a friar. She was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason-particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés to flee from the Revolution. She is also known as "Mademoiselle Vaubernier". In 1768, when the king wished to make Jeanne maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier, so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate, created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The certificate made Jeanne appear younger by three years and obscured her poor background. Henceforth, she was recognized as the king's official paramour. Her arrival at the French royal court scandalized some, as she had been a courtesan and came from humble beginnings. She was shunned by many, including Marie Antoinette, whose contempt for Jeanne caused alarm and dissension at court. On New Year's Day 1772, Marie Antoinette deigned to speak to Jeanne; her remark, "There are many people at Versailles today", was enough to take the edge off the dispute, though many still disapproved of Jeanne. Decades later, during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, Jeanne was imprisoned over accusations of treason by her slave Zamor. She was executed by guillotine on 8 December 1793. Her body was buried in the Madeleine cemetery. The fabulous gems which she had smuggled to London were sold at auction in 1795.

This movie has great visual beauty: costumes and settings are breathtaking and the cinematography is impressive. But I did have some mixed feelings when leaving the theater. This was partly due to the writing, that felt at times a bit lazy, with superficial dialogues and some abrupt jumps in time, that they tried to overcome by a voice-over filling-in several chronologic blanks (talk about lazy!).

Johnny Depp is convincing as Louis XV, his somewhat mumbling and understated way of acting suits the character fine and his French diction is impeccable. The king's mischievous sisters are at many times hilarious, and I was impressed by Benjamin Lavernhe as the king's trusted valet, his part is one of the few more multilayered ones, and he moved me to tears when at the end he had to say goodbye to his dying master. But the parts of Jeanne's beloved stepson Adolphe, as well as that of Louis's beloved third daughter, stay way too sketchy (both having hardly one line to speak) to make the supposedly enormous impact that their loss had on Jeanne and Louis relatable.

My biggest problem however was Maïwenn. She is also the director and one of the writers, and apparently couldn't resist the challenge of also taking on the major and pivotal part of Jeanne. Jeanne DuBarry was 24 years old when she, as a young and ravishing beauty, caught the eye of King Louis. Well, Maïwenn can hardly be called a beauty; besides, she was already past 45 at the time of shooting, and clearly looked her age. In her sumptuous costumes she may make a royal impression, but it's hard to swallow that the king specifically chose her out of that endless line of much more attractive and younger women.

In short: not really bad, with great visual beauty (and by the way an equally impressive score!), but unfortunately neither really good.

Have always enjoyed movies about this fascinating time period, and never get too anal about historical accuracy. What's most important for me, as a movie buff is that the creators get the "heart" and the "atmosphere" of it across with the tools available. (Actors, camera,music,setting,costumes, dialogue and a solid story) The positives for me: There were some gorgeous costumes, hair, make up and settings which all seemed to be historically correct and if they weren't it didn't matter. The score was ok. Nothing of it stood out neither exceptional or terrible. The subtitles, often, were not clear in translation and that may of knocked my enjoyment of the movie somewhat. ( I watch subtitled movies frequently, and this is NOT usually a big issue) Seems like a fascinating story with some full characters but the story did not hit me as emotionally hard as I would of liked. It just didn't feel intimate enough for me.

There was some solid acting, but again, it was a story that didn't flesh out the characters enough for my tastes.

It was ok.

Very much in the vein of the recent "Versailles" and "Marie Antoinette" serialisations, this rather opulent drama shows us a little of the excesses and ridiculousness of court life in 18th century France. This time, it's Jeanne Bécu (Maïwenn) who is the shrewd young woman who quickly learns how to use her "charms" to get on in life. Eventually, she is noticed by the ambitious Count du Barry (Melvil Poupaud) who is friends with the Duc de Richelieu (Pierre Richard) who happens to be a procurer of fun for King Louis XV (Johnny Depp). Nervously introduced, she pours a little scorn on the silliness of court protocol and provides him with quite a refreshingly honest companion. Of course, his daughters immediately take offence and the arrival of Marie Antoinette (Pauline Pullman) to marry the Dauphin (Diego Le Fur) ensures battle lines are quickly drawn. The now married Countess du Barry cannot remain at court if she is constantly shunned by the Dauphine, so a bit of well costumed political intrigue ensues as the King and his mistress struggle to find a little recognition for her and happiness for them both. I found there to be quite an effective chemistry between Depp and Maïwenn, especially during the protracted malarkey that was his morning levée, and I loved the absurd wigs on his disproving daughter Princess Adélaïde (India Hair), who led a troupe of her entitled and unpleasant sisters like ducklings along behind her. It's a gorgeous film to watch, the beauty and grandeur of his palatial home and the whole aesthetic really works well at delivering a grand environment for the plotter and the sycophant. Depp doesn't really have too much to do here and the writing isn't the best though. At times it renders it little better than a very well produced, expensive, pantomime and I could have done with just a little more character development of both the principals here. That said, it's a classy and stylish piece of cinema that looks very impressive on big screen.

This movie was enjoyable to watch.

The narrator element blended well in telling the story of King Louis Xv mistress.

The rules of the Versailles court seem so extreme nowadays but the movie depicts everything in detail along with the costumes and dialogue it makes a very good historical drama.

Johnny Depp's French is good and he delivers his lines modestly which makes it more realistic.

Sometimes movie makers tend to embellish the historical facts, this one doesn't and the intertwined relationships between the king, his daughters and his mistress are well documented and these play out in this movie.

Depp's performance was very good. It was nice to see him play an historical character, I think it was a challenge he was up for and in my opinion he nailed it.