Review Vatel (2000)

[Tuco]

(I'm placing this thread here, although it's probably not the perfectly correct genre. It more likely belongs in a category like "period films", but there isn't yet such a thing yet, so . . . . )

** Film Synopsis **

Vatel is based on a true story, which occurred during the reign (1643-1715) of Louis XIV of France (The Sun King). It centers on a low-born man (played by Gerard Depardieu) who has risen to become a famous and spectacular Master of Festivities and Pleasures in the employ of the Prince de Conde. In one swirling weekend, the Prince hosts the Sun King and his extended court with sumptuous meals and entertainment all orchestrated by Vatel. The weekend is rife with court intrigue involving Depardieu and the other major actors, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Timothy Spall, and Julian Glover.

The costumes and art direction are wonderful and Vatel was nominated that year for an Oscar for Best Art Direction -- Set Decoration. Although it did not score highly with critics, I generally enjoy period pieces, enjoyed this movie very much, and heartily recommend this for the Art Direction if for nothing else.

Now, although the discussion at IMDB for this movie was not overflowing with topics and posts, there was one particular post that enhanced my enjoyment of Vatel a great deal. The author wrote a long -- and I do mean a long -- post about the history of the characters who are portrayed in this movie. When I read that the IMDB discussion boards were to be nuked, I immediately thought about this post and how a valuable document would be lost. (Of course, I know that all these historical details are available if one chooses to do the research, but the author presents this thesis with the movie in mind.)

I tried to contact the author to request permission to copy that post here, but have not heard from him/her. So I am taking it upon myself to place a copy here of that post and one preceding it. I hope the authors do not mind.

(Due to forum posting restrictions, I need to split this post into five parts.)

 

[Tuco]

Vatel -- Part Two

**** SPOILERS **** DETAILS OF THE MOVIE FOLLOW ****


Originally posted at IMDB by Lutzqueen on January 30, 2007

I too have read Les Lettres and other sources--and the liberties in the film were extensive!

Vatel DID commit suicide just as the extra fish from Dieppe arrived and his death was told to the Prince De Conde IMMEDIATELY...who told Louis and his brother,Monsieur about it ASAP. The two royal brothers were HIGHLY upset and the King's brother, Monsieur even cried openly and said that he only came to Chantilly to eat Vatel's food. The King told the Prince that he seldom traveled because of this type of stress to the households and that Vatel should have just served 2 tables of fish if that is all he had(ie the Royal tables ) and let the rest(26 tables worth!) eat what could be provided. The King meant this as a rebuke to the Prince. The accounts state that all 3 men praised Vatel's genius Highly but regretted his great pride as a chef that caused him to not tolerate an embarassment. The Royal party stayed on but at the Fish banquet that night,they omitted Filet of Sole in Vatel's honor(which was a hardship and shows the respect Vatel earned,because the King and his Brother were absolutely addicted to Filet of sole!).

Things the movie got wrong:
Anne would NOT have slept with Vatel!Too great a social gap and age gap plus he was in the middle of a classic chef meltdown/nervous breakdown! He would not be courting in that situation!

The Prince DeConde HATED his wife because she was the daughter of Cardinal Richielieu and he thought her a social inferior....he had her locked up in a nunnery for most of their marriage. She was NOT at Chantilly during this period.

Vatel would NOT have spoken directly to ANY nobles about defacing the Whale etc...he would have informed the Prince who would have informed the King in such terms as "The duke your brother is about to fall off the whale for the feast...we think he could hurt himself,majesty" and Louis would have sent someone to summon his brother to his side to look at some papers or some other excuse,thereby saving face and correcting him subtly,and saving the Prince's entertainment. Vatel would not be talking to the King's brother face to face that way about the spoiled whale prop! Prison would loom large!

The prince DID NOT wager Vatel away at the card table to the King....it is TRUE that Vatel worked for the disgraced finance Minister Nicholas Fouquet and that Louis hired Fouquet's entire staff except Vatel from Fouquet after he imprisioned the man for embezzlement. Louis already had a famous chef,so that may be why Conde was able to get Vatel.

Lauzon was TOTALLY different than the way he was portrayed in the film by Tim Roth. He actually was a fat man who was a bon vivant.

The Prince De Conde poor? I don't remember reading about him being close to broke like the movie---the wealth of the Conde family was legendary....they were Princes of the blood and fabulously wealthy.Chantilly was an elegant chateau.

Athenais Montespan was at the start of her run as the Mistress en titre at the time....and Louis was too enraptured by this woman to have been dallying with Anne as shown in the film in all likelihood--it took years for the King to seek other lovers after Athenais was became his lover.

Costumes WERE great in general in the film, but I agree that Uma's decolletage was TOO bare and off the shoulder for a court lady...her off the shoulder bodice WAS more in keeping with an actress or high class prostitute than a court lady. The English Nell Gwynn, King Charles II's actress mistress had such a gown as Uma's in one portrait at this time but the noble born mistresses of the English King were not wearing all of their shoulders out the way Uma was. And the same for Louis'mistresses, of course!

I think the filmmakers wanted to give MORE of a reason for Vatel to kill himself than just a Chef freaking out over the fish and his reputation...so they gave him a doomed love affair and made him revolt againist the class system in the film and strike a blow for freedom and personal integrity by refusing to play along in the system further. The Reality is that he would have LOVED to go to Versailles in all likelihood!

 

[Tuco]

Vatel -- Part Three

**** SPOILERS **** DETAILS OF THE MOVIE FOLLOW ****

Originally posted by blountstmd on February 07, 2007

The previous post was excellent as it deals extensively with variances from Madame Sevigne's letter about VATEL and also costume errors, etc and some of the historical Vatel. One reason I think VATEL did well in EUROPE but not here in the US is that people in the US are not well versed in French history and so the episode in the film was about a lot of people the US viewers may have not known about or thought were significant. The weekend depicted and the people depicted had a real place to play in French history and Vatel's suicide is a well known ancedote in France and hotels and restaurants and gourmet groups are named after him in France. The history and ancedotes about Louis XIV and his family and court are also well known in France and Europe--there was even a wildly successful Broadway style musical in Paris and that toured France about Louis XIV and his family/lovelife called Le Roi Soleil(2005)that played until late 2007.

Maybe the filmakers should have had a brief epilogue at the end as to what happened to everyone; the only one they commented on was the Uma Thurman character--and that was fictious(see below). An epilogue might have made the events depicted have more resonance to US audiences. I will give a historical review of some of the historical people who are characters in the film and/epilogue. I will also go more in depth with one of the characters the filmakers spent a lot of time on:

1.Louis XIV-Le Roi Soleil(the Sun King),Louis Le Grande(the great), the absolute monarch of France, remained on the throne 72 years--the longest of any French king. His insistence on court life and an extremely extravagant lifestyle controlled the French nobles and he centralised French government, the army,tax system, etc. His influence on art, fashion, haute cuisine, war, government, architecture(he was the builder of Versailles),gardening, and even ballet were undeniable but his despotic rule and insensitivity to the poor coupled with his out of control spending and wars left France bankrupt and set the stage for the eventual Revolution decades later. BTW, Louisiana is named after Louis XIV. Louis XIV popularised diamonds, champagne and haute couture--luxury items to this day. He was the foremost monarch of his day and the entire 17th century is often called the Age of Louis XIV by historians.

Julian Sands did a good job on depicting the young Louis in the film. Louis was depicted as humorless and rigid in bearing, scheming in his political dealings and with an eye for the ladies in VATEL and that is pretty much historically correct--even the part about giving little dogs to his wife and mistresses when he went to see another woman is documented. However, other than the more political scenes,we do not get a sense of his more personal motivations in the screenplay( does he really like Uma's character or is he still in love with Montespan? who knows?) nor do we even get a proper scene of him talking romantically with the leading lady. His character was not as utilized as it could have been as for some reason the screenplay had another story arc that was competing for attention(see my discussion of Monsieur).

2. Prince De Conde, Louis II de Bourbon--the Grande Conde--went to the Franco-Dutch War as Commander wth Turenne and was a great success. He was heavily decorated by Louis and given extensive monies and lands for his trouble. He had a wealthy retirement in Chantilly. When he died, Louis XIV said he had lost the greatest man in his kingdom--Conde was considered the greatest general in Europe at the time. Although the movie emphasized how Conde was in exile, etc, Conde was in fact a Bourbon and was the first Prince of the Blood royal as he was the cousin of the King. Conde was out of favor for making war on the King in a civil war when the King was a child and Conde also lead the army of Spain againist the French in the Franco-Spanish War about 10 years earlier than the events in Vatel. Conde was briefly imprisoned for these actions but was pardoned when peace was made with Spain(and Louis married the Spanish princess). He was in retirement at the time of the film but could not have been so broke as he had whole provinces like Burgandy as his estate. As depicted in the movie,however, the visit was extremely important as a reconcilation and the plan worked very well except for the loss of Vatel.

3."Marquis" Launzun-- in real life used the title Comte of Launzun not marquis( he was the cadet of his family and was really the Marquis of Puyguillem but used his older brother's title). He was a friend of Louis and eventually had a long love relationship with Louis' and Monsieur's spinster cousin, the wealthiest woman in France, the Grande Mademoiselle. Launzun was imprisoned for years before this could happen but the couple reunited in their fifties( there was a question of secret marriage). They eventually had a falling out after Launzun disrespected her in public. He married at age 60 to a girl of 20 whose family hoped he would leave a rich widow. He confounded everyone by making 90 years old. Unlike Tim Roth in the film, he was a bon vivant ladies man and a prankster who once locked Louis XIV into a privy as a practical joke. Tim Roth did well with the role as written but for students of the Louis XIV era, it was a particularly ludicrous version of Launzun. The screenplay had Roth play him as grim and unpleasant when most memoirs depicted the man as a barrel of laughs and very brave, too--he rescued the family of James II of England and brought them to France and at that point was made a duke and a Knight of the garter.

4.Gourville--succeeded Vatel as master steward for Conde but as Conde predicted Vatel would do, Gourville moved up in the world to the point that he was eating dinner with Madame Sevigne later in life with Madame as his guest( she was a Marquise and he was originally a cook/personal assistant)! Gourville was really Conde's aide de camp and eventually rose in diplomatic ranks, etc. He had held these posts formerly under Fouquet but he had to start all over again at Conde's once Fouquet was arrested for embezzlement. BTW, the film was filmed at Fouquet's chateau, Vaux de Vicomte, the inspiration for all later 17th century chateau's including Versailles, Chantilly,etc.

 

[Tuco]

Vatel -- Part Four

**** SPOILERS **** DETAILS OF THE MOVIE FOLLOW ****

5.Anne Montausier was a real person and was a married noble lady and was over 40 at the time and was the chaperone for some of the younger ladies at Court. I think the filmakers just used her name as there is nothing similar to the historical person in the film.

6.Queen Marie Therese--Louis's wife and the double first cousin of Louis and Philippe(the kings of France and Spain married each other's sisters). She was the Infanta(Princess) of Habsburg Spain and her marriage was part of a peace treaty between Spain and France. She was depicted in the movie as a fairly aware brunette but in reality she was the ultimate dumb blonde--she was almost mentally retarded in some reports( her half brother, Carlos II of Spain was retarded and also deformed). She never learned to speak French properly, could not dance and could not learn the rules of card games(some people made a living on her gambling losses)and was slow to understand witty repartee. In short, she was not prepared for her role as queen of a glittering and fast paced court. Marie Therese was shy, retiring and spent her time in mass or with her jester-dwarves or eating chocalate and garlic( they show her staff requesting garlic in the film). She had an unhappy married life with the philandering Louis and had only one surviving child, the Grand Dauphin, She had multiple miscarriages and several princesses that died in infancy. There is a rumor that she had an affair with an enslaved African dwarf and had a black daughter with her who was sent to a convent where her mother and relatives visited her--the so called Black Nun of Moret--however, there is no official proof of this.

7.Louise La Valliere--unhappy mistress of Louis XIV--discarded after several children with the king. Replaced by Athenais, Marquise de Montespan--this was shown in the film. La Valliere eventually left court and joined a nunnery. The necklace style called Lavalier was named after her. She is depicted in the film pretty accurately--a thin silver blonde who cried a lot.

8.Athenais, Marquise de Montespan--the beautiful mistress of Louis XIV who is shown in the film playing cards with the king when he tricks Conde and also at the dinner table when the king has Anne brought in her place. She has a nude scene in the French edit. Montespan replaced La Valliere. She had many children for the king and he legitimated them and married them to legitimate members of the Royal family and put them in succession to the throne. She was official mistress for many years but became obese and lost the king's favor and she resorted to love potions, etc. She was implicated in a poisoning scandal and it was alleged she participated in Satanic rituals. She lost favor after this and left court. The governess for Montespan's children,Madame Maintenon, replaced her with the king and married Louis XIV in a morgantic marriage a year after the queen's death.

9. Monsieur--the king's only brother--Philippe I, Duke of Orleans(Warning: LONG)
I was puzzled at first by the filmakers giving so much time to Philippe as he was of little political importance during his lifetime. Then I remembered Madame Sevigne's account and I believe since that account has Monsieur being upset over the loss of Vatel that the filmmakers tried to give Vatel and Monsieur a little relationship arc. Also, lets face it,a film needs drama and Philippe was a dramatic character--a flamboyant gay with a small court around him--and his scenes were interesting. The actor playing Monsieur(Murray Lachlan Young) did an excellent job and looked a lot like portraits of Monsieur and his acting had a lot of the "flavor" described about 17th century manners--long speeches and elegant hand movements/mannerisms. My only quibble with the movie's depiction is the fact that Monsieur was not noted for being a pedophile(he supposedly liked his men butch) and that he was depicted as a little more macho in the US version of the movie than portraits and memoirs seemed to indicate. I can understand why filmmakers chose to avoid being too overt about this in the US edit(in the unedited European version, there are even more scenes of Monsieur and he is even more flamboyant and camp) as effeminancy is controversial with US gay activists. This is a small quibble as the movie was open about his sexuality otherwise.

Since the filmmakers spent a lot of time on Phillipe and as his story is interesting but not well known outside of France or historical circles-- I will spend more time on him in this historical epilogue:
Philippe, Duc d Orleans, AKA Philippe de France AKA Monsieur, was two years younger than Louis and was the king's only brother and because their family had a history of brothers making war on the king, etc--Monsieur was suppressed at every turn by his mother Anne of Austria and prime minister Mazarin. Many contemporaries and historians accuse the two of them of raising him deliberately to be a homosexual so that he would be submissive and never be able to rival Louis in any way.

Whether by nature or nurture, Monsieur was a flamboyant homosexual in an age when gays could be imprisoned or burnt by the Inqusition. His brother Louis, while contemptous of homosexuality and Monsieur's expensive male favorites, was supportive of his brother and Monsieur lived a lifestyle almost as lavish as Louis' and he was protected from the religious persecution at the time. Monsieur's gayness was not all there was to the story--he was an expert on etiquette, fine jewels,clothing,architecture,art, drama(he introduced the great Moliere to the court) and was a shrewd invester in real estate. He was a great party giver at his estates as well as at Versailles--"the very life of the court". He was vain, fun loving and talkative as depicted in the film. Philippe was known to love the company of women and to dress them, do their hair, gossip, etc. He dressed elaborately and portraits and memoirs depict him in gem studded clothes and bows and ribbons in his hair wearing rouge and makeup.

Monsieur had homes throughout France but his principal homes were Saint Cloud, a chateau near Paris that rivalled Versailles in size and beauty(Monsieur mentions it in the movie to Vatel) and the Palais Royal in the heart of Paris, where he often partied with his own sub-court of gay men and loose women. Of course, Monsieur also spent large periods of his time with his brother at Louis'principal homes of Versailles, Marly and Fountainbleu. Monsieur always traveled with Louis XIV and was definitely at Chantilly when the suicide occurred. As depicted in the movie, the brothers were extremely close in real life. The two were noted to have only a few disagreements but the last one proved fatal to Monsieur as he died of a stroke at age 61 after a bitter argument with Louis XIV.

Although Monsieur was an effeminate gay stereotype and a spendthrift gambler playboy,he served as a general in Louis's army and in the Franco-Dutch war confounded expectations by being very brave and leading an army of 44,000 men in a rout of William of Orange at the battle of Cassel, among other military successes. Predictably after this victory, a jealous Louis XIV never gave him another command as Louis wanted no challenge, however small, from his brother. Louis felt a larger role in the army might make Monsieur too popular.

 

[Tuco]

Vatel -- Part Five

**** SPOILERS **** DETAILS OF THE MOVIE FOLLOW ****

Monsieur was popular with the people anyway as he was seen as affable and generous. Monsieur was known for his kindness to the poor as he would often hand out the gold to the poor during carriage rides and when he partied at his various homes,he always had food set out for the public as well. The people of Paris especially loved Monsieur for his generosity with food and drink and because he always left his gardens open for their enjoyment. Monsieur was also publicly known as a kind father and grandfather in an age when most men were not involved in their children's upbringing. Monsieur was close to his daughters and died after arguing with his brother about Louis' mistreatment of Monsieur's son, Philippe II.

Yes, Monsieur had children. Despite his homosexual orientation, Monsieur was married twice and had progeny with both wives. His first wife was Henrietta of England, the sister of King Charles II of England, and his second wife was Elizabeth Charlotte van der Pfalz, Princess Palatine(one of the great letter writers/memoirists of Louis XIV's court). Philippe would have been between wives at the time of the events depicted in VATEL as his first wife died in 1670(amid rumors of poison by Monsieur's favorites but she officially died of TB or gastric ulcer complications) and he married his second wife about 6 months after the suicide of Vatel. His first marriage lasted about 10 years and his 2nd lasted 30 years. Philippe was noted to be the father of 11 children of which 4 legitimate children lived to adulthood (some of the legitimate ones died in infancy/childhood and he had also had illegitimate issue). If one goes to Versailles, one can see a gallery of portraits of Monsieur and his family in the room next to the king's bedroom, a reception salon called the Room of the Bulls eye--the pictures were picked by Louis XIV himself for that room.

Monsieur's children became important in the long run as Louis XIV's heirs died off. Louis XIV's successor,Louis XV, was Louis'great grandchild and also a great grandchild of Monsieur(Louis XV's father was a grandson of Louis XIV and his mother was a grandaughter of Monsieur). When the child king Louis XV inherited the throne from Louis XIV, the only other legitimate male immediate royal family member left alive to help rule( there had been a smallpox/measles epidemic) was Monsieur's son and heir, Philippe II, and he became the Regent and ruled France until the majority of Louis XV. Philippe II was also the heir to the throne until Louis XV married and produced a son. Phillipe II promoted the development of Louisiana and New Orleans is named after him. Philippe II was Duc of Orleans after the death of Monsieur and was married to a legitimated daughter of Louis XIV and Madame Montespan. Philippe II was wildly talented not just in administration but also in art collecting, painting,music,chemistry and even gourmet cooking. Like Monsieur, Philippe II was a promiscous playboy and a good soldier but,in contrast to his father,Philippe II was heterosexual--he supposedly had over 200 mistresses and coined the phrase "that in the dark all cats are grey" about promiscuity. One of the largest diamonds in the world, the Regent, was purchased by and named after Philippe II.

In addition to being short of male heirs, Louis XIV had no legitimate daughters, so Monsieur's legitimate daughters and granddaughters were used for marriage alliances, etc. As a result, most of the Catholic royalty of Europe after that time descended from Philippe, not Louis, because of these alliances. In fact, in genealogy circles, Monsieur is known as a "Grandfather of Europe" and is considered a patriarch of Catholic royalty. Louis' direct line in France eventually became extinct in the 1830's--the French Bourbons mainly survived through Monsieur's line. As noted above, starting with Louis XV, all kings of France after Louis XIV descend from Monsieur as well and the last king and queen of France before the Revolution were BOTH descended from Monsieur (Louis XVI was a great great grandson of both Louis XIV and Monsieur and his wife Marie Antoinette's father was a grandson of Monsieur). As noted above, Monsieur's other French descendants were the powerful and wealthy dukes of Orleans(his direct line) and the rest of the House of Bourbon-Orleans. After a French restoration, the last king to rule France was also a direct descendant of Monsieur( Louis Phillipe, King of the French, was a Duc d Orleans prior to assuming the throne).

Monsieur's non-French descendants became the Habsburg-Lorraine Holy Roman Emperors(through the grandson who was the consort of Empress Maria Theresa and father of Marie Antoinette), emperors of Austria-Hungary,kings of Sardinia, the Two Sicilies,Italy, rulers of Savoy,Spanish Bourbons(many of the Spanish queens were direct descendants of Monsieur),Napolean II, etc.

Monsieur's descendants still survive to this day(Spanish King Juan Carlos, among others, is a descendant). Ironically, in terms of continuance of the royal lineage and the number of illustrous crowned descendants, Monsieur,the homosexual political nonentity,proved to be more successful than the great Louis XIV. A great book on the topic is Brother to the Sun King by Nancy Barker(my primary source for this discussion of Monsieur).

 

[Doctor Omega]

The trailer...

 

[Elessar]

I have been searching for this movie for a while, but can't find a link to watch (not even on netflix). I like both period films (especially for Louis XIV time) and gourmet films (especially for a grand chef like Vatel).

Do you know where to watch it?

 

[Tuco]

@Elessar unfortunately, I do not. I haven't seen it listed on any of the movie channels for years. I will say that I have the BluRay of it, although I had to order it from Amazon France, as it does not have a U.S. BluRay release.

 

[Doctor Omega]