Madame Du Barry (1919)
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

Film Review

Mention the name Ernst Lubitsch and most people immediately bring to mind the director's energetic, highly entertaining romantic comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.  But there is another Lubitsch who, early in his career, made several big budget silent epics, of which Madame Du Barry is one of the most memorable.  The film stars two of Europe's leading actors at the time, Pola Negri and Emil Jannings, playing respectively the ill-fated Madame Du Barry and King Louis XV of France.

The film has been condemned for its obvious historical inaccuracies, with events which took place over several years appearing to happen in a matter of hours - for example, the death of Louis XV is almost immediately followed by the storming of the Bastille.  Lubitsch's intention is clearly not historical accuracy but rather to tell, in the manner of a Greek tragedy, an intimate story recounting the remarkable rise and fall of one of the most well-known victims of the French revolution.

Whilst the film is perhaps somewhat weak when it comes to characterisation, with several characters poorly delineated, it has production values which are exceptional for a film of this era.  The eye-catching lavish sets and stylish cinematography come close to matching the excellence of D.W. Griffith's historical masterpieces.  Most impressive are the spectacular final sequences, which convey a real sense of France descending into bloody anarchy as Madame Guillotine claims her most glamorous victim.  No contemporary French filmmaker would dared to have portrayed the French revolution in such a vividly negative light, in a way that draws a clear parallel with the recent Bolshevik uprisings in Russia.

Film Synopsis

In France, around the middle of the 18th century, Jeanne Bécu is happy in her life as a milliner's assistant at a haberdashery in Paris.  She is in love with a young man named Armand, who has hopes that she will soon be his wife.  These plans are thwarted when Jeanne is spotted by the aristocratic procurer Jean-Baptiste du Barry, who, taken with her extraordinary beauty, encourages her to take up a new life as a courtesan.  Jeanne's clientele includes some of the most high profile nobles of Paris, and it isn't long before she comes to the attention of King Louis XV.  So beguiled is he by this beautiful young woman that the king immediately decides that she will become his mistress, but this can only happen once she has acquired a title.

For this reason, Jeanne is forced in to marrying du Barry's brother, the Count Guillaume du Barry.  In her new capacity as the King's mistress, Jeanne, now Madame du Barry, becomes one of the most powerful women in France.  But as the public mood turns against the aristocracy, she comes to be hated by the ordinary people of Paris.  The person who hates her most is Armand, her former lover, who now despises Jeanne for what she has become.  In the frenzied tumult of the French Revolution, he finally has the opportunity to punish the woman he can come to loathe...