The illegitimate daughter of a cook and a monk, a luxury prostitute scandalizes Versailles when she becomes the favorite of King Louis XV.
Throughout time, the mistresses and lovers of crowned heads have fascinated ordinary people, hungry for scandals, political intrigues or great love stories. Alongside Agnès Sorel, Diane de Poitiers, Mesdames de Montespan, de Maintenon and de Pompadour, Madame du Barry, the last favorite of Louis XV, has inspired a number of artists and writers.
It was seeing Asia Argento play her in Marie Antoinette (2006), by Sofia Coppola, that Maïwenn (Polish, My king) wanted to dedicate a film to him. And to take on the role, even if she is almost 20 years older than the character and she looks nothing like him. If her interpretation is less sulphurous than that of the Italian actress, who made the favorite pass for a common whore, her simpering of a libertine ingénue does not bring her any closer to the elegant and gentle Countess du Barry that historians have described .
The illegitimate daughter of a cook and a monk, Jeanne Bécu (Maïwenn) prefers to sell her body to the nobles rather than rags to their wives. With the complicity of the Duke of Richelieu (Pierre Richard), Count Jean du Barry (Melvil Poupaud), her pimp, presents her to the king (Johnny Depp, almost silenced so as not to betray his accent too much). Between the ambitious young woman and the melancholic sovereign, it is love at first sight.
While the court of Versailles is scandalized by the presence of “the creature”, La Borde (Benjamin Lavernhe), first valet of Louis XV, shows kindness towards Jeanne. Strangely, the relationship between the favorite and the servant turns out to be more interesting than that between the king and his mistress, reduced to a series of scenes where Maïwenn struts, hair down, in various more or less historically accurate toilets on the arm of Depp .
In addition to choosing an American actor to lend his features to the beloved King of France, Maïwenn took some liberties with the story and relegated various political aspects under the rug. Neglecting important figures at court, she sketches in broad strokes the king’s daughters, transforming them into a grotesque cross between Cinderella’s sisters-in-law and Molière’s precious ridicules. In her desire to mock the customs of the court, she forgot the role that Jeanne du Barry really played there.
Carried by the monotone voice of a narrator (Stanislas Stanic), Jeanne du Barry is, however, not without charm. Thus Maïwenn dusts off the sumptuousness of Versailles with a lively and alert staging. However, it is only in the last third, very moving, that she manages to demonstrate the sincerity of the feelings which united the star-crossed lovers, as well as the extent of the humiliations suffered by the royal mistress.
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Biographical drama
Jeanne du Barry
Maïwenn
Maïwenn, Johnny Depp, Benjamin Lavernhe
1:57 a.m.