And so it begins… the much awaited French series Versailles, which had already caused a stir in France for being too à l’anglaise with its English dialogue, and in England for being à la francaise with rumoured endlessly gratuitous shots of naked bodies, shocking sex acts and violence.
The first episode was, undoubtedly, beautifully filmed and costumed. The sweeping shots of Versailles’ halls and gardens fully evoked the grandeur of the Sun King’s vision, and an exceptional eye for detail had gone into Louis and Phillippe’s magnificent outfits – that’s before we even start on the shoes. It was a wonderful canvas against which to depict a court gripped by brilliant political intrigue and cutthroat social drama, where nobles who just decades before had fired cannons at the Louvre were locked into an ever intensifying battle for incremental changes in status, presided over by the king who had once fled their attacks.
This first episode depicted the birth of Versailles: the moment at which, much to the disdain of many of his advisors, Louis decided to build a palace on the site of his own hunting lodge. The development of Versailles as a political phenomenon is a subject ripe for televisual interpretation – as seen in Roberto Rossellini’s much loved 1966 La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV. But while Versailles skirted around some of the fascinating aspects of Louis’ rise to power – the growth of bureaucracy, surveillance systems, and the favouring of self-made men over ancient nobles for promotion – it all got a bit lost in some slightly odd subplots. Wonderful historical details – the recreation of Versailles as it would have been before Louis’ reconstruction is a sight to behold – were undermined by clumsy modern dialogue and bizarre slips. The character of Claudine, the daughter of Dr Masson, was particularly incongruous – her claim that women with medical knowledge would have been branded witches may be a nod to the ‘affaire des poisons’ of 1680 that did see midwives burned nominally as witches (though actually for providing poisons to many of the women at court), but the suggestion that female midwives would not have been present at royal births so soon after the time of Louise Bourgeois is misleading. The birth of the black baby at the end of the episode is an interesting rumour recorded in the memoirs of Madame de Maintenon and the Duc de Saint Simon among others, but, I would argue, there are so many more fascinating aspects to Louis’ early reign which were left untouched.
One of the strongest parts of the series so far is Alexander Vlahos’ depiction of Philippe of Orleans. For too long written off as the shallow and superficial weaker brother, Vlahos brings gravitas back to a man who led his country in battle and remained a key player in absolutist politics. Unfortunately, however, this has not yet been matched by George Blagden’s Louis. It’s undoubtedly a tough call to play a man so charismatic that he managed to construct a huge and complex political system in his orbit, but Blagden hasn’t quite yet generated the magnetism that such a part demands. After this first episode I was left wondering if perhaps it would have been better to have cast the brothers the other way around.
But for all these early quibbles it is wonderful to see this period in history being brought to life for a British audience, and with such a high-level budget behind it. I’m looking forward to the next one!
Episode One of Versailles was broadcast on BBC Two on June 1st 2016 and is currently available for UK residents to view on BBC iPlayer. The season consists of ten episodes in total.