Marie Antoinette

There's an exhibition currently being held in the grand Palais in Paris, all dedicated to the life and fate of French queen Marie-Antoinette.

There was an article in the I.H.T which reminded me how this character of the XVIIIth French century seems so much to attract attention and sympathy in America.

There also was a movie by Sofia Coppola 2 years ago, and it wasn't the first one, far from it; there already was an American flick more than one century ago!

And I was wondering, why does this unfortunate queen raise such interest in America?

One may expect an English queen to be the subject of an equally attentive curiosity. But which one, save Anne Boleyn? And past English Royalties probably don't sound too sympathetic to Americans.

- A very dramatic story, good script for Hollywood, yes but what else?
- Nostalgia for a time when the Ancient Régime looked like a Disney fairy tale?
- She was the wife of the French king who was on the throne when Lafayette went to the help of the American revolutionaries?

I can't see any other reason for this apparent American fondness for Marie Antoinette, something you won't find in the UK.

A former Austrian princess who became queen and who was the very image of luxury and abandon with eventually an infamous death, and all this somehow related to the very first days of the American Republic that must be it...