_Farewell, My Queen_ DVD

[septimus_...@q.com]

[septimus_...@q.com]

I just saw the extras in the _Farewell, My Queen_
DVD (released by the new "Cohen" group which also
released _Tristana_ -- they will be a player in
the dwindling specialty DVD field). Benoit
Jacquot had an interesting conversation with
Kent Jones. First, and I didn't know this,
the source novel by Chantal Thomas has a 50 year
old protagonist, but he changed it to a 20 year
old! He had a good laugh over it. Then he
mentioned that there are only 4-5 promising
actresses in France between the age of 18-25 (?!).
I was stunned by that statement. He also compared
his film with Sofia Coppola's _Marie Antoinette_
(prompted by Jones, whom, if memory serves, is
a Coppola supporter -- one of his few weaknesses
as a critic). He had faint praise for the film,
but bluntly said that Diane Kruger was a better
Antoinette than Kirsten Dunst; in fact Kruger
surprised him by how good she was. (She surprised
me too.) As for Seydoux, he felt that she hadn't
fully explored her depth and range in her previous
films, and they made a pact to bring that to life.
There was the obvious comparison with _A Single Girl_,
and they discussed Seydoux taking over the Ledoyen
role, which had Ledoyen (playing a cameo) quite
jealous of Seydoux; that was "good" for the filming.
Another surprise was that the film was shot on
digital video. I guess I didn't see much grainliness
when I saw this twice in theaters, but didn't notice
much difference otherwise. Maybe I should finally
try to watch the Coppola film and compare. (I'll
soon be cursing it in these pages, no doubt.)
One wonders if Seydoux will be Jacquot's new muse,
like Isild de Besco (sp) once was. I'd look forward
to that.