The Fabulous Life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun (2015)

The Fabulous Life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun is a docudrama which premiered in 2015. It is the English version of a French docudrama which premiered in 2014.

The topic is the life and work of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, who was a famous French artist and a prominent painter of Queen Marie Antoinette.

This biopic covers her life from the beginning in 1755 to the end in 1842. As the biopic shows, her life was not only long, it was also amazing, fascinating, incredible, and most unusual.

For the record: this is neither a traditional documentary film nor a historical movie. It is something in between.

Important moments in her life are dramatized by actors, but the actors do not talk; they merely act. The story of her life and work is told by a narrator and several talking heads.

The actors show us how this female artist lived her life - what she did and what happened to her - while the narrator and the talking heads explain how and why she managed to survive and succeed in a world and a profession which was dominated by men.

Here is some basic information about this product:

** The original French title: Le fabuleux destin d’Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

** An alternative English title: Vigée Le Brun: The Queen’s Painter

** Director: Arnaud Xainte

** Writers: Arnaud Xainte and Jean-Frédéric Thibault

** The screenplay is based on the memoirs of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, which were published in three volumes 1835-1837

** Language: English

** Run time: 94 minutes

Here is some additional information about this product:

# 1. The cast includes the following actors:

** Marlene Goulard as the young Elisabeth

** Julie Ravix as the old Elisabeth

# 2. The narrator of the English version is Paul Bandey.

# 3. Excerpts from Elisabeth’s memoirs are read by Patrizia Pierangeli.

# 4. Original music is composed and directed by Helene Blazy.

# 5. There are ten talking heads.

Here are the names.

Listed in alphabetical order:

** Katharin Baetjer – Curator, Department of European painters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York – co-author of a biography

** Joseph Baillio – art historian – co-author of a biography

** Danièle Bloch – art historian

** Jérôme Dorival - musicologist

** Gwenola Firmin – Conservator, Château de Versailles

** Genevieve Haroche-Bouzinac – historical consultant – author of a biography

** Françoise Pitt-Rivers – author of a biography

** Xavier Salmon – Director, Department of Graphic Art, Musée du Louvre, Paris

** Alexandre Stroev – Professor of Literature, University of Sorbonne Nouvelle

** Juliette Trey – Curator, Department of Graphic Art, Musée du Louvre, Paris

THE PLOT

As a child, Elisabeth was allowed to focus on drawing and painting. She was quite good. As a teenager, she began to paint portraits of people who lived in the local area. This was not merely a hobby. She did not work for free. She sold the portraits. Soon, she was making so much money that she was able to support her family.

As an adult, she moved to Paris where she met a man who was an artist and an art dealer. His name was Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Le Brun (1748-1813). He liked her and asked her to marry him. She said yes. They were married in 1776.

The couple had one daughter, Jeanne-Julie Louise Le Brun, who was born in 1780.

As a art dealer, Jean-Baptiste had contacts with people in high places. He used this network to introduce his wife to people in high places. This was how her professional career was started.

He helped her.

But before long, she had established her own network.

She painted portraits of important people and her customers were pleased with her work. A satisfied customer is the best publicity one can get.

Her clients would mention her name and her talent to their families and friends and when they did this, she found new clients.

One day she was invited to visit Marie Antoinette.

The queen wanted her to paint her portrait. She did one portrait and the queen was pleased. During the following years, Elisabeth painted several portraits of Marie Antoinette. This is how she became known as the queen’s painter.

Elisabeth’s life and career were going well until the French revolution of 1789. At this point in time everything changed. The lives of the royal family and the aristocracy were in great danger. The life of Elisabeth was also in danger, because her name was associated with the queen, the royal family, and members of the aristocracy.

She had to leave the country. She and her daughter left France, while her husband stayed behind. Elisabeth’s name was placed on a list of emigrants who were not allowed to enter France.

Her husband was not harmed, but he was afraid that he might be regarded as a royalist supporter because of his wife. In order to protect himself, he divorced her in 1794, hoping that this would keep him safe. It did. He survived the revolution.

After the divorce, he still tried to do what he could to have Elisabeth’s name removed from the list of banned emigrants. After many years her name was removed from the list and she was finally allowed to return to France.

Elisabeth and her daughter had to live in exile for twelve years. Here are some details about their journey during those years:

1789-1792 = in Italy (Naples)

1792-1795 = in Austria (Vienna)

1795-1801 = in Russia (St. Petersburg)

1801-1802 – in Berlin

During the exile, Elisabeth did well. Whenever she reached a new location, she managed to connect with people in high places and to find new clients. When she painted more portraits, she was able to support herself and her daughter in exile.

During her long life, Elisabeth painted more than 660 portraits and some landscapes. This figure is impressive, given that it takes a long time to paint just one painting.

In 1802, Elisabeth and her daughter were finally allowed to enter France again. But she still wanted to travel:

** She travelled to London in 1803

** She travelled to Switzerland in 1807 and 1808

When Julie was a child, the relationship between mother and daughter was good. But when Julie grew up, things were not always good between them. The relationship was especially strained in 1799 when Julie wanted to marry a Russian man whom Elisabeth did not like.

Julie insisted and married him anyway. The marriage did not last long. Elisabeth’s instincts about the Russian man were correct, but Julie refused to listen to her mother. She had to find out for herself.

Jean-Baptiste lived to see his former wife return to France. He passed away in 1813. But Julie did not live long. She passed away in 1819.

Now Elisabeth was a widow and she had lost her daughter. But she was not yet done. She had a long life. She passed away in 1842 at the age of 86.

Towards the end of her life, she decided to write her memoirs. They were published in three volumes from 1835 to 1837. An English version translated by Lionel Strachey was published in 1903. The docudrama is based on these memoirs.

RATINGS AND REVIEWS

What do reviewers say about this product?

On IMDb it has a rating of 76 percent, which corresponds to 3.8 stars on Amazon. There is only one user review on IMDb. This review offers a rating of 80 percent, which is close to the average rating on the website.

On Amazon there are at the moment 100 global ratings and 81 global reviews. The average rating is 4.3 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 86 percent.

Most reviewers love it. A large majority (81 percent) offers 4 or 5 stars. But a small minority (11 percent) hates it. They offer only 1 or 2 stars.

Some of the negative voices claim the docudrama is boring. Some of them say this is only good if you like a documentary film. One of them is deeply disappointed. He says: I thought this was going to be a movie!

CONCLUSION

What do I think? If you ask me, the story of Elisabeth Le Brun is important and deserves to be told. In this docudrama, it is done very well.

It is not a movie, but it does not have to be a movie to be interesting. I like the way it is done. To me, it is not boring at all. The story has a good flow which managed to capture my attention from the beginning to the end.

In my opinion, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is more appropriate.

I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).

REFERENCES

# 1. Articles available online

** Roberta Smith, “She Painted Marie Antoinette (and Escaped the Guillotine),” New York Times, 12 February 2016

** Susan Jacques, “Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France,” Huff Post, 15 February 2016 (updated 6 December 2017)

** Tiernan Morgan, “The Praise and Prejudices Vigée Le Brun Faced in Her Exceptional 18th-Century Career,” Hyperallergic, 12 May 2016

** Jennifer Dasal, “The Semi-Charmed Life of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun,” Art Curious Podcast, 12 September 2016

# 2. Books

** Vigée-Lebrun, 1755-1842: Her Life, Works, and Friendships by William Henry Helm (1915) (reprinted 2018)

** The Exceptional Woman: Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun and the Cultural Politics of Art by Mary D. Sheriff (1996)

** Madame Vigée Le Brun by Françoise Pitt-Rivers (2001) (the text is in French)

** Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun: The Odyssey of an Artist in an Age of Revolution by Gita May (2005) (2008)

** Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun by Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac (2015) (the text is in French)

** Vigée Le Brun by Katharine Baetjer, Joseph Baillio and Paul Lang (2016) (this volume is a catalogue to an exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York from 15 February to 15 May 2016)

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