Was he ill, and if not, what happened that was significant enough to wake him? As panic sweeps the palace, we can see how the entire establishment lives and dies by every random movement of the absolute rulers who control their destinies. The next morning, the 15th, the entire court is in an uproar over the news that the king was awakened at 2 a.m. More aware of what is happening in the outside world is Sidonie’s friend and mentor, the king’s archivist Jacob Nicolas Moreau (Michel Robin), who tells her of food riots in Paris and insists that “at my age, I look the truth straight on.” There’s a trace of flirtatiousness to her behavior, which is part of the reason Sidonie is passionately devoted to her and cannot imagine life outside Versailles. When we first see Marie Antoinette, she is lounging around in her nightgown, acting for all the world like a gal pal of Sidonie’s who’s hanging out after a sleepover. Though Sidonie has been given a clock to help her keep track of time - an object of awe to her friends - she is late getting to her early morning obligation to read to the queen. “Farewell, My Queen” begins on July 14, 1789, soon to be a pivotal day in French history but one that starts like any other for the inhabitants of this elaborate estate psychologically far removed from Paris. A non-native speaker of French (like her character), the German-born Kruger portrays a quixotic, quicksilver ruler, a creature of ever-changing whims who wants to be obeyed absolutely even as she sometimes tries to forget she’s the queen.
The same is true for Kruger in the more multifaceted role of Marie Antoinette. A remarkably versatile young actress (she was the shopkeeper who caught Luke Wilson’s eye in"Midnight in Paris” as well as an assassin in the last “Mission: Impossible”), Seydoux has the kind of presence that involves us in whatever is going on. It is through Sidonie’s eyes that we experience what happens in Versailles, and Seydoux is an excellent choice for the role. Her specific job is as the queen’s reader, selecting a book from the royal library and reciting it aloud to her mistress, and she very much cherishes this special closeness to Marie Antoinette. Young Sidonie, plucked from obscurity to be a lady-in-waiting to the queen, cares about none of this.
The royal court is portrayed as a hotbed of self-interested pettiness and jealous rivalries, not to mention a spot where mosquito bites were fierce and unavoidable and dead rats not hard to find. The director and Gilles Taurand adapted Chantal Thomas’ 2002 novel for the screen, and their Versailles was hardly tranquil even before the tide of history started to turn.