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Movie Takes
The Queen of Versailles
A fall from grace that can be described as an American liberal’s dream come true.
“That’s it baby, when you’ve got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!” So says Zero Mostel’s Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks’s The Producers (1968). The sentiment, though not unprecedented, was not characteristic of the rich in America theretofore. Old money here was nowhere near so old as old money in Europe, but it had something of the same disdain for vulgar ostentation. Like so many other traditional beliefs and attitudes, that one was on its way out by the end of the go-go Sixties when The Producers was made, but this has never prevented artists, writers, and film-makers from affecting a similar attitude of cultural superiority to those they characterize as the latter-day nouveau riche, often for political reasons. I take it that some such impulse lay behind Lauren Greenfield’s Queen of Versailles, a documentary about a Florida billionaire named David Siegel and his trophy wife, Jackie, who were building what was to be, at 90,000 square feet, the largest private home in America before the crash of 2008 more or less wiped out Mr. Siegel’s time-share empire.
But in the course of patronizing and making fun of this couple and their brood of spoiled children, Ms. Greenfield must have been surprised to discover that the precipitous decline in their fortunes had made her subjects almost sympathetic — and her movie is all the better for it. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, they say, and Mr. Siegel’s misfortune at least had the benefit of making The Queen of Versailles into something more interesting than it would have been as the mere act of humorous condescension that the footage shot before the good times ended suggests it was intended to be. Jackie, in particular, with her pneumatic chest and shopaholic ways, is transformed from a figure of fun into one of pathos. But condescension is built into this kind of movie, which is what makes the sympathy, when it comes a surprise — and something against the grain of the medium. Not quite transformed into Schadenfreude, it lingers in the air as a modern-day “Vanity of Human Wishes” might do, if one could imagine such a thing in our politicized age.
Unfortunately, the critical reaction to the movie shows how poorly equipped we are nowadays to think otherwise than politically about such subjects as The Queen of Versailles raises — mostly inadvertently, it must be said, since the authors are also prisoners of politics. At our first introduction to David Siegel, for example, Ms. Greenfield shows him arrogantly asking himself, “Why did I build the biggest house in America? Because I could.” Then, with a nudge and a wink he tells her about how he was supposedly responsible for the election of George W. Bush in 2000, though he would rather not say how, since what he did was “not necessarily legal.” That has him placed all right. Maybe it’s also what led Justin Chang of Variety to write of “Lauren Greenfield’s often hilarious, mostly infuriating chronicle of the rise and fall of one of America’s most obscenely wealthy families.” It’s hard to think of what else he might have found infuriating or obscene about poor Mr. Siegel’s misfortune.
Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post writes that “it would be so easy to demonize Jackie Siegel” — easy for her, I suppose — “but by the end of the film, with the animals dying, her house descending into unkempt chaos and her marriage fraying, viewers can’t help but feel confounded sympathy for a woman who so willingly bought into the American Dream at its most perversely distorted. Attention must be paid, even to those who so outlandishly overspent.” Ms. Hornaday’s glib use of “American Dream” together with “perversely distorted” doubles the irony of her criticism back on her. She doesn’t see that “the American Dream,” at least journalistically, is never used except ironically anymore, and it’s already been “perversely distorted” out of all recognition when applied to a Louis XIV-scale palace that can hardly be identified as distinctively American.
But to me what is most striking thing about the movie is how those from whom one might least expect it stick by the stricken mogul. His son by an earlier marriage who has day-to-day running of the business tells the camera early on, during the high volume days on the sales floor, that he and his father are “not close” and have what is essentially “a business relationship.” Yet when all his other business associates have deserted him, he insists he is sticking by his dad. Jackie, too, though she shyly admits to being rather pleased that David has been to a degree “humbled’ by his troubles — not humbled enough, some will say — likewise insists that she is in it for the long haul, no matter what happens. Looking on the bright side of life, she says that the “stress has made us closer, stronger… [It’s true] what they say, when you’re down, you find out who your friends are.”
David, however, has not been so blessed in his troubles. So devastated is he by his losses that he tells Ms Greenfield’s camera: “Nothing makes me happy these days; I will be happy when I find a solution to — ” and he looks around him — “This.” The key moment in the film comes when David is asked, “Do you get strength from your marriage?”
He hesitates a moment and then replies: “No. It’s like having another child.” But, of course, that’s what he chose Jackie for. Their romance must have been a bit like Max Bialystock’s telling Leo Bloom: “I’m going to buy a toy. I worked very, very hard and I think I deserve a toy.” The “toy” is of course Ulla, played by Lee Meredith, the receptionist who can’t speak English and whom Max describes as “an adult, educational toy made in Sweden for children over fifty.” Ulla bears more than a passing resemblance to Jackie Siegel, who gives a whole new meaning to the expression, her face (sc. other body part) is her fortune. It’s all desperately sad — unless, I suppose, you have your politics to comfort you.
About the Author
James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (16) | Leave a comment
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Jack in Wi| 8.20.12 @ 6:11AM
90,000 Sq. ft.? Is this story true? It all sounds so insane?
Cobalt| 8.20.12 @ 7:56AM
I guess a 90,000 sq. ft. house would trump the 56,000 sq. ft. snack that Aaron and Candy Spelling built.
Cobalt| 8.20.12 @ 8:01AM
"shack" not "snack"
An edit feature would be greatly appreciated.
OP4| 8.20.12 @ 9:29AM
That beats the hell out of John Edwards 28,200 monstrosity. Once you get much over 5,000 sq feet, I'm not sure what the point is. It's just conspicuous consumption of space you'll never use. (Not counting things like a barn on a working farm)
PolishKnight| 8.20.12 @ 10:23AM
There's a version of this type of tragic downfall of the privileged available for right schadenfreude pleasure seekers: The Real Housewives on Bravo series. Many of the series are based in cities and groups with clear elitist Democrat sympathies: Beverly Hills, NYC, and DC. In one of the series, a privileged, pampered woman crashes an Obama party and later, disgraced, her husband loses his winery. She eventually divorces him and parties with a rock star.
In the NYC series, the leftist women are not only wealthy and spoiled, but mean spirited and condescending as well. When a new housewife is invited for lunch and the hostess orders a diet soda from a waiter, she smugly informs her that diet soda causes cancer. They then fret for about a half hour on the show about what the other women are saying about each other, and them. My wife watches the program to feel good that being rich doesn't make people happy. They spend their husbands' money on lavish leftist charity galas (such as gay rights) just to show off $10,000 outfits they will wear only once.
WIrepublican| 8.20.12 @ 11:12AM
Gawd this woman is sooooo white-trashy looking...it's like putting lipstick on a pig ya know. I just "googled imaged" her. Anyone who wears an entire "animal print" dress has no taste is just trashy.
Glad that the money is no longer wasted on such.....low-brow individuals. I agree with what you say polishknight about the real housewives. Don't watch it have no desire to watch a bunch of x-strippers that sucked their way to a fortune.
Kingofthenet| 8.20.12 @ 11:42AM
Yet EVERY one of you Conservatives would dump your 'First Wives' for this girl in two seconds. i used to think Animal prints and leather made a girl look trashy, until I dated a Stripper who could pull it off, NO other 'Toy' could make me feel more cool than to walk into a room with her and see ALL my friends dumpy wives, get miffed she was there, suddenly all their cocky attitude due to their money just vanished...
SeymourGlass| 8.20.12 @ 4:15PM
You don't "date" strippers, silly. You have the pleasure of their company until you either run out of money (which, I'm guessing in your case, wasn't long) or come to your senses (which, I'm guessing in your case, was long in coming, if at all).
TinaB| 8.21.12 @ 10:55AM
KOTN,
You give new meaning to the word loser. What you just wrote is exactly what I would expect of you. When I saw your name, I said, oh boy, here comes
Mr. Sleaze. You didn't disappoint.
Seek| 8.20.12 @ 11:53AM
I saw the film the other weekend. It's a fascinating look at why people are prisoners of the very mental edifice they create for themselves. Mr. and Mrs. Siegel invite a certain amount of contempt, but also a surprising amount of sympathy. The husband really did have to bend over for the banks.
PolishKnight| 8.20.12 @ 4:00PM
Regarding the trophy wife's tastes: keep in mind that it's in Florida. Pastel colors rule!
Proudly Progressive| 8.20.12 @ 5:56PM
So rich people are now liberal? That's an unhelpful knee jerk meme that misses an opportunity to reflect honestly about what the movie portrays. I think the filmmaker was incredibly kind to the Siegels and portrayed them quite sympathetically. My sense is that there were more scenes left on the cutting room floor that would have been less flattering than were included in this movie. The most amazing lesson of the movie for me was that the excessive, extreme consumption in the movie teaches us about ourselves and the excessive consumption many of us (maybe not you but lots of people we all know and love) engage in: how many TVs do we have? shoes, phones, houses, cars, bikes, watches, clothes, and the list goes on. How many of us spend with only a rosy vision of the upside potential of life? How many of us orient our lives around money as if that will make us happy? One can only use the "American Dream" with some irony in light of how much overconsumption has been tied to it and how far out of reach it is as our economy shifts away from the skills and training of many Americans. In other words, let ye who is without overconsumption cast the first stone at the Siegels. There's is extreme but the difference is only a matter of degree. The filmmaker did a great job and the Siegels were remarkably unpretentious and brave (or foolhardy) to allow themselves to be portrayed as they really are.
firstwife| 8.20.12 @ 10:09PM
James Bowman has projected his ideology onto this film---and he has misrepresented a fine documentary. Director Lauren Greenfield does not condescend, she merely reflects our American culture of excess. There is no liberal schadenfreude. We are all, conservatives, independents and liberals alike, guilty of over-reaching and greed. And I agree, it is sometimes depressingly sad, but a topic worthy of national reflection and discussion. We need to learn what is "enough." And that idea is beyond political affiliation.
TinaB| 8.21.12 @ 11:52AM
My Lord Jesus said, "the love of money is the root of all evil." Not money itself, but the love of it. Furthermore, greed is among the seven cardinal sins, which include lust, gluttony, sloth, envy, wrath, and pride. And the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life are not of God, but of the world, according to the first letter of John.
If one is to rip the greedy apart limb from limb, my question is why only them? Why give a pass to the lustful (porn anyone?), the proud (calling Barry Soetoro or whatever his name was) and other amorals? Could it be because of envy, one of the other deadly sins? See, we're all sinners, not just the Siegels. I'm from sunny Central Florida. Past home of many multimillionaires, think Tiger and Shaq, Islesworth and Mount Dora. A lot of that monstrosity building going on here.
When I left LA for Fla, it turned out it was just same
SSDD (same sins, different demographic). We are all sinners, saved by Grace, the Siegels no less than me. The real enemy is he who is out to steal our freedom to get rich if we want. I don't happen to want, but you might. You should be free to do so, and I will defend your freedom to, to the death.
Crassus| 8.21.12 @ 8:08PM
I'll gladly make Jackie Siegel the Queen of My Doublewide Trailer. She looks like she could suck a tennis ball through a garden hose.
Escorts Australian | 8.27.12 @ 6:41AM
I agree to this ... :)