Has anyone else seen the movie, "Queen of Versailles"?

[JDPriestly]

I thought it demonstrated very clearly how our country got into this financial crisis, who caused it, the extent of the greed of the 1% and why we need to raise taxes on the 1% better than any other film or any book I have read.

I recommend it. It's easy to watch, too. I'd love to hear what other people who have seen it thought about it.

[patrice]

1. Thanks for the tip. I've seen that around & wondered. Margin Call is very good too for it's look

inside a financial house to show, with Kevin Spacey, Dustin Hoffman, and Jeremy Irons, how responses to the derivative crash are handled from within that culture.

[JDPriestly]

8. Queen of Versailles is easy to understand.

It shows just how disgusting the 1% is in their private lives.

[patrice]

11. I will watch it soon. I have been on the edge of that culture in a service capacity, so

it will be interesting to test my own assessments.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Yep

Went into the city to see it this past summer.

And you realize who the man is in the documentary - right?

David Seigel is one of he assholes who threatened to fire his employees if Obama was elected -


http://gawker.com/5950189/the-ceo-who-built-himself-americas-largest-house-just-threatened-to-fire-his-employees-if-obamas-elected


ETA - Marie Antoinette would have spit on these people. I'm a bit of a student of French culture and history and she is one of the most misunderstood women in their rich history. We only know the victors story of her as a part of pop culture. We know very little of the woman that mocked the French court for their absurd follies - hence why so many royals turned on her do quickly. Very few people know about her charitable works, her facial deformity that made her humble (Hapsburg Jaw), or that she was raised by her mother . . . Not ladies in waiting. The Austrian court was quite different than the Fench court. Relatively down to earth with access to it by te people.


These folks - would have been laughed at by the last great Queen of Versailles.

[JDPriestly]

9. Yes. You are so right about the Austrian court.

And Marie Antoinette thus, built the Trianon, a sort of bucolic playground that, perhaps, satisfied a yen for the relatively simple lifestyle in the Austrian mountains.

Still, Schonbrunn and the Austrian Hofburg are not little huts by any means. The Austrian court was still pretty magnificent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B6nbrunn_Palace

http://www.hofburg-wien.at/en.html

Maria Theresa's son, Joseph, put a program for public education in place and advocated for religious tolerance (of Protestants).

The lowdown on Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette's mother:

http://www.habsburger.net/en/persons/habsburg-emperor/maria-theresa

[Starry Messenger]

3. I just watched it this week on Netflix

I'm still thinking about it. I watched it alone and want to watch it again with someone so we can talk about it.

I have to say, I ended up feeling a bit more sorry for the wife than I thought I initially would. David keeps her so insulated and infantalized in a way, that it was easy to see why she was in such a bubble. She didn't know anything about the state of their finances.

The insanity of their ridiculous mansion embodied the kind of mindless expansion that comes with having too much money. It's hard to grasp how large it is until it was mentioned that finished it would be as large as an theme area in Disneyland park.

[Javaman]

4. that halfwit David Siegel threatened to fire a number of his employees if Obama was reelected...

then after Obama was reelected, like most moron repukes, he was a total bullshit artist. he was trying the old fear tactic and failed thus making him look like the jackass he is.

[trumad]

5. A sad old man who sits in his filty cluttered den all day...

bitching about the 2008 crash, Obama and every thing else.

Funny how his empire cratered under Bush and is clawing its way back under Obama.

Dude was a big pioneer donor for Bush and anything Republican in 2008.

His wife---wow---what a fucking bizarre plastic woman.

What struck my wife and I is how the house was filled with dog shit in just about every room. They live like Pigs.

Plus---the way they treat their Filipino staff is horrendous. Allowing one servant to sleep in the kids doll house....unreal.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. I missed it. I'll try to see it. nt

[Berlum]

7. "I stole Florida for Bush in 2000, and that how he became pResidunce." - Versailles A-hole (R)

That's not an exact quote, just an approximation....but he says it in the film, then weasels (sooo Republicans) and says he won't talk about it any more because what he did was illegal.

Sooo Republican

[JDPriestly]

10. That sounded like an admission of guilt for something.

I wonder why no one has asked him what in the world he was talking about.

Hmmmmm! Florida?

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. I am 10 minutes into it, and already my jaw is on the floor.

I am cringing at the idea someone needs 30 bathrooms and 10 kitchens in a house.....

As my G'ma used to mutter...a lot...."damn fool has more money than common sense"