Monograph release: Spring 2019
In Search of Marie-Antoinette in the 1930s: Stefan Zweig, Irving Thalberg, and Norma Shearer is a scholarly monograph published by Palgrave Macmillan that follows Austrian biographer Stefan Zweig, American producer Irving Thalberg, and Canadian-American actress Norma Shearer as they attempt to uncover personal aspects of Marie-Antoinette’s life at the French court in the late eighteenth century and to dramatize them in biography, cinema, and performance for public consumption during the 1930s. The first chapter establishes the core subject as an inquiry into the respective contributions of Zweig, Thalberg, and Shearer in formulating an “objective” or “authentic” image of “Marie-Antoinette.” The three chapters that follow examine in some detail how Zweig pursued research and drafted the psychological biography at his Salzburg home, Thalberg acquired film rights to the best-selling book and fought the censors to preserve the more sensational aspects of the screenplay at the Culver City studio, and Shearer worked closely with a new producer to give the script a strong romantic angle and to perform the character of the queen on the sound stage. The professionals’ research standards and strategic objectives are weighed in the formulation of a new myth at once sensitive to the historical record and suited to the leisure market. The author’s painstaking research makes it clear that all three protagonists strove for historical precision in their characterizations of the eighteenth-century queen and her court, though with different degrees of self-awareness as shapers of a potent twentieth-century myth of “Marie-Antoinette.”
Table of Contents
Introduction: In Search of Marie-Antoinette: The Inscrutable Life Worth Scrutinizing
Scholarship to Date
- The Myth of “Marie-Antoinette”
- “Objectivity” in the Writing of History, “Authenticity” in the Production of Film
- Zweig, Thalberg and Shearer in Documents and Biographies
Structure and Method of the Argument
Part I: Stefan Zweig’s Clinical Biography, 1930-1932
Western European Approaches to Illustrated Biography in the 1920s
Zweig’s Approach to Psychological Biography
Zweig’s Approach to the French Revolution
Merging Dominant Interpretations of Marie-Antoinette
Structure of the Argument
Marie-Antoinette’s Psychological Transformation: Cause, Manifestations, and Cure
Marie-Antoinette’s Spiritual Transformation: Awakening, Resistance and Acceptance
Writing Historical Biography as an “Interested” Undertaking
Zweig on Film Adaptations of Historical Biographies
Part II: Irving Thalberg’s Film Production, 1934-1936
European and American Approaches to Historical Film in the 1920s
Thalberg’s Approach to Biographical Film
Thalberg’s Introduction to the Zweig Property
Sorting Rival Interpretations of Marie-Antoinette
In Conference: Establishing Character Motivations, Scenarios, and Continuity
The Two Earliest “Temporary Complete Screenplays”
Indicating Louis’ Phimosis, or How Ineffectual Lovemaking Leads to lackluster Leadership
Indicating the Revolutionaries, or How to Generate Sympathy for Monarchs in Spite of Their Ineffectualness
Producing Biographical Film as an “interested” Undertaking
Thalberg on Playing a Historical Character
Part III: Norma Shearer’s Dramatic Performance, 1937-1938
Euro-American Approaches to Historical Roles in the 1930s
Shearer’s Approach to Historical Characterizations
Shearer’s Recommitment to the Marie-Antoinette Role
The “Final Okayed Screenplay”
Inter-Dependence of Screenplay, Cast, Costumes, and Sets
Before and Behind the Cameras: Shearer’s Acting Technique and Production Oversight
The Two Faces of Marie-Antoinette, or How to Sell Sin and Atonement
To make Marie-Antoinette Live Again: The Art of Rendering Clear and Mixed Passions
Acting a Historical Part as an “Interested” Undertaking
Shearer on Public Response to Her Performance
Conclusion
Summary
“Marie-Antoinette” in Myth
“Objectivity” in Biography, “Authenticity” in Film
Time Travel Today
Index
Design by Emma Hardy
Appreciations:
“This is an important book for our library!”
– Eva Alteneder, Stefan Zweig Center Salzburg
“This gets my award for best reception history book of the year! It is simply fabulous!” and “It’s a great piece of research underpinned by a strong idea. It reads as an archaeology of film. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned loads.”
– Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, University of Cardiff
“T. Lawrence Larkin’s In Search of Marie-Antoinette in the 1930s is a game changer. He builds upon his considerable expertise in art history—the representation of the dubious queen in oil painting—as a framework for exploring a particular classical Hollywood biopic, MGM’s Marie-Antoinette (1938). Not only does the book give reason to attend more carefully to the bio-pic in late 1930s Hollywood, it also provides a sterling guide for how to do production studies at its most sophisticated level. Larkin’s attention to literary studies (the author Stefan Zweig), film studies (the producer Irving Thalberg), and performance studies (the actress Norma Shearer) provides a beacon for what the humanities should look like in the twenty-first century, interdisciplinary and brazenly expansive in its scope. The age of academic disciplinary boundaries is coming to an end, and Larkin’s book hammers a significant nail into its coffin.”
– Walter Metz, Southern Illinois University
“Like everything Professor Larkin has written about Marie-Antoinette and her image (how she related to her own image, how she contributed to shaping it, or—like here—how the queen’s image and character have been explored on screen and in literature), this book is excellent reading and very thoroughly researched. I warmly recommend it to those with an interest in the fascinating dialogue historical figures keep having with movie makers and intellectuals turned biographers….Many useless and repetitive books are written about Marie-Antoinette. This original way of exploring how she has fascinated so many—and keeps doing so—will appeal to many. A great book!”
– Jean François Carric, Metamark UK Limited
