How do you sum up the Siegels?
Lauren Greenfield's "The Queen of Versailles" is funny, sad, appalling and touching all at once. It can be taken as a tale of wretched excess, of the implosion of the American Dream. or as proof that the rich (at least the nouveaux riches) are perhaps not so different from you and me.
"The Queen of Versailles" is a documentary about David and Jacqueline Siegel, Florida billionaires who made a mint in the time-share boom of the early 2000s, only to go bust when the subprime mortgage bubble burst. The symbol of their rags-to-riches-to-rags story is their unfinished 90,000-square-foot house, named and modeled after Versailles, which they are forced to put on the market. The early portion of the film depicts the Siegels' life of childish self-congratulation in their current 26,000-sq.-ft. mansion, replete with gilt thrones, shoe closets the size of airplane hangars, and portraits of themselves in royal robes. The later footage shows their lives falling into chaos. David becomes...
Wonderful documentary!
I drove 4 hours roundtrip yesterday to see "The Queen of Versailles", which I had been looking forward to since reading of it months ago. I was certain it would be worth the trip, and indeed it was! Lauren Greenfield fascinatingly captured the Siegel family as they were living life large with all the unimaginable tacky extravagances that the self made couple with "new money" thought would make them look important and elegant. The marriage was built on shifting sand ... Jackie was his trophy wife ... David was her trophy husband. She popped out 7 kids once she realized she could have several nannies to take care of them. Poor kids. The 90,000 sq. ft. Versailles was under construction when the bottom dropped out of the real estate market, so they had to halt construction on that and make do in their 26,000 sq. ft. house. The story only gets more crazy from there on out. I had told my friend who went with me that this movie was a documentary, but afterwards she asked if those were actors...
A documentary that is also a satire
But these people are so over-the-top that there is no way to satirize them. Their reality is completely out there. Their 26,000 sq ft house is too small, so they are building a 90,000 sq ft one, based on the palace at Versailles. That's what the documentary starts out about. Then, the economic collapse hits, and actually affects them so they must cease construction on this huge palace and fire 19 of their 24 or so household staff. There is still money for a non-surgical facelift for the forty-something wife with basketball-size false boobs married to the 75 yr old husband with enormous gut, but they must forgo private planes with their 7 kids and niece. This movie was a horror show of what happens to people when they simply have too much money. There is no compassion for the Filipino nanny who has not seen her own children in 11 years. There is no feeling for pets, even, who are allowed to crap all over the floor (dogs) or simply allowed to die (reptiles, fish) from neglect. This is...
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