Johnny Depp marks his comeback to cinema with his role as King Louis XV in the filmJeanne du Barry. The film follows the titular du Barry, played by writer-director Maïwenn, as she climbs the Paris social ladder from working woman to royal mistress, arguably one of the most powerful positions a woman in France could hold at the time.
Reviews forJeanne du Barryhave been mixed.The Independentcalled the film “surprisingly great,” and “a subtle and well-crafted costume drama with plenty of satirical bite.”Varietycharacterizes the biopic as “clumsy” and “unexpectedly tame” but still that it “taps into the emotional core of a most unusual relationship, such that we mourn how and why it eventually dissolves.” Conversely,The Hollywood Reportercalled the film “both flat and shallow,” and theBBCconsidered Depp’s performance “subdued to the point where he’s barely conscious.” The real Jeanne du Barry, it seems, may have had a far more exciting life than Maïwenn’s film portrays.
Jeanne du Barry’s Early Life
Marie Jeanne Bécu was born in Vaucouleurs, France in 1743. The illegitimate daughter of seamstress Anne Bécu and an unidentified man, young Jeanne’s lot in life wouldn’t suggest she’d one day have exclusive access to the King. She seemed at first destined for a life of struggle and poverty, but fate had different plans. A wealthy financier named Billard-Duouceaux took interest in Anne and her daughter, employing the former as a cook in his household and sending Jeanne to study at a local convent.
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At age 15 Jeanne left the convent, prompting Duouceaux to fire Anne. The twomoved to Pariswhere Jeanne found work as a shop assistant in a Paris fashion house. It was here where Jeanne met Jean Baptiste du Barry, a casino owner and high-class pimp. Through du Barry, Jeanne would regularly take on several wealthy and influential men as clients, including Duke Maréchal de Richelieu. In 1768, the duke brought Jeanne to a party at Versailles, where her stunning beauty drew the eye of the aging and lonely King Louis XV.
Jeanne du Barry Becomes the Royal Mistress
Louis XV’s wife, Queen Marie Leszczynska, had died in that same year, and the position of the official royal mistress had been vacant for four years following the loss of his favorite, Madame de Pompadour. As an aside, the royal mistress, known as themaîtresse en titre,is considered one of the most powerful positions a woman in France could hold. The tradition of themaîtresse en titre,though not explicitly acknowledged in court, still had rules, the most important being that the mistress must hold a title.
Noticing an opportunity for mutual prosperity, du Barry proposed that Jeanne marry his titled but prospectless brother Count Guillaume du Barry. The two were wed in 1769, after which the newly titled Madame du Barry could officially become France’s most powerful woman at just 26 years old. Louis XV adored Jeanne, but many members of the court did not. To the Court at Versailles, Jeanne was a threat, a sign of the downfallof a once great monarchy.
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Most notable among these was the one and only Marie Antoinette. The future queen and many other members of the court found du Barry’s presence distasteful, and she would often bring up the mistress’s lowly origins. Louis XV was smitten, though: nothing could get between him and du Barry. This would prove most true with the Duke de Choiseul, the Secretary of State and one of du Barry’s staunchest critics. Choiseul had been friends with Jeanne’s predecessor Madame Pompadour and had hoped to install his sister in the position. After a string of failures in the Seven Years War, and likely with some prodding of du Barry, Louis XV permanently dismissed the duke from his duties. A friend to Choiseul, Antoinette was furious that the “lowly” mistress won out.
While Jeanne was politically protected from Antoinette’s wrath, that wouldn’t last forever. In 1774, Louis XV died of smallpox, and Louis XVI, along with Marie Antoinette, ascended to the throne.
Madame du Barry After Louis XV
Jeanne was immediately expelled from Versailles and sent to the Pont-aux-Dames convent in Meaux. Two years later, du Barry retired to the home given to her by Louis XV, the Château de Louveciennes, where she spent her days as a frequent and beloved patron of the arts.
Despite her poor treatment atthe hands of many royals, du Barry remained a staunch royalist until the end. Several French émigrés to London relied on du Barry for financial support, which put the former mistress in the crosshairs of revolutionaries. As punishment for counterrevolutionary activity, Jeanne du Barry was beheaded in the Place de la Revolution in December 1793, just two months after Marie Antoinette had suffered the same fate.
Films and television often portray du Barry as the upstart her enemies complained of — see her portrayal in Sofia Coppola’sMarie Antoinette— but modern historians see her with greater nuance. Madame du Barry was both a victim and beneficiary of circumstance: just as she was unlucky to be born into class misfortune, the privileges afforded to her later in life came from the luck of her good looks and fortuitous social connections. Du Barry was no paragon of feminism: she was an incredibly beautiful woman who utilized the tools she was born with to rise the social ladder and find the comforts she felt she deserved.
