The Queen of Versailles is the kind of documentary that comes about by chance and good fortune, on the behalf of the filmmakers, at the expense of it's subjects. This absurd tale was fascinating. In the words of the "king" - a riches to rags story.
The film documents one of the wealthiest business men and his resulting family, lounging about in Orlando, Florida. David Siegel started small; in the early eighties he was introduced to the concept of time-shares and the world has never been the same - literally. He is the considered the world leader of the time-share enterprise with 28 resorts to his company name, Westgate. He also admits in the film that he alone enabled Bush to become president but that he could not say why because it was probably illegal!! What kind of idiot says this on camera!
I really hate reality shows; this movie kind of feels like one, only the people aren't acting - they are true to life bumbling pea brains. I am being harsh but let me explain. I don't think David is dumb, but is clearly just a work obsessed individual who has seemingly lost touch with reality to some extent. His wife, Jackie, the buxom buxom queen, was apparently an engineer (what the hell kind?) in her younger days who went on to become Miss Florida and a model of some kind. She subsequently left her brains somewhere in between. Really though, she became victim to her own beauty (cough) and resulting nuptual wealth - not needing to care or worry about anything other than how many purses you own undoubtedly would cause your cerebral function to dwindle. Unfortunately their eight children also suffer from blatant poor relationships and proper life education.
There is a lot to say and digest from this film. The American Dream realized to it's utter limits is no walk in the park - not that I feel bad for them, but being loaded, at least in this family unit, does not seem very fun at all. The filmmaker caught some excellent real moments that contained a certain verisimilitude that could hardly be easily faked. It's awfully interesting to see what wealth can do to people and also sit back to laugh your head off in bleedin amazement at the words that come out of the mouths of these fellow apes and the ridiculous mental feats performed and acted upon. I won't give any specifics away, but yes, these are actual homo sapiens, that yes, have way too much money and not enough wit to know what to do with it. Frankly Disgusting.
Recommended Viewing: The Up Series - Crumb - Capturing The Friedmans
Bob Scale: Objective: 8.5 - Subjective: 9.2
MetaCritic: 80
Rotten Tomatoes: 94
IMDB: 5.1
No comments:
Post a Comment