Thursday, February 28, 2013

#62 The Queen of Versailles (2012)

Directed by Lauren Greenfield.


An absolutely great documentary about one of the richest couples in America. It starts out focusing on the process of them building and getting ready for a new family home in central Florida—what will be the largest single-family home in the country, costing $100 million. The movie takes a turn for the better with the financial collapse of 2008, which leads to a huge loss in value of the enormous time-share company owned and run by the patriarch of the family, David Siegel. From that point on, the movie shows the process of a family gradually imploding on itself as they try to adjust to life on a budget. The main character, Jackie Siegel, is David Siegel's 25 year younger former beauty pageant winner trophy wife. The couple have 8 children under the age of 16. Jackie's pure ignorance about anything to do with the financial situation of her family, and the way in which the family's excesses is so clearly demonstrated for the cameras without even the least bit of awareness of how callous and out of touch with reality they are is fascinating. I won't go into any detail, but only highly recommend that anyone reading this should make a point of watching this film. I am a huge fan of documentaries, and this one is a really good one at that.

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