Louis Quatorze

I had been lamenting the lack of independent film available in Sioux Falls. Salt Lake City has the Blue Mouse, Princeton has the Garden and Sioux Falls had nothing consistent. There's the Dakota Film Festival, and an occasional film but no hub.
Until now.
Enter Cinema Falls.
It fills a definite need for those of us on the prairie that think out of the mainstream for movies.
This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see the documentary, the Queen of Versailles. I had heard about it on NPR, and was hoping I wouldn't have to wait for Netflix or for. It to pop up on the Sundance channel.
The premise of the movie was a profile of the family building the largest single family house in America. Modeled on Versailles, it was an ostentatious shrine to capitalism. Built with a fortune made from time shares, the house featured multiple kitchens, a children's wing and a baseball field.
Unfortunately, the timing for this house was poor. As the economic downturn hit, the availability of easy credit disappeared, as did the fortunes of Westgate-the company that funded this lifestyle.
There were some unintentionally funny moments in the film, including taxidermist stuffed dogs, the formerly fabulously wealthy family flying coach, the wife being shocked that hertz didn't supply a driver. I wish I could find a level of sympathy for the family portrayed (I'm not including the 8 kids, as they are innocent) but I found the husband a lecherous, Hugh Hefner type, preying on middle class dreams . The wife stated in the beginning she went from graduating from Rochester Polytechnic with a degree in computer engineering to being a model and beauty queen. It was a feminist's worse nightmare.
The recession was lethal for the family's fortune, and eventually the house was listed for $100 million. In the meantime, juxtaposed with montages of empty sales offices and scenes of former well to do's being downgraded to limo drivers, the wife is shown getting a glycolic peel and Botox.
It was an interesting riff on want vs need, which is a timeless theme. In fact, the current presidential campaign seems to be a referendum on capitalism. What broke my heart was when the wife said that she would not have had 7 kids if it weren't for nannies. Even more heartbreaking was hearing from the nanny who hadn't seen her now adult son since he was 7. Another household staff member lived in the abandoned play house.
It was a fascinating look behind closed doors of the fabulously wealthy. While I was not disappointed with the vapid trophy wife hanging onto her looks and her man as she aged, the stereotype was shattered a bit (not much, but a little).
Glad that independent film has come to Sioux Falls.