On this day, the young Marie-Antoinette tries on new clothes in Versailles. On the floor of the royal palace, among sumptuous dresses and precious jewels, a pair of… Converse, sports shoes invented in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Here we are in Sofia Coppola’s film Marie-Antoinette and this detail, which originally had to be edited out, has caused a flood of criticism and outrage. “Historians will probably attack me,” even the director suspected, back then in the middle of shooting, in the spring of 2005. If this anachronism is wanted, even claimed, it is not the case with many others, often unnoticed, in films and television series with real historical importance.
⋙ “The Crown”, “Versailles” … When the series distorts reality
Test your knowledge of these anachronisms in movies and TV series
“In films, the clothes often make the monk,” writes Julien Magalhães in his book Erratum (Hoëbeke, 2022). “It’s often designed to convey the roles and character of the characters […]. These dramatic requirements point to a lesser degree of historical veracity, if it exists at all.
⋙ Outfits of Cleopatra, Louis XIV or Spartans… Those inconsistencies in costumes in the cinema
Test your historical knowledge and find out if you’ve noticed these anachronisms and inconsistencies in movies and TV series with our general knowledge quiz.