The Dryden will screen Marie Antoinette (W. S. Van Dyke, U.S. 1938, 148 min., 35mm) as part of the Eastman Entertains series.

Academy Award winner Norma Shearer stars with Tyrone Power in the story of a beautiful, intelligent, and ultimately heroic woman destroyed by the tidal wave of revolution sweeping across Europe: the ill-fated Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. A young Austrian princess forced to marry the French dauphin to seal an alliance between the two decadent, crumbling empires, Marie Antoinette (Shearer) seeks sexual fulfillment outside her marriage and eventually finds love in the arms of the dashing Count Axel de Fersen (Power). But when King Louis XV dies suddenly and Marie Antoinette becomes queen, she ends her relationship with Fersen and devotes herself to France. Her efforts come too late, however, as revolution sweeps the king and queen from power, and Marie Antoinette fearlessly walks to the guillotine. This lavish production was one of the most successful films of the 1930s, nominated for four Academy Awards, and was the last film produced by the legendary Irving Thalberg before his untimely death.

[source: George Eastman Museum calendar, 2017-May-1]