Director: Lauren Greenfield
Cast: Jackie Siegel, David Siegel
Running Time: 100 min
Synopsis: A documentary about David and Jackie Siegel, a billionaire couple in the process of building their dream house – a 90,000 square foot mansion inspired by the Versailles. However, when the financial crisis hits the US, their life takes a different turn…
Have you ever wondered what happens to a billionaire when recession hits? Lauren Greenfield’s documentary THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES looks into the life of the Siegel family, capturing the American Dream at its highest and lowest point.
The film opens with the extravagant construction of the biggest house in America, a 90,000 square foot mansion that has been inspired by the Versailles. To the backdrop of fairytale music we get to know the Siegel family, time-share mogul David, 74, his wife Jackie, 43, their 8 children, 19 staff and a selection of pets including four dogs, five cats, assorted lizards and a peacock, all of who are living in a 26,000 square foot estate in Orlando, Florida.
However, when the economic crisis of 2008 hits, the construction of their dream home comes to a halt and they are faced with the brutal reality of scraping to make ends (or in their case millions) meet. Taking you on a fascinating journey of one family’s acclimatization to a new financial environment, we see what happens when you have to get used to walking low after you have been living at the top.
The film is full of anecdotes and quotes that the Siegel family might not necessary find funny, but they have the audiences giggling. On a trip to visit Jackie’s family soon after the crisis first hit, boarding the plane, one of her children asks her, ‘Mommy, what are all these people doing on our plane?’ It is the first time the family has flown commercial and throughout the so-called downfall we learn that their private plane is just one of the luxuries that the family has had to give up.
David’s biggest loss, it seems, is his Westgate Towers building in Las Vegas, closed down after sales of his time-share units are blocked by his bank. Through the film we are shown that it is not only the loss of money and status, but also more importantly the pride that has been most hurt, as David more than once mentions ‘This really humbles you.’
Lauren Greenfield has a perfect eye for this riches-to-rags story, carefully handpicking each interviewee separately, to not only show the effect of the crisis on the Siegel family, but also on their friends and relatives, juxtapositioning their fortune with that of their maids and limo driver. A triumph at the Sundance film festival, it won the award for Best Documentary and has proven to be yet another hit by Greenfield, whose previous successes include documentaries KIDS+MONEY and THIN.
THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES opens nationwide later this year.
