Charlie Stross just tweeted about Julie d’Aubigny, a 17th century swordswoman and opera singer, who hit the road when her lover killed a man in an illegal duel.
On the road south, Madame de Maupin and Sérannes made a living by giving fencing exhibitions and singing in taverns and at local fairs. While travelling and performing in these impromptu shows, Maupin dressed in male clothing but did not conceal her gender. On arrival in Marseille, she joined the opera company run by Pierre Gaultier, singing under her maiden name.
Eventually, she grew bored of Sérannes and became involved with a young woman. When the girl’s parents put her away in the Visitandines convent in Avignon, Maupin followed, entering the convent as a postulate. In order to run away with her new love, she stole the body of a dead nun, placed it in the bed of her lover, and set the room on fire to cover their escape.[3] Their affair lasted for three months before the young lady returned to her family. Maupin was charged in absentia—as a male—with kidnapping, body snatching, arson, and failing to appear before the tribunal. The sentence was death by fire.
Maupin left for Paris and again earned her living by singing. Near Poitiers, she met an old actor named Maréchal who began to teach her until his alcoholism got worse and he sent her on her way to Paris.[4]
In Villeperdue, still wearing men’s clothing, she was insulted by a young nobleman. They fought a duel and she drove her blade through his shoulder. The next day, she asked about his health and found out he was Louis-Joseph d’Albert Luynes, son of the Duke of Luynes. Later, one of his companions came to offer d’Albert’s apologies. She went to his room and subsequently they became lovers and, later, lifelong friends.
She settled down for a while in Paris. And then…
Her Paris career was interrupted around 1695, when she kissed a young woman at a society ball and was challenged to duels by three different noblemen. She beat them all, but fell afoul of the king’s law that forbade duels in Paris. She fled to Brussels to wait for calmer times. There, she was briefly the mistress of Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.
She died at the age of 33. Only 33! And what a lively life to have lived.
Where is the movie treatment? There seems to be stuff in French, and a couple of books, but oh, man — I don’t want to see another Batman or Spider-man movie, but a big-budget blockbuster about Julie d’Aubigny would get me to the theater.
Me, too.
Now about the casting…
We need someone charismatic, fiery, and androgynous.
I would definitely go to see this one.
Tilda Swinton is a bit too old…
I would love to see this one. So long as they don’t muck it up, which means writer(s) and director(s) are also supremely important. Would need a good, sarcastic, humourous and lively (none of that stuck-up period-phrase accent stuff) script, and a lot of action shots.
> she stole the body of a dead nun, placed it in the bed of her lover, and set the room on fire
I have to admit, I can’t top that. Props to Charlie to making this more widely known.
rq:
Paging Michael Bay! Michael Bay please respond!
Given the way Hollywood usually works, I’m gonna guess they’ll cast a man.
Wow, that’s an even more vivacious life than Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel. Where’s Tom Lehrer when we need him?
For those who don’t get Johnny Vector’s comment at #9: Alma by Tom Lehrer. What makes the song even more amusing is that it is factually true: look her up on the Wikipedia.
Nobody tell Sofia Coppola about this, please. It will be a train wreck.
I don’t know. I’m not sure if this story tops the one of Anne Bonney and Mary Read, and Hollywood hasn’t even tried to deal with them yet. Let’s glamorize our own hellions before we go after foreigners, ok?
Sili @ 8;
I think you are right on the money there, if they even cast anyone at all. Given that Hollywood has pretty much always functioned as the principle cultural branch of patriarchy, I don’t see them exactly embracing the life story of Julie d’Aubigny, at least not without hideously mangling it first.
Recasting her as a man is one option, another is to use the standard Hollywood ‘action girl’ (horrible term) approach, where her character does little other than pose unnecessarily suggestively for half the running time, and still winds up depending upon a secondary male character to get her out of scrapes, before finally largely chucking all this adventurous business in, becase all she ever really wanted was to live a ‘normal’ life as a ‘natural’ woman. This pattern is both depressingly common and utterly nauseating in large productions.
Then they might also do a hatchet job on her character, and either try to paint her as villainous or, more likley, cast her as a tragic figure whose refusal to live as a woman ‘should’ resulted in a tumultuous, unfulfilled life blighted by violence, vagrancy and dissolution that was cut tragically (or perhaps they might even dare to suggest mercifully?) short.
I also don’t see Hollywood studios handling her tendency to wear dress usually gender coded in the period as masculine (prepare for endless tired and bigoted cinematic cross-dressing tropes) or her bisexuality sensitively at all, probably either playing it for prurient titillation or going to the other extreme of moralistically declaiming that the wages of such ‘sin’ are death, or some similarly pompous and idiotic fundy sentiment.
Perhaps it is best if Hollywood stayed as far away from this whole business as possible. An independent production has a better chance of being something other than an open sewer of vitriolic cinematic misogyny.
Hollywood isn’t the only place that movies are made.
I just heard about her yesterday thanks to reading through this last night – http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/
Her particular entry is here – http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/post/93976403868/julie-daubigny-princess-of-the-opera-1670-1707
I have a horrible feeling they’d cast Scarlett Johansson for this. Or, at best, Charlize Theron.
This would certainly make an interesting movie if done correctly… However, Hollywood would probably muck it up bad. Disney would be even worse. Think Bollywood would be able to pull this off?
Laverne Cox FTW.
Gina Torres is probably too old, too.
I think that the BBC could do a decent job with this.
I thought about Torchwood and the way that Captain Jack was portrayed as an “omnisexual”.
I may be wrong, but the Brits don’t seem to have a huge problem with dealing with bisexuality on screen.
No Scarlett, please. Not for this one. No Keira Knightley, either.
And Tony (re: Michael Bay), I’m getting the feeling that you like to piss me off. :P
I believe she also needed – and /managed/ – to get pardoned by the King of France. Twice. I’m not sure which is more impressive, /getting/ the second pardon or needing it in the first (well, second) place.
Nice heardline…
Suzanne Bertish played La Touraine in the Scarlet Pimpernel series from 1992 (?). The character seemed to be based on Maupin. (She also played the female Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf.)
Yes, the character must be played by a woman. Claudia Black, maybe?
Ahem. Yes, why haven’t you “head” of this woman before? :)
This could go bad so quickly…
@4 chigau (違う)
OMiG chigau you rock with such badness, with frequency and wavelength.
I started trying to think “now, who…?” but your suggestion of Tilda Swinton decimated all further attempts.
What she did with Gabriel (which is worth watching repeatedly as isolated clips IMNHO), along with her more “traditional” but nuanced work is all the proof any right thinking (/s) person could need.
Here’s how to cast that movie: google “women’s epee champion” and start asking “have you any interest in auditioning…?”
re casting: Gwendoline Christie?
How about Jaime Murray (H.G. Wells from Warehouse 13)?
I wouldn’t worry too much about an exact age match. A little artistic licence with the character’s age in order to cast someone who is ideal for the role and has the requisite acting skill is not unforgiveable.
Just so long as the greedy mainstream studio suits aren’t allowed to get their meathooks into the project.
Epee is tag.
This may be a better choice
http://samanthaswords.tumblr.com
Someone could also make a movie about Lola Montez, too.
Oh! Oh! Zooey Deschanel! Or Miley Cyrus!
post title needs fixed “heard” not “head”
also, you enter a convent as a postulant, not a postulate.
/grammar-spelling Nazi
Bah, my earlier comment is stuck in moderation purgatory because I had two links, so I’ll just post one. This is a coincidence because I just heard of this woman last night after reading almost all of Rejected Princesses – http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/post/93976403868/julie-daubigny-princess-of-the-opera-1670-1707
Huh. I can’t even post one link…
knownot
I think we need to talk… About your second choice, at least. :P
I’ve always had a soft spot for Natalie Dormer, though. And heck, Lupita Nyong’o, I think, would manage quite fine as well.
Marion Cotillard, obviously.
*sigh*
The BBC’s Scarlet Pimpernel featured a very Maupin-like chevalier in one episode, played by Suzanne Bertish. She also played the female version of Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf…
or Charlotte Gainsbourg maybe
It’s because you haven’t been reading Rejected Princesses, PZ.
http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/post/93976403868/julie-daubigny-princess-of-the-opera-1670-1707
I wonder whether this story influenced Bertrand Tavernier’s film La Fille d’Artagnan. Eloise doesn’t go in for bisexuality and is faithful to her poet-lover in the film, but we’re assured it won’t last at the end.
@36 rq
Well… OK. If we gotta. Hit points for me.
But at least maybe Zooey, K? Cause that Dobney woman just sounds so tweeeeee, and Zooey, you know… subtellty, OK?
(But you gotta admit, twerking the ehpee would be so… cool and stuff.)
I’m sorry I brought this up.
knownot
Twerking the epee? *bad mental image* Yes, ‘cool’ is apparently the word we are looking for here.
chigau
You should know better by now.
rq
Forsooth.
Miley Fucking Cyrus.
@43 chigau (違う)
Ohhhhh… don’t be. Cause this is both fun and also productive too in addition.
Say… Kim Kardashian!!! Seriously… think about it!
wait.. you can stop now… are you ok… is there someone i should call… anyone know cpr?
I’ll bet most of those stories appeared for the first time long after she was dead and that there is no solid evidence to support any of them.
@48 grumpyoldfart
Cynic.
Just because some of the contemporary portraits left off the cape and tights…
Some people are always looking for a flaw.
Lively doesn’t necessarily equal lovely. For all we know, for her it could have been unrelenting horror and desperate acts of survival, with only a few snatched weeks of love and laughter.
Sorry. Don’t want to be negative. It’s just that so little survives in any reliable form.
How about Michelle Rodriguez?
I need to point out that I was writing my comment while GrumpyOldFart was posting his. No connection.
grumpyoldfart @ 48;
Why make that assumption? Is the notion of a gender non-confromist woman breaking eighteenth century society’s misogynistic rules really so impossible to believe? If you have some evidence to back up your stance, then that is great – let’s hear/see it. If not, then why is incredulity that a woman could conceivably have led such a life your default position?
Rich Woods @ 53;
Refusing to conform to social expectations in your performance of your assigned gender role rarely leads to a life that is a bed of roses, whether today or in the 1600s. Her life could well have been difficult, even hellish for her, but that doesn’t mean that her existence was any les significant. Swimming against the tide is hard, but imagine what the world would look like if no one did it?
That should be seventeenth century in my 56, not eighteenth. Apologies.
Our hellions? Anne Bonney was a Cork woman, born and bred!
In fact I read that that that movie has been made, though I don’t believe it’s very Hollywood. Released in 2014. It’s called “A Tattered Flag.”
Well, if you want musician/fencers, you should check out the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, composer, violinist, and one of the best fencers of the late 18th century, whose father was a Frenchman and whose mother was a black slave. He was sometimes called “the black Mozart” and his music is very good. He did know Mozart, and it was through St.-Georges (who was the conductor (and I assume concertmaster) for the first performances) that Haydn’s ‘Paris’ symphonies were commissioned.
Some music of his is on youtube, for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPP4FNhiKcI
But wait, there’s more: one of his famous fencing matches was against the spy, cross-dresser, and diplomat, the Chevalier D’Eon, (a truly fascinating character) who claimed to be a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Assaut_or_Fencing_Match_which_took_place_at_Carton_House_on_the_9th_of_April_1787.jpg
Speaking of Irish women whose lives need a movie, what about Gráinne Ní Mháille, the Sea-Queen of Connaught, who led armies and fleets alike, held and took fortified castles, and negotiated with Queen Elizabeth on equal terms (the agreement being that Elizabeth would let her sons go if Grainne refrained from financing any further Irish rebellions.).
Heh.. yeah it’s another one of those “why we can’t have nice things” and “all the amazing films that haven’t been made but could have”. To me this seems like great material for one of those large epic “traveller’s” film. Even better, write a play first and then get the BBC to adapt it. Reminds me of Cyrano de Bergerac – although that has more poetry, and a bit too much sweet sad romantic love, that’s the kind of swashbuckling adventure I think appropriate.
Otherwise chigau (違う) #32, thanks for that link:
http://samanthaswords.tumblr.com
Totally awesome person – she’d make an awesome Julie D’Aubigny.
Claudia Black from Farscape and Jaime Murray from Warehouse 13 are both excellent choices.
Might Claudia Black be getting a bit long in the tooth for this part, though?
BBC did an excellent job with bringing another one of my favorite historical women to the screen – Boudica.
Alex Kingston was perfect for the part, and we were delighted when she came to Dr. Who as River Song.
Unfortunately, like Claudia Black, she has probably aged out of this part.
Since Britain seems to be so great at producing these strong female actresses, do any of you folks across the pond have a suggestion? It seems that she would need to be in her 20s or early 30s.
Tony! @ 54
I was thinking of her, too. I’d like to see that.
She’s just a bit past the right age, but I would absolutely faint in joy at Lana Parrilla in a role like this. She’s mesmerizing on Once Upon a Time and can certainly manage both fierce and delightfully charismatic on the screen. I’d believe her stealing a nun’s body and torching a room or stabbing someone in a duel and then becoming lovers with them.
14. chigau (違う) ,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy
Zoë Bell, if not Claudia Black. But possibly a bit too old too.
Marcus Ranum @28 actually has the best idea of auditioning women who are already fencers, since it seems quite central to her character. Current fencers are also more likely to be of appropriate age.
Snidely? Snidely Whiplash? Is that you?
Off topic, because of a different kind of hero, but I just heard about the movie on Alan Turing coming out in November. He’s going to be played by Benedict Cumberbatch.
No aspersions to Madame d’Aubigny, but that is a movie I intend to see.
BTW, if someone wanted to create a religion about someone who died at age 33, Ms. d’Aubigny sounds like a better choice than a different well known historical (mythical?) character. The message would be to live life to the fullest!
I have no problem reading subtitles, so I’d love to see a movie made in French with a French actress playing the part of Maupin.
I’d also love to see a movie with a budget about Anne Bonny and Mary Read. And Ching Shih (though apparently I just have to search up some of the Chinese movies made about her.)
I’d also love to see a movie about Noor Inayat Khan.
I’d also love to see a movie about Ida B. Wells.
Damn it, I just want to see more movies based on awesome women being awesome. And yes, I give more leeway to pirates in the past because the legal side of the law was pretty shitty itself.
I humbly submit Gina Carano for the role.
@knowknot: In the cyberflesh.
Snidely W @72:
You’ve got to get a gravatar pic of Snidely Whiplash!
(and where you go, Dudley Do-Right can’t be far behind)
Thanks to all the folk pulling out historical figures of note.
Speaking of how Hollywood would botch all this, one doesn’t need to go too much farther than “Queen Cristina”. She did, in fact live life less on the edge then proponents of a hellion interpretation would have you believe. On the other hand, she did, in fact, lead mercenaries and fight battles. Tweren’t nothing. Plenty of fodder in there for something other than abdicating because you’re just so smitten with your lover who is just jerk enough to alienate your court and because you’ve apparently never heard of the legal concept of concubinage.
Wasn’t there a bronze-age (or possibly early iron-age) Chinese empress that was all gung-ho?
You probably haven’t heard of Hortense di Mancini, either, who had a similar career and would also make a good subject for a movie.
You can post six, all else being equal – all else is never equal.
A TV movie in two parts was made about Marion du Faouët in 1997. She was a bandit chief who was hanged in 1755.
launcespeed #71,
I have a feeling the pun was completely unintended, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Allow me to present Kristine Konsmo as a candidate for the lead in the Julie d’Aubigny movie. As a practitioner of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) she’s hands down the best choice swordplay-wise. The Capo Ferro mentioned in her profile was an the Italian author of a rapier fencing manual from 1610. You can’t get more perfect than that.
She also kicks ass. Here she is in action, winning a tournament final against someone who called himself “Ninjaboy”. Winning, despite being injured a couple of times by this “boy’s” overpowered strikes. And let’s be clear about this, HEMA fencing is not without risk of injury, but Sannemalm was clearly striking harder than necessary. Whether it was intentional for intimidation or just a lack of skill who knows, but it was sweet to see aggression lose to skill.
Fiona O’Shaughnessy?
Tatiana Maslany?
Rose Leslie?
Sara Martins?
Thanks for bringing her to my attention, PZ, and to all the posters mentioning even more people to google and learn about. I think I might be putting my local library system’s biography section to the test.
At last! The perfect surname for the lesbian heroine of my novel set in France!