Synopsis
The Queen of Versailles (2012) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Lauren Greenfield. Her subjects are David Siegel, founder of the Westgate Resorts timeshare empire, and his wife Jackie — a former beauty pageant contestant, mother of eight, and the driving force behind what was meant to become the largest single-family home in America: a 90,000-square-foot Florida mansion modeled on the palace at Versailles.
Greenfield began filming at the peak. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit, credit dried up, and the construction stopped. The film tracks the fallout over two years: the mansion sits unfinished, pets die from neglect, Jackie flies coach for the first time, and the household staff quietly disappears. David, who built his fortune on the same real-estate bubble that burst, struggles to hold the business together.
What makes the film work is Greenfield's refusal to editorialize. She lets the Siegels narrate their own story, and the gap between their self-image and the reality on screen does all the work. A sharp, strangely sympathetic portrait of American overreach. Stream The Queen of Versailles online on iFILM.
Starring
Recommendations
Comments 0