The Queen of Versailles

'Everyone wants to be rich. If they can’t be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich. And if they don’t want to feel rich, then they’re probably dead.' 
- David Siegel
 
'Gifted with the prescience that can turn good artists into great ones, Greenfield could see that the plates were beginning to shift, that the old signifiers were losing their torque - that Jackie and David Siegel were the mold in which so many members of the contemporary billionaire classe would be cast.' 
- Ginia Bellafante
 
PRAISE FOR THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES DOCUMENTARY
 
'The Queen of Versailles began as a documentary about a timeshare billionaire, his ditzy wife, and their grotesque quest to build the largest house in the United States of America. It ended as perhaps the single best film on the Great Recession.'
 
- Ezra Klein, The Washington Post
 
'Schadenfreude and disgust may be unavoidable, but to withhold all sympathy from the Siegels is to deny their humanity and shortchange your own. Marvel at the ornate frame, mock the vulgarity of the images if you want, but let’s not kid ourselves. If this film is a portrait, it is also a mirror.' 
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
 
'[One of] the best documentaries of all time.' 
- Vogue