Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille, which took place on July 14, 1789, and marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

Without losing sight of the dire inequities in 18th-century France, the film “Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution,” which originally aired on PBS in 2006, paints a surprising portrait in which Marie Antoinette emerges as a sympathetic and, in the end, courageous figure. The two-hour film traces her journey from the splendors of her childhood in the palaces of the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire to her final hours in a squalid French prison cell.

What’s even more revealing about the French queen and her society are the headlines ripped from the tabloids in 18th-century France: Do Queens Just Wanna Have Fun? Consummation Conundrum: Trouble in the Royal Bedroom! Does the Queen Have a Swede on the Side? King’s brother caught with Queen! Read more about the royal life of “The Teen Queen – Marie Antoinette.”