Marie Lafarge
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
who was convicted of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning
Arsenic poisoning
Arsenic poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the element arsenic in the body. Arsenic interferes with cellular longevity by allosteric inhibition of an essential metabolic enzyme...
in 1840. Her case became notable, because it was one of the first trials to be followed by the public through daily newspaper reports, and because she was the first person convicted largely on direct forensic toxicological
Forensic toxicology
Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and other disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use...
evidence. However, questions about her guilt had divided French society to the extent that it is often compared to the better-known Dreyfus affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
.
Early life
Marie Lafarge was born in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1816, the daughter of an artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
officer. She is said to be a descendant of Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...
through her grandmother. Marie lost her father to a hunting accident at the age of twelve; her mother, who remarried soon after, died seven years later. At eighteen, Marie was adopted by her maternal aunt, who was married to the secretary-general of the Bank of France. The two women did not get along. Despite the fact that her foster parents treated her well and sent her to the best schools, Marie was kept aware of her status as a cousine pauvre. Because she attended an elite school, Marie interacted with daughters of the moneyed aristocracy. She used every means to persuade them that she too came from a wealthy family, and she became envious when she saw her friends marrying rich noblemen. However, Marie had little say in the matter of matrimony. Her marriage dowry of 90,000 francs, while considerable, was not that impressive considering her family's status, and Marie was left with feelings of inadequacy which fueled her pride and ambition.
As Marie remained unmarried when she turned 23, one of her uncles took responsibility for finding her a husband. Unbeknownst to Marie, he engaged the services of a marriage broker. This produced just one candidate who fit the advice of her father that "no marriage contract should be made with a man whose only income is his salary as a subprefect."
Charles Lafarge
Charles Pouch-Lafarge was a big, coarse man of twenty-eight, a son of Jean-Baptiste Lafarge, justice of the peace in VigeoisVigeois
Vigeois is a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.-Population:...
. In 1817, his father bought the former charterhouse, or Carthusian monastery, in the hamlet of Le Glandier in Corrèze
Corrèze
Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
, run by Carthusian monks since the 13th century, but fallen into disrepair after its suppression in the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. In an effort to make it profitable, Charles turned part of the estate into a foundry, a venture that unfortunately plunged him into debt. In 1839, bankrupt, he saw a good marriage as the only way to pay his creditors. He engaged the same marriage broker who was hired to find a husband for Marie. Charles advertised himself as a wealthy iron master with property worth more than 200,000 francs with an annual income of 30,000 from the foundry alone. He also carried letters of recommendation from his priest and local deputy. To hide the fact that a marriage broker was involved in this, Marie's uncle passed off Charles as a friend and arranged a fortuituous meeting with Marie at the opera. Marie found Charles common and repulsive, but since he advertised himself as the owner of a palatial estate, she agreed to marry him. Thus, four days after the meeting, her aunt announced their engagement, and they were married on August 10, 1839. The couple then left Paris for Le Glandier to live at the estate.
Disillusionment
As it could be expected, when they arrived on August 13, Marie's disillusionment was boundless. The house, contained within the ruins of a former monastery, was in disrepair, damp and rat-infested. Her in-laws were vulgar peasants who disgusted her and who regarded her with deep distrust. Instead of the wealth she expected, she was faced with a mountain of debt. In her despondency, she locked herself in her room the first night and wrote a letter to her husband, imploring him to release her from their marriage, while threatening to take her life with arsenicArsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
. Lafarge, whose affairs were desperate, agreed to make concessions except to release her from the marriage. He promised not to assert his marital privileges until he restored the estate to its original condition. She appeared to calm down, and their relationship appeared to have improved in the ensuing weeks.
Despite her situation, Marie wrote letters to her school friends pretending that she was having a happy domestic life. She also tried to help her husband by writing letters of recommendation for Charles to Paris, where he hoped to raise money. Before he left on a business trip, in December 1839, she made a will bequeathing to her husband her entire inheritance, with the proviso that he would do the same for her. This he did, but without her knowledge, he made another will soon after, leaving the Le Glandier property to his mother instead.
"Parisian illness"
While Charles was in Paris, Marie wrote to him passionate love letters and sent him her picture, as well as a ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
cake in the spirit of the season. He ate a piece of it and suddenly became violently ill soon after. As cholera-like symptoms were common in those days, he did not think about consulting with a physician, but threw the cake away, thinking that it became spoiled in transit. When he returned to Le Glandier, having raised some money, he still felt ill. Marie put him to bed and fed him venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
and truffles. Almost immediately, Charles was again afflicted with la maladie parisienne. The family physician, Dr. Bardon, agreed with its cholera-like symptoms and was not suspicious when Marie asked him for a prescription for arsenic, in order to kill the rats that disturbed her husband during the evening.
The next day, Charles experienced leg cramps, dehydration and nausea. He was so ill that his relatives kept watch on him at all times, including a young cousin named Emma Pontier and a young woman who stayed with them by the name of Anna Brun. Marie treated him with various medicaments, especially gum arabic
Gum arabic
220px|thumb|right|Acacia gumGum arabic, also known as acacia gum, chaar gund, char goond, or meska, is a natural gum made of hardened sap taken from two species of the acacia tree; Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal...
, which, according to her, always did her good, and which she always kept a ready supply of in her small malachite
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...
box, but to no avail. Charles deteriorated so rapidly that another physician, Dr. Massénat, was called in for consultation. He also diagnosed cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
and prescribed eggnog
Eggnog
Eggnog, or egg nog, is a sweetened dairy-based beverage traditionally made with milk and/or cream, sugar, beaten eggs , and liquor...
to strengthen him.
Anna Brun noticed Marie taking white powder from her malachite box and stirring it into the eggnog. When asked, Marie said it was "orange-blossom sugar". But Anna's suspicions were aroused when she noticed a few white flakes floating on the surface of the eggnog after the patient took a few sips. She showed the glass to Dr. Massénat; he tasted the eggnog and experienced a burning sensation, but attributed the flakes to some ceiling plaster that may have fallen in the glass. Anna was not convinced; she put the rest of the eggnog in a cupboard and kept a close eye on Marie. She saw Marie stir more white powder into some soup for Charles. Again Charles felt violently ill after a few sips. Anna took the cup of soup away and mustered enough courage to tell Charles's relatives of her suspicions.
Suspicions of murder
On January 12, while the family gathered in the sickroom fearing the worst, Emma Pontier, who had such high regard for Marie, told her of Anna Brun's suspicions. Charles' mother implored him not to take another morsel of food from his wife. Further panic ensued when it was learned that Lafarge's servant and gardener had bought arsenic for Marie, "for the rats".Marie admitted this, but she made the gardener confirm that she gave him the arsenic to make rat-poison paste out of it. Their fears were momentarily allayed, but the next day, white residue was found at the bottom of a glass of sugar water that Marie had administered to Charles. A third doctor, René de Lespinasse, was called on January 13. He suspected poison, but by then it was too late: Charles died a few hours afterwards.
Already, suspicions ran high that Marie had indeed poisoned her husband, but Marie seemed unfazed. While word went about regarding this, Marie went to her notary with the will, not knowing that it was invalid. Only Emma Pontier would go near her and, already torn by doubts, told Marie that Lafarge's brother-in-law was going to the police at Brive
Brive-la-Gaillarde
Brive-la-Gaillarde is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Corrèze department. The population of the urban area was 89,260 as of 1999. Although it is by far the biggest commune in Corrèze, the capital is Tulle.-History:...
. Then, with more devotion than sense, the young girl took possession of Marie's malachite box.
The justice of the peace from Brive, Moran, arrived at Le Glandier on January 15. Impressed by Marie, he listened with uncertainty to the family's accusations but took possession of the soup, the sugar water and the eggnog that Anna Brun had put aside. Then the gardener revealed that Marie had given him arsenic with which to make rat-poison paste in December as well as January. Strangely, the paste could be found all over the house, untouched by the rats.
Moran had the paste collected, his suspicions aroused. He questioned the apothecary
Apothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
who sold the arsenic to Marie. She had bought arsenic "for the rats" just before she sent the cake to Paris and again the day after Lafarge's return.
Moran asked Lafarge's doctors to perform a post-mortem examination on Lafarge. He had also learned of a new test for the presence of arsenic that pathologists in Paris were using and asked Lafarge's doctors if they could apply the same test in this case. Dr. Lespinasse hastily replied that they could, embarrassingly hiding their ignorance of the test and the intricacies of its procedure.
The Marsh test
The test that Moran was referring to was actually invented in 1836 by a ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
named James Marsh, who worked at the Royal Arsenal
Royal Arsenal
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, originally known as the Woolwich Warren, carried out armaments manufacture, ammunition proofing and explosives research for the British armed forces. It was sited on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England.-Early history:The Warren...
in Woolwich
Woolwich
Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
. Called upon to help solve a murder nearby, he tried to detect arsenic using the old methods. While he was successful, the sample had decomposed and did not convince the jury of the defendant's guilt. Frustrated at this turn of events, Marsh developed a glass apparatus not only to detect minute traces of arsenic, but also to measure its quantity. The sample is mixed with arsenic-free zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
and sulphuric acid, any arsenic present causing the production of arsine
Arsine
Arsine is the chemical compound with the formula AsH3. This flammable, pyrophoric, and highly toxic gas is one of the simplest compounds of arsenic...
gas and hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
. The gas is then led through a tube where it is heated strongly, decomposing into hydrogen and arsenic vapor. When the arsenic vapor impinges on a cold surface, a mirror-like deposit of arsenic forms.
Arrest and trial
Despite this discovery, word on the Marsh test had not reached Brive. The doctors doing the autopsy on Lafarge only took the stomach before burial, and this they subjected using the old methods, which, unknown to them, proved to be unreliable; but they finally asserted that arsenic was found in quantity in the body of Charles Lafarge.More surprising was the analysis of the rat-poison paste; it turned out to nothing more than a mixture of flour, water and soda. This led to the possibility that Marie used the real arsenic to murder her husband. Any remaining doubts that may have lingered vanished when Emma Pontier turned over the small malachite box and Dr. Lespinasse found it to contain arsenic. Marie was arrested and held in jail in Brive. A young French avocat, Charles Lachaud, was appointed to her defence and was assisted by three others, Maîtres Théodore Bac (who later became mayor of Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....
during the 1848 Revolution), Paillet, and Desmont. Before they began their work, there was another surprise in store. The newspaper stories regarding Marie Lafarge turned up something from her past.
An incident of theft
Before she met Charles Lafarge, Marie had gone to one of her schoolmates, the Vicomtesse de Léautaud, at her château. While she was there, her friend's jewels disappeared, and the Sûreté was called upon to investigate the matter. When it was suspected that Marie was the culprit, the vicomte thought it too improbable that the matter was not pursued any further.However, in the wake of the newspaper stories regarding the murder, the vicomte was reminded of the theft and demanded a search for the jewels in Marie's room in Le Glandier. When the jewels turned up during thpoop
e so convincing that some newspapers believed her and put all the blame on the vicomtesse. However, when she was put on trial for theft, the court was not so persuaded. Marie was found guilty and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in the nearby town of Tulle
Tulle
Tulle is a commune and capital of the Corrèze department in the Limousin region in central France. It is also the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulle...
.
The trial
By this time l'affaire Lafarge had generated so much interest that the curious arrived from all over EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to watch her murder trial, elevating it to a cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
. Thus, when Marie entered the assize court of Tulle for the first time on September 3, 1840, dressed in mourning and carrying a bottle of smelling salts
Smelling salts
Smelling salts, also known as spirit of hartshorn or sal volatile, are chemical compounds used for arousing consciousness. The usual active compound is ammonium carbonate, a colorless-to-white, crystalline solid...
in her hand, projecting the image of a woman unjustly accused, the spectators were immediately divided into pro- and anti-Marie factions.
Coincidentally, one of Marie's lawyers, Maître Paillet, was also the avocat of the renowned toxicologist Mathieu Orfila
Mathieu Orfila
Mathieu Joseph Bonaventure Orfila was a Spanish-born French toxicologist and chemist, the founder of the science of toxicology.- Role in Forensic Toxicology :...
, who was the acknowledged expert of the Marsh test in France. He realized that as the case hinged largely on the tests made by the Brive doctors, Paillet wrote to Orfila and showed to him the test results. Orfila then submitted an affidavit stating that the tests were conducted so ignorantly that they meant nothing. As soon as the Brive doctors testified that arsenic was present in Lafarge's body, Paillet read the affidavit aloud, told the court about the Marsh test, and demanded that Orfila be called.
The prosecutor replied that he would consent to the test since he was confident of Marie's guilt, but he felt there was no need to call on Orfila to do it. The président of the court ruled in favor of the prosecutor's suggestion. Therefore, in lieu of Orfila, two well-known apothecaries from Tulle, M. Dubois and his son, and a chemist from Limoges named Dupuytren, were assigned to conduct the tests. While they were performed, the trial proceeded at a snail's pace. When they finally entered the courtroom, everyone waited to see what they would say. The elder Dubois testified that despite using the Marsh test carefully, they failed to find any arsenic. Almost immediately, the courtroom was in an uproar as Marie felt vindicated.
By then, the prosecutor had read Orfila's book and knew that in some cases, the arsenic left the stomach but had spread to other parts of the body. He arranged for the body of Lafarge to be exhumed. Again, the three chemists perfoed the test on the samples taken—and again, no arsenic was found.
The prosecutor had one card left to play. He had not forgotten the food items that Marie gave to Charles and were set aside. He requested that the test be performed on those as well. The defence, by then in a magnanimous mood, agreed.
This time, when the chemists arrived, they declared that they tested positive for arsenic, with the eggnog containing enough "to poison ten persons". The prosecutor took this as a chance to recoup his earlier setbacks. He declared that in view of the contradictory results, it was apparent that the court should call upon Orfila to settle the issue once and for all. Since it was the defence who originally asked for Orfila, they could not object to this request. The defence agreed, already confident of Marie's acquittal.
Enter Mathieu Orfila
When Orfila arrived, he insisted that the local chemists witness his experiments that night. He used the same test materials and chemical reagents that they used in the earliest tests and performed the Marsh test in an anteroom of the courthouse, behind locked and guarded doors. At last, on the afternoon of the next day, Orfila entered the courtroom, followed by the three chemists with bowed heads. He declared that he had indeed found arsenic on the samples taken from the body of Lafarge, to the exclusion of all other extraneous sources, such as arsenic naturally occurring in the body, or from the reagents, or from the arsenic from the earth surrounding the coffin.The courtroom was stunned, especially Maître Paillet, as he listened to Orfila, his client and defence witness, explain the misleading results obtained by the local experts with the Marsh test. It was not the test that gave the erroneous results, but rather, the test was performed incorrectly.
Knowing that Orfila's testimony had tipped the balance against them, the defence team sought to call a known opponent of Orfila, François Vincent Raspail, to refute his testimony. While Raspail had agreed, as he had done in previous courtroom clashes with Orfila, he arrived four hours too late: the jury had decided on Marie's case.
Conviction and controversy
In the end, despite the passionate pleadings of Charles Lachaud, Marie, no longer as composed as she was previously throughout the trial, heard herself sentenced by the président to life imprisonment with hard labor on September 19 and was brought to MontpellierMontpellier
-Neighbourhoods:Since 2001, Montpellier has been divided into seven official neighbourhoods, themselves divided into sub-neighbourhoods. Each of them possesses a neighbourhood council....
to serve out her sentence. King Louis-Philippe
Louis-Philippe of France
Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...
, however, commuted her sentence to life without hard labor.
By then l'affaire Lafarge had polarized French society. George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
wrote to her friend Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
criticizing the perceived railroading of the case (it was worth noting that Marie, in turn, was an admirer of Sand and was said to read her works "greedily"). Raspail, as if to make up for his failure to make a difference in the trial, wrote and published incendiary leaflets against Orfila while demanding for Marie's release. In effect, many have felt that Marie was a victim of injustice, convicted by scientific evidence of uncertain validity.
As if to defend himself from these criticisms, in the following months after the trial, Orfila had conducted well-attended public lectures, often in the presence of members of the Academy of Medicine of Paris, to explain his views on the Marsh test. Soon, public awareness of the test was such that it was duplicated in salons and even in some plays recreating the Lafarge case.
Aftermath
While imprisoned, Marie wrote her Mémoires, which was published in 1841.At last, in June 1852, stricken with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, she was released by Napoleon III
Napoleon III of France
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the President of the French Second Republic and as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I, christened as Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte...
. She settled in Ussat
Ussat
Ussat is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Ussat are called Ussatois....
in the département of Ariège
Ariège
Ariège is a department in southwestern France named after the Ariège River.- History :Ariège is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the counties of Foix and Couserans....
and died on November 7 of the same year, protesting her innocence to the last. She was buried in the cemetery of Ornolac.
For Charles Lachaud, the Lafarge case was his baptism of fire. He later achieved greater fame defending François Achille Bazaine
François Achille Bazaine
François Achille Bazaine was a French General and from 1864, a Marshal of France, who surrendered the last organized French army to the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian war. He was the first Marshal who had started as a legionnaire and like the great Marshals of the First Empire, he had risen...
against charges of treason and was able to defend successfully another woman named Marie—last name Bière—in 1880.
As for the monastery, it was bought again by the Carthusian monks in 1860 and flourished as before until it was sold again in 1904. It served as a shelter for children in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, then as a sanitorium for women and children run by the département of the Seine
Seine (département)
Seine was a département of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. Its préfecture was Paris and its official number was 75. The Seine département was abolished in 1968 and its territory divided among four new départements....
until January 5, 1965, when it became a shelter for semi-handicapped children. Finally, in January 2005, it was purchased by the département of Corrèze
Corrèze
Corrèze is a department in south central France, named after the Corrèze River.The inhabitants of the department are called Corréziens or Corréziennes according to gender.-History:...
. The site of the former foundry (also that of the watermill powering it) is now privately owned.
In 1937, the Lafarge case was fictionalized in the novel The Lady and the Arsenic by Joseph Shearing (a pseudonym of Marjorie Bowen).
The story of Marie Lafarge got the cinematic treatment in 1938 with the release of the film L'Affaire Lafarge, directed by Pierre Chenal
Pierre Chenal
Pierre Chenal was a French director and screenwriter who flourished in the 1930s, and was best known for film noir thrillers such as the 1937 film L’Alibi, where he worked with Erich von Stroheim and Louis Jouvet. In 1939 he made Le Dernier Tournant, the first of many film treatments of James M...
, with Marcelle Chantal as Marie and Pierre Renoir as Charles. The film itself is notable for being the first French film to use flashbacks as a narrative device. Of course, as with the real-life case, the film was not free from controversy, as the grand-niece of Charles Lafarge sued the film's producers for defaming the memory of her great-uncle.