The Queen of Versailles - very highly recommended documentary.

[cbayer]

Jaw droppingingly good documentary. It's one of those where you just can't believe the filmaker had the good fortune (or foresight) to capture the whole story. Very highly recommended.

The Queen of Versailles
2012PG1hr 40m

Average of 133,003 ratings: 3.7 stars
Meet the Siegels, glitterati who made a fortune in the time-share business only to see it crumble in the 2008 financial collapse. The site of their rise and almost-fall is their home (America's largest), a gaudy replica of the Palace of Versailles.

[Suich]

1. Blew me away!

Would love to know what Mr. Siegel did to single-handedly get shrub elected...the thing he said was probably illegal!

The woman living in the play house was just...sad.

[cbayer]

2. It started out just silly, but it became more and more profound as it went on.

I just couldn't believe what these people were saying, and my responses to them went from disgust to pity multiple times during the film.

Glad you liked it as well. I had never heard of it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. you haz a new boat!

as for the doc, you are right..initially I thought it was silly, but have learned with docs to sit back and let them progress.
Apparently the Mr. Seigal was unhappy with the film, he was quoted it was all rigged and said " We never owned a limousine".
True, actually.......the limo was clearly stated to be a rental.

[cbayer]

4. Yep, had to change it as the other just disappeared last week!

Can't say I blame Mr. Siegel for being unhappy. It did not paint them in a good light at all. Very hard to feel sorry for them.

[NV Whino]

7. I was prepared to hate them, but ended up (kinda) liking them.

They loved their kids. They treated their nannies well, and the nannies had been with them for years. They felt genuinely sad when they had to lay off employees.

On the other hand, the mess, the clutter, the excesses and the dogs repulsed me. So did the blatant criminal act of his involvement with the 2000 election. I would dearly love to have his participation investigated.

All in all, an excellent documentary.

[cbayer]

8. Thanks for the followup article below. I also had moments

when I felt for them, but then they would start talking about how it was the bank's fault and how someone other than themselves should be held responsible for their problems, and I felt a loathing.

As with most things he said, I'm not convinced that this very grandiose and narcissistic man really had much to do with the election. He would like to think he did, but did he really?

[LeftInTX]

5. David Siegel told employees to vote for Mitt Romney or get fired.

Siegel, 77, is the owner of a private time-share company, Westgate Resorts, in Orlando and says he employs some 7,000 people. “I wanted to let my employees know what will come if they make the wrong choice. They need to worry if Obama gets reelected,” He also said he might have to lay off some of them, maybe he might even retire.

[cbayer]

9. Now, that I believe. Not enough to sway an election, though.

[NV Whino]

6. Here's a current article on Versailles

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/30/uk-usa-orlando-siegel-idUSLNE86T02B20120730

Time-share king restarts work on Florida Versailles as business booms

(Reuters) - David Siegel, owner of the largest privately held time-share company in the world, says he is rebounding from the recession so well that he is restarting construction on an extravagant Florida home modelled on the Palace of Versailles outside Paris.

His company, Westgate Resorts, this year is also hiring 1,500 new employees, closing on $450 million in mortgage-backed securities in the first such transactions since 2007, and fending off banks that he says "are throwing money at us now."

"We're the most profitable we've ever been," Siegel told Reuters, projecting nearly $500 million in gross sales this year and expecting to be debt-free within two and a half years.

That is not the epilogue viewers of the movie, "The Queen of Versailles," now screening in independent movie theatres around the country might expect.

[KoKo]

10. This article is well worth the read...if you can keep from vomiting half way through it...

How can this be happening? The guy is buying "mortgage backed securitys" while our Fed keeps the banks afloat penalizing savers and elderly with 0% rates on what little they can save?

They live in a 26,000 sq.ft. house now...but they are building a 90,000 sq.ft. Versailles because they have so much money they don't know what to do with it?

Who is buying these Time Shares? Unqualified people? How do they make the payments so that Siegel can keep this afloat? And, how does he qualify to buy the mortgage back securities given his track record?

Our country had become a criminal enterprise....