Mistrals Daughter, This is another of those big, lush ’80s miniseries, better known as trash wallows. What fun they were – expensive, scenic, opulent. Mistral’s Daughter is based on a novel by Judith Kranz, concerning three generations of women in the same family involved with a great artist, portrayed by Stacy Keach. Stefanie Powers plays Maggy, the matriarch of the family, who, as a young woman, meets Mistral and becomes involved with him. Later on, her daughter meets him, falls in love with him and bears him a child.
Mistral is a real jerk, a Nazi collaborator who turns escaping Jews away at his gates and even turns in a few to get paint supplies. The kind of total narcissist codependents fall in love with. When his illegitimate daughter finds out about this years later, Mistral has to come to grips with his own selfish, self-absorbed life.
For a good actor, Stacy Keach isn’t very good in this – everyone suffers from rotten accents. Stefanie Powers is always good but playing a 17-year-old when she was over 40 may not have been the best move, although she certainly is very beautiful.
All in all, this is a very entertaining miniseries. Just don’t take it too seriously and enjoy it for what it is – an ’80s artifact.
