A Riches-to-Rags Documentary

A 90,000-square-foot mansion in Windermere, Fla., believed to be the largest single-family home in America, has been languishing on the market for nearly two years, the price marked down. Now the home is about to get its star turn, for better or worse, as the center of a new documentary about the family that set out to build it. Instead of being a movie about the building of a giant house, “The Queen of Versailles” focuses on the demise of a rich family.

Significantly bigger than the White House, the home is owned by David Siegel, the self-made chief executive of timeshare giant Westgate Resorts, and his wife, Jacqueline, who we learn in the film is a former beauty queen 31 years his junior with somewhat lavish spending habits. The Siegels, who have eight children including an adopted niece, explain that the home was inspired by the Palace of Versailles—and the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

“Queen of Versailles,” directed by Lauren Greenfield, hit theaters July 20. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. On 10 acres, the home has a laundry list of luxurious amenities. “I forgot how many kitchens,” Ms. Siegel says. “Ten kitchens?” Yes, there are 10, including one dedicated to sushi-making. There’s also a 6,000-square-foot master suite overlooking a lake, a grand ballroom for 500 guests, a grotto with three hot tubs behind an 80-foot waterfall, and a 20-car garage. There are 13 bedrooms, a bowling alley and a roller-skating rink.

It isn’t finished. Construction was halted in 2009 when the home was about two-thirds complete. The Siegels put the home on the market in 2010 for $100 million fully finished, or $75 million as-is, after the bank changed the terms of their loan and raised their payments significantly. It would be a high-rent allegory for “the overreaching” many Americans went through during the financial crisis.

Angelika Film Center  18 West Houston St @ Mercer St. NY, NY 10012 • 212-995-2570