Movie reviews: Marie Antoinette
Clearly this movie should be titled “What if Marie Antoinette were a Gen-Xer.” Because apparently even though this famous woman was the important historic figurehead of two dynasties, with court intrigues, international wars and saving her head to worry about, the director, Sophia Coppola wanted to portray her as ‘just a typical teenager.’
She was not just a typical teenager. But beyond this skewed vision, the movie not only errs it offends. It is clear that the writer/director Coppola purposefully cut out nearly all of the history of a woman who was groomed from birth to be a foreign French Princess and had the dubious distinction of being France’s only annointed Queen who was executed, the movie clearly values peeping into whatever purient or racy details there might be about the Dauphine’s life, and fabricating others.
The movie begins right as Antoinette (which she was called historically, not ‘Marie Antoinette’ as the movie constantly uses to name her) was about to leave her native Austria. Kirsten Dunst, as not to look her obviously thirtyish self, is given the hairstyle of a sixties Catholic school girl, with a back ribbon and free tresses. She also did everything girlish she could do besides suck her thumb, including playing with dogs and looking bored.
The racy content begins as soon as she arrives at the ‘changeover’ ceremony, which got one detail right, she was stripped naked as to not bring anything with her from Austria, which she would never see again, to her new homeland. They also had the French King Louis XV, played with a Texas accent by Rip Torn, taking a peep at the Princess’ “bosom.”
Then after about a five minute wedding scene, which was one of the only ones that was scored with authentic music to the period, it was on to the main topic of the movie: the three year period in which the fifteen year old Prince/Dauphin (the future King Louis XVI who also shared Antoinette’s unhappy fate of imprisonment and execution, fails to consummate his marriage. This appears to be the most interesting topic in these people’s lives. Even though it might not be unusual for “typical teenagers” this young who have just met each other and are under the scrutiny of the entire world to behave any differently.
But the limited focus of Coppola transcends the merely purient or voyeristic. It is entirely unnecessary in my opinion that as well documented as these people’s lives are for historical figures to fabricate ANYTHING, much less something
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tags: Dubious Distinction, Future King, Marie Antoinette, New Homeland, Wedding Scene