Marie Antoinette isn’t the best movie, I’ll admit that. The movie garnered a 55% rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and the evidence to why it’s rated this way is pretty in-your-face. But still, who can say no to all of the beautiful, gooey close-ups of lavish dresses and sweet petit-fours? (A lot of people, I’m sure.)
I’ll keep my own feelings about this movie out of this review until the very end. What this movie is about is a stylized version of the life of the ill-fated queen of France (Kirsten Dunst) and her life full of fashion, parties, whirlwind gossip, and glossed-over loneliness.
The good parts of this movie could also be called the bad parts of this movie. The way the movie is written, directed and edited is a bit art-house indie, to be sure. The film flows from year to year throughout Marie Antoinette’s reign, as evidenced in the subtle change in fashion, but the movie is mostly made up of scenes are composed to look more like oil paintings than parts of a movie. Almost every scene is artfully set up–people’s poses included–to look frozen in time. Even the most minute thing, like feeding a lamb, is subtly elaborate. However, there’s not much meaty dialogue in the film (most of the dialogue sounds like regular airy conversations people have in real life), and in most of these choreographed scenes, there’s no dialogue at all. The audience is supposed to infer that these scenes, particularly the ones where there’s scant realistic dialogue, is showing these figures that we usually read about in history books were just like us. We’re supposed to relate to them, or at least, relate to them as far as we relate (and envy) those girls from The Hills. But to some, it might seem like the film is plodding along with no real rhyme, reason, or moral to the story.
The ending is when the real world attacks Antoinette’s lavish lifestyle. When the peasant revolts begin, the movie starts to feel like a purpose for the film is coming. Again, people are supposed to infer that the whole 2/3 of this movie was showing how out-of-touch Antoinette, her husband and King of France Louis XVI( Jason Schwartzman), and her court were with the needs of their people. But, once again, some might think that if the ending had happened earlier in the film, or if the peasant anger was interlaced throughout more of the film, the juxtaposition of the two classes would’ve been made more apparent.
Also, the very end isn’t satisfying for true history buffs. The ending doesn’t have Marie Antoinette getting beheaded; it ends with she, Louis, and their two children trying to flee to Antoinette’s home of Prussia. Of course, they don’t make it in real life, but this film’s ending almost acts as if it’s rewriting history.
Now, as to why I like it–Well, I just do. This film has “guilty pleasure” written all over it. I love looking at all the ornate gowns and food and court culture. I like the gossip that goes on in the movie and even the airy conversationalist talk, mostly because I have never seen such scriptwriting like that in a movie before. This film was marketed as a new-wave indie chick flick, and it certainly fits the bill. I don’t usually go for chick flicks, but the images in this one are very inspiring to me. So much so that I decided to create a story inspired by it. So I say hurray for Marie Antoinette!
[...] the biggest influence on my story is the 2006 film Marie Antoinette. I wrote a “Movie Rewind” review of this film on my entertainment site, Moniqueblog, but the short version of the review is that I [...]
I saw this for the 2nd time recently on sat TV, and really enjoyed it, and mind you, I normally hate costume dramas. I think it’s a combination of Coppola’s directing skill and something you didn’t mention: the soundtrack. I realize “Knight’s Tale” did it before MA, at the very least, but I thought it did wonders in terms of making the movie seem current. MA (the character) came off like an early example of a “socialite,” a la Paris Hilton. Despite the fact that most of the music is from the 80s, it really helps the film seem sort of timeless. That said, I do like “Dangerous Liaisons” despite the lack of hip music, lol!
You’re right, I totally didn’t mention the soundtrack! I can’t believe I forgot to mention that! But yeah, you’re right, that soundtrack really did bring it to another level. It made the “historical” part seem less stuffy, even for someone who likes history such as myself.