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Review #284 of 365
Film: Marie Antoinette (2006) [PG-13] 123 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.50
Where Viewed: United Artists Colorado Center 9 & IMAX, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 22 October 2006
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Film's Official Website
DVD Release Date: unscheduled
Directed by: Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation)
Written by: Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides)
Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Kirsten Dunst (Elizabethtown) • Marianne Faithfull ("Absolutely Fabulous") • Steve Coogan (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) • Judy Davis (The Break-Up) • Jason Schwartzman (Shopgirl) • Shirley Henderson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) • Molly Shannon (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) • Rip Torn (Zoom) • Asia Argento (Live Freaky Die Freaky)
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Given there are so few directors of major motion pictures who are women, there seem to be higher expectations for them to create films that are so brilliant and, therefore, open the door for more women. This expectation is totally off base, place undue pressure on women that their male counterparts don't endure, and suppresses artistic freedom. Bravo to Sofia Coppola for being true to her talent regardless of her gender, and working to produce films that reflect her desires rather than those who would use her to promote their agenda. It's the right thing for her to do. This time, she has created an opulent, decadent, tribute to the last queen of France, the woman accused of callously replying when told there was a shortage of bread in Paris during her reign, "Let them eat cake", the woman betrothed to help forge the Franco-Austrian alliance, as seen through her own eyes, Marie Antoinette.
"Visually, the film is thrilling, yet some miscasting…and an abrupt…ending, dampen…what would otherwise have been an amazing film."
Beautifully, richly, and complexly played by Kirsten Dunst who received no end of doubtful posts as to her ability to carry off this role prior to release, this a modern and upbeat look at how a shy little Austrian girl grew up into the role as queen after a long period of grave doubts as to here staying power due to her inability to convince the her husband and future King to use her to conceive a child. She revels in this role and owns it from every fiber of her being. Emotionally, she understands Ms Coppala's vision for the character as interpreted more liberally via Antonia Fraser's biography. The result is a magnificent and luminous portrayal as full of passion, humor, sincerity, vulnerability, and understanding as her royal hair is high.
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The film gets started with the bashful yet self-assured, 15-year old Austrian Archduchess, arriving via coach to a special tent on the border between the two nations for a handing off ceremony rich in protocols. Here she must surrender all on her that is Austrian, every last article of clothing, her dearest friends, and her favored and beloved little pug. "You can have as many French dogs as you like," her new mistress of protocol and etiquette, Comtesse de Noailles (Judy Davis), informs her as she strips away her prized possessions. It is here that she first meets the grandfather King Louis XV (Rip Torn) and is readied to meet her future husband, the dauphin of France, Louis-Auguste (Jason Schwartzman). Shortly after arriving at the Palace of Versailles, she is introduced to her new life which will involve scheduled daily protocols including a morning dressing ceremony with rank and privilege assisting in every step of the process including such that she must never have to reach for anything. Marie Antoinette finds this particularly ridiculous. She seems to assume, falsely, that once married, her life will be different. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and ostentatious ceremony serves only as a prelude to 7 years of married disappointment as she continues to be unable to conceive a child—a fact blamed on her when history shows it to have been a combination of lack of desire on the part of the young dauphin and possibly even a mechanical problem that had to be corrected with a minor surgery.
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During this time, she begins to earn the reputation for being a spendthrift as she enjoys all of the latest fashions, a constant flow of diamonds, and hold wild and expensive parties with plenty of gambling, free-flowing champagne, and extravagant foods. It is not, in fact, until the two are coronated King and Queen after the distressing death of Louis XV from small pox, that the former dauphin begins to get serious about producing an heir to the thrown. Shortly after, Marie conceives and publicly delivers her first of four children (only two of whom are actually show in the film which condenses the aspects of her motherhood in favor of the parts of her life lived in excess including lavish parties in her personal château known as Le Petit Treason located on the grounds of the palace) Marie Thérèse Charlotte was born. She was not the desired gender, but she was beloved by her mother nonetheless. After an historically unverified affair with the Swedish aristocrat, Count Axel von Fersen (Jamie Dornan), some historians suggest that the next child is actually his, Marie delivers the new dauphin of France and the apple of everyone's eye, Louis Joseph.
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This brings much delight to Ambassador Mercy (Steve Coogan) who has been sent by her mother, Maria Teresa (Marianne Faithfull) from Austria to serve in maters of diplomatic relations between the two countries and to spy on her daughter for her. At last, everyone can rest easy that Marie Antoinette's position in the royal family is secure. At the film focuses intently on Marie Antoinette and her perspective, it does not give much in the way of historical insight into what is really going on in France at the time. It does not give the sense that she really understood what she was getting herself into and that the nation was plummeting into irreconcilable debt with a government spiraling out of control. This, along with a commitment to help fund the war of the colonies against England drove the government into virtual bankruptcy. Food shortages pared with rumors of hoarding food drove the French citizens to a revolution that ended with the beheading of the king and, after a long stay in prison, the beheading of Marie Antoinette. None of this is revealed in the film. Instead, the film reaches up to the climax of the brief time after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent raid on Versailles where Louis XVI and Marie have encamped. After replicating the true event of going out on to the balcony and bravely standing before her now angry subjects, the film ends abruptly leaving those not familiar with the rest of the story to wonder and speculate. This ending, unfortunately, is so anti-climatic as to suddenly render the film less effective. Granted, it has the same effect of pulling the rug out from under you as the event must have had on Marie. Why the director / writer chose to end the film here, rather than taking it to the end of her life is unclear, but it definitely gives the film an unfinished feeling.
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Lavish costume, hair, and make-up designs, incredible food presentations, sets and furniture that seem to spare no expense, propel the visual feast of the film and reveal the folly of the French royal decadence with amazing flair. Visually, the film is as thrilling as the first sight of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe on a visit to Paris. There is a bit of grand disbelief that what you are seeing is real, but it's so beautiful and magical one has to accept it. The casting has strengths and weaknesses. Two gossiping Aunts, Sophie and Victoire illustrate this point. Shirley Henderson plays Sophie classically, while it's hard to stop thinking about Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher every time Molly Shannon opens her mouth as Victoire. Most of the actors do not attempt to do a French English accent. After all, these people would never have been speaking English let alone English with a French accent. Which has unusual consequences. It makes Rip Torn and Jason Schwartzman seem woefully miscast also while neither has the look of a French King. On the other hand, Asia Argento does a marvelous job portraying Marie's local rival within the palace walls, the former prostitute and current conquest of the King, Madame du Barry. She looks beautiful, fits the part, and plays her in a way that is rich with layers of rebellion to protocol and history. Likewise, Marianne Faithful as Marie's mother and Steve Coogan fit the bill for their characters precisely as does newcomer Jamie Dornan to the role of Count Fersen. Despite their historically central role in Marie Antoinette's life, the film does no great service in revealing the depths of the relationship, thought by many of the court to be too exclusive, with her ladies in waiting, none of whom do we get to know well enough to even comment on the quality of their performances or the actresses who played them. This, too, is a disappointment. From a directing point of view, Ms Coppala has made some decisions to focus primarily on Marie for nearly every moment of the film. The result is a very one-sided view, which is fine both artistically and historically for this film, but it fails in the sense that there is no backdrop of context upon which to hang these events as they unfold. If you do not know a lot about her life as a real person and what really happened, you are not going to be able to get as much out of this film. The degree to which this diminishes the experience will vary from viewer to viewer in not knowing how much he or she is missing. What will not vary will be a nearly universal feeling observed at the close of the film yesterday, that the ending concludes the film in a way that feels like someone tearing open the most prized bar of chocolate in the world just under your nose, letting you smell the aroma and begin to salivate only to then toss it into a murky swamp.
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Other Projects Featuring Marie Antoinette (2006)
Cast Members
Kirsten Dunst
• Marianne Faithfull • Steve CooganJudy Davis
• Jason Schwartzman • Shirley HendersonMolly Shannon
• Rip Torn • Asia Argento • Jamie Dornan Writer / Director
Sofia Coppola
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Marie Antoinette (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
Extremely talented director Sofia Coppola has created an opulent tribute to the last queen of France, as seen through her own eyes, Marie Antoinette. Beautifully and complexly played by Kirsten Dunst, this modern and upbeat look at how a shy Austrian Archduchess grew to become the Queen results in a magnificent and luminous portrayal as full of passion, humor, sincerity, and vulnerability, as her royal hair is high. Lavish costumes, hair, and make-up designs, incredible food presentations, sets that seem to spare no expense, propel the visual feast of the film and reveal the folly of the French royal decadence. Visually, the film is thrilling, yet some miscasting, notably Jason Schwartzman, Molly Shannon, and Rip Torn, who are just too American to fit their French roles, and an abrupt, "pull the rug out from under you" ending, dampen the spectacular quality of what would otherwise have been an amazing film.
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