Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette
May 3rd 2010 17:56
official poster: copyright: see below
This period drama (2006 release), by Sofia Coppola, avoids the stuffy, old fashioned, and staid approach we usually associate with period films, which she achieves through the use of modern music, and dialogue in an idiom more natural to today’s world. The film had its critics, who loathed the modern approach, particularly the French, who booed it after its screening at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Although the French could be excused for their defensive reaction, for the film deals with a contentious part of their tumultuous history, which leads to the French Revolution and the birth of their Republic, I don’t think they understood the dramatic devices employed, nor the intentions of the director. The critics also carped on about the lack of historical facts; etc, etc, etc. Yawn!
Coppola was not trying to recreate each page of events, but give us an insider view, from Marie Antoinette’s perspective (played by Kirsten Dunst), of life in court and how women in her position coped. Coppola asks us to try and understand what it was like for a young girl who, although came from the greatest of privilege (her parents were the Emperor and Empress of Austria), was not at all equipped for the French Royal Court.
King Louis XVI
The real Marie Antoinette was only 14 when sent to marry the Dauphin of France, Louis-Auguste (played byJason Schwartzman). Her marriage was a political arrangement, a symbol of good relations between Austria and France, it was not about love. Our current day British Royal family would know all about marriages of that kind.
Parts of the film are factual; as bizarre as it was, Marie Antoinette had to meet the French in a tent, on an islet in the river, it was divided in two; one side in Austria, the other France. Before she set foot on the French side, she had to strip naked and say goodbye to everything of her past life in Austria, her personal friends and staff, her dear pug dog, and all her clothing, she had to strip naked! She was then dressed in French clothing and escorted to meet her new King, Louis XV, and her betrothed, the Dauphin, heir to the throne.
Marie Antoinette in wedding dress
We are then introduced to the bizarre world of the French Royal Court and its time honoured customs which, frankly, would be enough to upset any level headed person; for instance, upon being awoken in the morning, you had to arise and be dressed in front of a room full of Court members, titled personages, all of whom had some archaic and superfluous need to be there, and all done to strict protocols, with seniority dictating who handed you your undergarments, which instantly changed depending on who suddenly entered the room.
We then come to know Marie Antoinette’s personality through her emotional tribulations in trying to get closer to her emotionally distant husband and how she struggles to accept the extraordinarily suffocating protocol of the French Royal Court, within the rarefied atmosphere of the gargantuan, and gaudily decorated, Château de Versailles.
Slowly Marie Antoinette learns how to play the games people play in such situations, like dealing with the extravagantly dressed Madam du Barry, King Louis XV’s whore, who, although dressed like she was on the throne, had the manners of a guttersnipe. The costumes for this film won many awards, and deservingly so, particularly the du Barry character, who was a perfect carriage on which the designer could drape, encrust, puff and flounce over the top haute couture.
The modern music was used to underscore the change of mood and direction of the main protagonist. Although the inclusion of modern music is a blaringly obvious directorial device, it does not cause you to disengage with the drama; in fact, it helps to accept the characters as being more natural and less studied. One clever example of this is when Marie Antoinette sneaks off with her pals to a masked ball, where we see the gorgeously costumed party goers happily dancing to modern pop music.
If Coppola had stuck to the actual music of the time, classical, it would have been a less remarkable experience. The music also underscores the new lease of life Marie Antoinette feels, once she has made her own friends in Court, and finds release through partying, clothing, jewellery and gambling.
Until then, her husband preferred the company of his stable men, and hunting. Some gossip suggested the future king was rather more interested in the masculine form, than the feminine, which might also be a reason the French hated the film.
However, after having the art of sex explained to him, using an analogy of making keys to fit locks, (Louis XVI’s favourite past time was making keys), Marie Antoinette falls pregnant, after seven years of marriage and enduring snide courtier asides at her expense. She had four children, one dies early.
The Coppola film is not a history lesson, as such; it is more an exploration of the fate of a young female, in circumstances dictated by her birth, in an era where women were the chattels of the husband, a patriarchal world in which women had to learn the subtle arts of persuasion, guile, conceit and manipulative flattery.
Storming of the Bastille
However, at film’s end, the French Revolution arrives at their doorstep, we see Marie Antoinette refuse to abandon her husband, and together, the family is taken away to be incarcerated.
Among other historical venues, the film was also shot inside and around the actual Château de Versailles; a staggering extravagance started by Louis XIV, the building of which took decades and almost bankrupted the earlier King, with only a war causing the gardens design to be curtailed. As it is, still intact today, it is a monument to the extraordinary excess of the privileged.
I did have one disappointment, I was a little peeved at not seeing them get their heads thwopped off! I have not seen the guillotine in action since, it might have been my favourite actor Charles Laughton, in a drama set in this very period, but back in the good old black and white film days; those wonderfully gripping, grim and gritty films, from the noble stables of British film.
Some interesting and surprising cast choices; Rip Torn as the old King Louis XV and Marianne Faithful as Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.
Anyway, I think Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is an interesting and fresh take on a very famous, and most likely misquoted, and misunderstood, famous victim of history.
This is a film that has a subtext, and it is about the plight of women and the powerlessness of their position in a male dominated world.
As much as society has changed, for the better in many ways since then, some things remain the same, as we see the results of relationships breaking down; all splattered bloodily across front page raging newspapers, and the mauling, brawling merciless media
However, when Amazons rule, will they be any different? Or will they too, those fabled muscular athletic females of dominance, succumb to the old adage, ‘Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
PHOTO CREDIT: Copyright presumed that of the Production Company and/or distributor/publisher, all rights reserved. Fair Use: for illustration of production for review purposes only, low res and not meant for reproduction.
PORTRAIT PAINTING IMAGES: Copyright expired, due to being over 70 years of age since the death of the artist, images in the Public Domain.
| 202 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Mountain Fog
Comment by Anonymous
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
How most of their cares and concerns are centered around their own little world and how they have no knowledge of what's going on on the outside world around them.
Marie's situation can be compared to a Britney Spears or Lindsay Lohan when they gained notoriety and fame.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Maybe my expectations were to high after the haunting resonance of 'the Virgin Suicides"...I wanted my sweet desert to be more All That Jazz than remake Moulin Rouge.
We seldom disagree, but on this we must
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
actually, Marie Antoinette came from the most privileged background you could get, being the daughter of the heads of the Austrian Empire, but, I take your point, as to the reference to insular young in their own little worlds.
cheers
fog
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
you and your better half are two of the many who loathed it.
I liked the fact it was rather shallow and not a serious take on the era, I think it was probably nearer the truth than any other attempt about the protagonist.
I will admit one reservation, Rip Torn... but as he appeared little, I decided not to comment.
cheers
fog
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
"cotton candy" ha ha!
Well, as I said in my last reply, the shallowness is probably a more accurate picture of the attitudes of these historical characters, and I liked it as fluff.
cheers
fog
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
you are one of the many Orlbe star reviewers and most of the reviewing world, who hated the film.
However, I went into it without expectations, and frankly wasn't in the mood for a serious historical drama, and I suspect most people expect such, when a film deals with such a tumultuous period of history.
They lived in a soild gold and silver Disney Land, and as such, their attitudes and relationships were more likely to be emotionally facile and divorced from real life.
As the film shows, he palace was stormed before they took notice of the plight of their people, and that, I suspect, has a lot more fact about it, than fiction.
cheers
fog
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
thanks for commenting.
Do watch it, I'd be interested in your response. But, don't expect a Tolstoy War and Peace epic, see it through the eyes of a very young child of great privilege, delivered into an even more bizarre world of opulence.
cheers
fog
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I haven't actually seen it, so I can't hate it.
Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
I know the history of Marie Antoinette very well.
Every time I watch it, I imagine that it's parallel to "Amadeus" in which her brother Joseph II, played by Jeffrey Jones is taking place simultaneously. Although the illusion is ruined when Danny Houston appears to give Louis sex tips.
I think for the most part, I just "got" where Sophia was going and I think she's a great director. This movie is not my favorite by her - it comes third behind "Lost In Translation" and "The Virgin Suicide".
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I completely agree with you, it is not her best work, but for what it is and what she was most likely going for, I thought it an interesting take on a famous subject.
cheers and tanx for commenting!
fog
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
Oh okay, now I get it, I presumed incorrectly...
I say, check it out...you can at least imagine them getting their heads chopped off!
cheers
fog
Comment by Matt Shea
20/20 Filmsight
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
actually, whether it was intentional or not, I think the screenplay probably captured a more realistic insight into their shallow lives; all pomp, puff and total indulgence.
But yes, it could have been wittier!
cheers
fog