Marie Antoinette Reviews
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The last issue of Preimere magazine had a very positive review (I think it was by Aaron Hills), though it didn't seem like he was predicting Oscar noms for anyone associated with the film. Still, made it seem like it is worth checking out.
The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Picking up where we left off...
After a bad start at Cannes, this could be making a comeback. With twenty reviews in, Rotten Tomatoes has Marie Antoinette at 81% fresh, with 89% Cream of the Crop.
It will be overshadowed by that other queen, but keep an eye on this. I was expecting a crash and burn, but Sofia lives to film another day.
After a bad start at Cannes, this could be making a comeback. With twenty reviews in, Rotten Tomatoes has Marie Antoinette at 81% fresh, with 89% Cream of the Crop.
It will be overshadowed by that other queen, but keep an eye on this. I was expecting a crash and burn, but Sofia lives to film another day.
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
What a load of crap! Let's just say that the definitive version of the story was by MGM in 1938. And why would Sofia cast Judy Davis and not give her anything to do? Surely her part was cut in this final print because I just don't see Davis accepting the role as is? And what's with the rock score during the dramatic moments? Bizarre, to say the least!
The NY Times' critics are split:
'Marie Antoinette': Best or Worst of Times?
By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT
Under the Spell of Royal Rituals
CANNES, France, May 24 — Though no one called for the filmmaker's head, "Marie Antoinette," Sofia Coppola's sympathetic account of the life and hard-partying times of the ill-fated queen, filled the theater with lusty boos and smatterings of applause after its first press screening on Wednesday. History remembers the queen for her wastrel ways, indifference to human suffering ("Let them eat cake") and death by guillotine, but Ms. Coppola's period film, which is playing in competition, conceives of her as something of a poor little rich girl, a kind of Paris Hilton of the House of Bourbon.
Kirsten Dunst stars as the Austrian princess who was just 14 when she arrived in the French court at Versailles in 1770, as part of an alliance between her mother, the powerful Maria Theresa of Austria, and the French king, the grandfather of her betrothed, the future Louis XVI (the unlikely Jason Schwartzman, in a bit of gag casting).
Her youth and apparent ignorance locked the future queen in a welter of self-indulgence from which she had no reason to escape, or so Ms. Coppola vainly tries to suggest. From the moment Marie Antoinette arrives in France, after being literally stripped bare of her Austrian possessions, she is trussed up in silks and satins, feathers and furs, and restrained by the rituals of court life, as much prisoner as princess.
This is Ms. Coppola's one idea, and it isn't enough. Although early scenes of Marie Antoinette submitting to protocol — if she wants a glass of water, one servant announces her request and another fulfills it — do make her point, it soon becomes clear that the director is herself bewitched by these rituals, which she repeats again and again. The princess lived in a bubble, and it's from inside that bubble Ms. Coppola tells her story. Thus, despite some lines about the American Revolution, which is helping drain the king's coffers and starve his people, Ms. Coppola ignores what's best about Marie Antoinette's story.
She doesn't seem to realize that what made this spoiled, rotten woman worthy of attention weren't her garden parties and fur-lined shoes, but the role she played in a bloody historical convulsion.
Ms. Coppola has an embarrassment of cinematic riches to play with, including the real Versailles, where Marie Antoinette lived most of her short adult life. With the help of the cinematographer Lance Acord and the production designer KK Barrett, both of whom worked on Ms. Coppola's last film, "Lost in Translation," and the costume designer Milena Canonero, who worked on "Barry Lyndon," she creates an opulent proto-Euro Disney cum rave where royals are really just 24-hour party people, full of fun and lots of cake. Soon after arriving at court Marie Antoinette asks a lady-in-waiting (Judy Davis in full twitch), "Isn't all this kind of ridiculous?" "This, madam," the woman answers haughtily, "is Versailles." But truly, madam, this is Hollywood. MANOHLA DARGIS
Holding a Mirror Up to Hollywood
CANNES, France, May 24 — The first sounds you hear in "Marie Antoinette" are the abrasive guitar chords of the great British post-punk band Gang of Four. The effect may be jarring; this is not the kind of thing you normally associate with the 18th century. But the song turns out to be bracingly apt.
The first lines invoke "the problem of leisure/What to do for pleasure," one of the chief problems the title character will face. And the name of the song is "Natural Is Not in It," a fitting motto for a film that conjures a world of pure and extravagant artifice.
The applause after the press screening Wednesday morning — there was some! — was mingled with boos, perhaps from die-hard republicans (in the French rather than the American sense) offended by Sofia Coppola's insufficiently critical view of the ancien régime in its terminal decadence. In the movie, the hungry peasants and restless city dwellers who ultimately brought down the French monarchy are mainly a distant rumor, as the action takes place entirely within the hermetic world of the Bourbon court, with its intricate codes of behavior, its curious blend of idle hedonism and solemn purpose, its pervasive gossip and its obsession with fashion and appearance.
A bygone world, of course, as exotic and strange as the hoop skirts and bird-studded hairpieces that exalt Kristen Dunst's appealing American-girl features. Perhaps, but the music is not the only aspect of the movie that pushes it slyly toward the present. My earlier description of the courts of Louis XV and XVI could just as easily apply to 21st-century Hollywood, a parallel that, in "Marie Antoinette," is both transparent and subtle.
When Marie reads a radical pamphlet attacking the obscene, self-absorbed luxury of her life in Versailles — "Let them eat cake" and all that — she evokes nothing so much as a young movie star rolling her eyes at the latest scurrility in some trashy celebrity gossip blog.
The clothes, the parties, the flatterers, the entourage, the sham marriages and passionate adulteries: it's American celebrity culture but with better manners and (slightly) more ridiculous clothes. Affairs of state are conducted almost as it they were movie deals. (Are we over budget on that American War of Independence project? Better beef up the marketing campaign.)
But though it depicts a confectionary reality in which appearance matters above all, "Marie Antoinette" is far from superficial, and though it is often very funny, it is much more than a fancy-dress pastiche. Seen from the inside, Marie's gilded cage is a realm of beauty and delight, but also of loneliness and alienation.
It almost goes without saying that Ms. Coppola, daughter of Francis, is herself a child of Hollywood (as is Jason Schwartzman, her cousin). This is not to suggest that the film is veiled autobiography, but rather to speculate about why a movie about a long-dead historical figure should feel so personal, so genuine, so knowing.
The mixed response on the part of the critics may reflect a certain ambivalence, less about the movie itself than about our own implication in the rarefied society it imagines. To say it's a lot like Hollywood is to say that it's a lot like Cannes. Does that make us courtiers or Jacobins? Should we crown Ms. Coppola with laurels or hustle her into a tumbrel bound for the guillotine? I for one am happy to lose my head over "Marie Antoinette." A. O. SCOTT
'Marie Antoinette': Best or Worst of Times?
By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT
Under the Spell of Royal Rituals
CANNES, France, May 24 — Though no one called for the filmmaker's head, "Marie Antoinette," Sofia Coppola's sympathetic account of the life and hard-partying times of the ill-fated queen, filled the theater with lusty boos and smatterings of applause after its first press screening on Wednesday. History remembers the queen for her wastrel ways, indifference to human suffering ("Let them eat cake") and death by guillotine, but Ms. Coppola's period film, which is playing in competition, conceives of her as something of a poor little rich girl, a kind of Paris Hilton of the House of Bourbon.
Kirsten Dunst stars as the Austrian princess who was just 14 when she arrived in the French court at Versailles in 1770, as part of an alliance between her mother, the powerful Maria Theresa of Austria, and the French king, the grandfather of her betrothed, the future Louis XVI (the unlikely Jason Schwartzman, in a bit of gag casting).
Her youth and apparent ignorance locked the future queen in a welter of self-indulgence from which she had no reason to escape, or so Ms. Coppola vainly tries to suggest. From the moment Marie Antoinette arrives in France, after being literally stripped bare of her Austrian possessions, she is trussed up in silks and satins, feathers and furs, and restrained by the rituals of court life, as much prisoner as princess.
This is Ms. Coppola's one idea, and it isn't enough. Although early scenes of Marie Antoinette submitting to protocol — if she wants a glass of water, one servant announces her request and another fulfills it — do make her point, it soon becomes clear that the director is herself bewitched by these rituals, which she repeats again and again. The princess lived in a bubble, and it's from inside that bubble Ms. Coppola tells her story. Thus, despite some lines about the American Revolution, which is helping drain the king's coffers and starve his people, Ms. Coppola ignores what's best about Marie Antoinette's story.
She doesn't seem to realize that what made this spoiled, rotten woman worthy of attention weren't her garden parties and fur-lined shoes, but the role she played in a bloody historical convulsion.
Ms. Coppola has an embarrassment of cinematic riches to play with, including the real Versailles, where Marie Antoinette lived most of her short adult life. With the help of the cinematographer Lance Acord and the production designer KK Barrett, both of whom worked on Ms. Coppola's last film, "Lost in Translation," and the costume designer Milena Canonero, who worked on "Barry Lyndon," she creates an opulent proto-Euro Disney cum rave where royals are really just 24-hour party people, full of fun and lots of cake. Soon after arriving at court Marie Antoinette asks a lady-in-waiting (Judy Davis in full twitch), "Isn't all this kind of ridiculous?" "This, madam," the woman answers haughtily, "is Versailles." But truly, madam, this is Hollywood. MANOHLA DARGIS
Holding a Mirror Up to Hollywood
CANNES, France, May 24 — The first sounds you hear in "Marie Antoinette" are the abrasive guitar chords of the great British post-punk band Gang of Four. The effect may be jarring; this is not the kind of thing you normally associate with the 18th century. But the song turns out to be bracingly apt.
The first lines invoke "the problem of leisure/What to do for pleasure," one of the chief problems the title character will face. And the name of the song is "Natural Is Not in It," a fitting motto for a film that conjures a world of pure and extravagant artifice.
The applause after the press screening Wednesday morning — there was some! — was mingled with boos, perhaps from die-hard republicans (in the French rather than the American sense) offended by Sofia Coppola's insufficiently critical view of the ancien régime in its terminal decadence. In the movie, the hungry peasants and restless city dwellers who ultimately brought down the French monarchy are mainly a distant rumor, as the action takes place entirely within the hermetic world of the Bourbon court, with its intricate codes of behavior, its curious blend of idle hedonism and solemn purpose, its pervasive gossip and its obsession with fashion and appearance.
A bygone world, of course, as exotic and strange as the hoop skirts and bird-studded hairpieces that exalt Kristen Dunst's appealing American-girl features. Perhaps, but the music is not the only aspect of the movie that pushes it slyly toward the present. My earlier description of the courts of Louis XV and XVI could just as easily apply to 21st-century Hollywood, a parallel that, in "Marie Antoinette," is both transparent and subtle.
When Marie reads a radical pamphlet attacking the obscene, self-absorbed luxury of her life in Versailles — "Let them eat cake" and all that — she evokes nothing so much as a young movie star rolling her eyes at the latest scurrility in some trashy celebrity gossip blog.
The clothes, the parties, the flatterers, the entourage, the sham marriages and passionate adulteries: it's American celebrity culture but with better manners and (slightly) more ridiculous clothes. Affairs of state are conducted almost as it they were movie deals. (Are we over budget on that American War of Independence project? Better beef up the marketing campaign.)
But though it depicts a confectionary reality in which appearance matters above all, "Marie Antoinette" is far from superficial, and though it is often very funny, it is much more than a fancy-dress pastiche. Seen from the inside, Marie's gilded cage is a realm of beauty and delight, but also of loneliness and alienation.
It almost goes without saying that Ms. Coppola, daughter of Francis, is herself a child of Hollywood (as is Jason Schwartzman, her cousin). This is not to suggest that the film is veiled autobiography, but rather to speculate about why a movie about a long-dead historical figure should feel so personal, so genuine, so knowing.
The mixed response on the part of the critics may reflect a certain ambivalence, less about the movie itself than about our own implication in the rarefied society it imagines. To say it's a lot like Hollywood is to say that it's a lot like Cannes. Does that make us courtiers or Jacobins? Should we crown Ms. Coppola with laurels or hustle her into a tumbrel bound for the guillotine? I for one am happy to lose my head over "Marie Antoinette." A. O. SCOTT
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
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Hollywood Reporter.
Hmmm..."a smart and empathetic take" that "can expect mixed to hostile reactions from critics". Department of Schizophrenia?
Marie-Antoinette
By Kirk Honeycutt
Bottom line: A smart and empathetic take on an often reviled historical personality.
In the revisionist "Marie Antoinette," writer-director Sofia Coppola and actress Kirsten Dunst take a remote and no doubt misunderstood historical figure, the controversial and often despised Queen of France at the time of the French Revolution, and brings her into sharp focus as a living, breathing human being with flaws, foibles, passions, intelligence and warm affections. The movie slices through the cobwebs of history to seek the heart of the young Austrian princess whom 18th century political diplomacy thrust into a maelstrom of court intrigue and poisoned personal relationships without even asking if she minded.
This is not a portrait, even though it is based on Antonia Fraser's biography "Marie Antoinette: The Journey," that will play well in France. Here she is a favorite villainess. Nor will the film be an easy sell in other territories, where Coppola's contemporary sensibilities and dialogue may feel anachronistic. The film certainly is far afield from her popular "Lost in Translation" even though both films concern characters that suffer anxiety and ennui from cultural dislocation.
The film opens here this week, where it can expect mixed to hostile reactions from critics, but may possibly intrigue moviegoers keen to see a different version of well-known events. When it opens domestically Oct. 13, Sony will have to shrewdly market the film to pull in a young crowd for whom Marie Antoinette is a figure in a wax museum.
One more comparison to "Lost in Translation": Marie Antoinette's protracted arrival in her new home in France and especially the Palace of Versailles indelibly expresses the young woman's discomfort and loss of bearings just as Bill Murray's arrival in Tokyo. Each is a stranger in a strange land of unfamiliar and even upsetting customs.
The problem Coppola confronts is that Marie Antoinette is a protagonist to whom things happen. She has little if any control over her destiny other than to indulge, famously, in a decadent lifestyle and cavort with her ladies in waiting in Le Petit Trianon. News, tragic or otherwise, arrives by messenger, and those around her are either wily or unwise.
Coppola's solution to this dramatic handicap is to conspire with her star to achieve an empathetic portrait of a life spent in a gilded, vast prison. Most of the movie is shot in and around Versailles. Sometimes scenes occur on the very spot of the actual events. It's hard to imagine this picture even happening without the cooperation of the French government; mere sets were never going to get the job done.
What the history books tell us about Marie Antoinette's lavish lifestyle, with her rising each morning to a retinue of women who dress her, the movie correctly sees as an indignity: Who wants to get dressed in front of virtual strangers?
The marriage at 14 to her husband, Louis (Jason Schwartzman), the Dauphin and heir to the throne, creates the central relationship of the movie. The young man's unwillingness or inability to consummate the marriage for an astonishing and awkward seven years inspired gossip and derision, mostly directed at the undeserving Dauphine. An undercurrent of malicious chitchat becomes a kind of white noise in many palace scenes.
Dunst radiates innocence even as she is losing that innocence. She transfers her love to pets and, when children finally do arrive, to the babies. She refuses to relinquish her willfulness or determination even though these traits do not stand her in good stead at Versailles.
Schwartzman gives a wry and funny performance as a man even more ill suited to his historical role than his wife. The movie never gets to the bottom of his difficulties and indifference, wisely resisting the temptation to impose a modern interpretation on this relationship. Instead, Coppola hews to her heroine's point of view. In the final reel, the couple does achieve a maturity, only to be cut short by angry mobs and revolution.
Terrific performances litter the film: Rip Torn's Louis XV, a shrewd man with hearty appetites of flesh and stomach; Asia Argento as his sultry and crude mistress, Madame Du Barry, despised by all but her lover; Steve Coogan as the courtly Austrian ambassador, who tries to steer Marie Antoinette through the tricky shoals of court politics; Danny Huston as her favorite older brother, the only male with whom she has any real rapport; and Marianne Faithful as her politically astute mother, Maria Teresa. Unfortunately, the movie never quite does justice to a Swedish count, played wanly by James Dornan, whom the Queen takes as a lover.
The costumes, dazzling shoes and jewels are pure pleasure to behold, and Lance Acord's cinematography keeps things simple no matter how lavish the settings. The bursts of rock music on the soundtrack often takes you out of the picture, but this is an indulgence one easily grants to Coppola, who otherwise achieves a harmonious blend of history and contemporary perceptions
Hmmm..."a smart and empathetic take" that "can expect mixed to hostile reactions from critics". Department of Schizophrenia?
Marie-Antoinette
By Kirk Honeycutt
Bottom line: A smart and empathetic take on an often reviled historical personality.
In the revisionist "Marie Antoinette," writer-director Sofia Coppola and actress Kirsten Dunst take a remote and no doubt misunderstood historical figure, the controversial and often despised Queen of France at the time of the French Revolution, and brings her into sharp focus as a living, breathing human being with flaws, foibles, passions, intelligence and warm affections. The movie slices through the cobwebs of history to seek the heart of the young Austrian princess whom 18th century political diplomacy thrust into a maelstrom of court intrigue and poisoned personal relationships without even asking if she minded.
This is not a portrait, even though it is based on Antonia Fraser's biography "Marie Antoinette: The Journey," that will play well in France. Here she is a favorite villainess. Nor will the film be an easy sell in other territories, where Coppola's contemporary sensibilities and dialogue may feel anachronistic. The film certainly is far afield from her popular "Lost in Translation" even though both films concern characters that suffer anxiety and ennui from cultural dislocation.
The film opens here this week, where it can expect mixed to hostile reactions from critics, but may possibly intrigue moviegoers keen to see a different version of well-known events. When it opens domestically Oct. 13, Sony will have to shrewdly market the film to pull in a young crowd for whom Marie Antoinette is a figure in a wax museum.
One more comparison to "Lost in Translation": Marie Antoinette's protracted arrival in her new home in France and especially the Palace of Versailles indelibly expresses the young woman's discomfort and loss of bearings just as Bill Murray's arrival in Tokyo. Each is a stranger in a strange land of unfamiliar and even upsetting customs.
The problem Coppola confronts is that Marie Antoinette is a protagonist to whom things happen. She has little if any control over her destiny other than to indulge, famously, in a decadent lifestyle and cavort with her ladies in waiting in Le Petit Trianon. News, tragic or otherwise, arrives by messenger, and those around her are either wily or unwise.
Coppola's solution to this dramatic handicap is to conspire with her star to achieve an empathetic portrait of a life spent in a gilded, vast prison. Most of the movie is shot in and around Versailles. Sometimes scenes occur on the very spot of the actual events. It's hard to imagine this picture even happening without the cooperation of the French government; mere sets were never going to get the job done.
What the history books tell us about Marie Antoinette's lavish lifestyle, with her rising each morning to a retinue of women who dress her, the movie correctly sees as an indignity: Who wants to get dressed in front of virtual strangers?
The marriage at 14 to her husband, Louis (Jason Schwartzman), the Dauphin and heir to the throne, creates the central relationship of the movie. The young man's unwillingness or inability to consummate the marriage for an astonishing and awkward seven years inspired gossip and derision, mostly directed at the undeserving Dauphine. An undercurrent of malicious chitchat becomes a kind of white noise in many palace scenes.
Dunst radiates innocence even as she is losing that innocence. She transfers her love to pets and, when children finally do arrive, to the babies. She refuses to relinquish her willfulness or determination even though these traits do not stand her in good stead at Versailles.
Schwartzman gives a wry and funny performance as a man even more ill suited to his historical role than his wife. The movie never gets to the bottom of his difficulties and indifference, wisely resisting the temptation to impose a modern interpretation on this relationship. Instead, Coppola hews to her heroine's point of view. In the final reel, the couple does achieve a maturity, only to be cut short by angry mobs and revolution.
Terrific performances litter the film: Rip Torn's Louis XV, a shrewd man with hearty appetites of flesh and stomach; Asia Argento as his sultry and crude mistress, Madame Du Barry, despised by all but her lover; Steve Coogan as the courtly Austrian ambassador, who tries to steer Marie Antoinette through the tricky shoals of court politics; Danny Huston as her favorite older brother, the only male with whom she has any real rapport; and Marianne Faithful as her politically astute mother, Maria Teresa. Unfortunately, the movie never quite does justice to a Swedish count, played wanly by James Dornan, whom the Queen takes as a lover.
The costumes, dazzling shoes and jewels are pure pleasure to behold, and Lance Acord's cinematography keeps things simple no matter how lavish the settings. The bursts of rock music on the soundtrack often takes you out of the picture, but this is an indulgence one easily grants to Coppola, who otherwise achieves a harmonious blend of history and contemporary perceptions
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From Variety. Apparently not the disaster some of us thought possible from the trailer...but nothing particularly good, either.
Marie Antoinette
A Sony Pictures Entertainment (in U.S.), Pathe (in France) release of a Columbia Pictures presentation in association with Pricel and Tohokushinsha of an American Zoetrope/RK Films production. Produced by Ross Katz, Sofia Coppola. Executive producers, Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola, Paul Rassam, Fred RoosFred Roos. Co-producer, Callum Greene. Directed, written by Sofia Coppola, based on the book "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" by Antonia Fraser.
Marie Antoinette - Kirsten Dunst
Louis XVI - Jason Schwartzman
La Comtesse de Noailles - Judy Davis
Louis XV - Rip Torn
La Duchesse de Polignac - Rose ByrneRose Byrne
Madame Du Barry - Asia ArgentoAsia Argento
Aunt Victoire - Molly Shannon
Aunt Sophie - Shirley Henderson
Joseph - Danny Huston
Empress Maria Teresa - Marianne Faithfull
La Princesse de Lamballe - Mary Nighy
La Comtesse d'Artois - Sarah Adler
Count Fersen - Jamie Dornan
La Duchesse de Chartres - Aurore Clement
Vergennes - Guillaume Gallienne
Leonard - James Lance
Le Comte d'Artois - Al Weaver
Raumont - Tom Hardy
Ambassador Mercy - Steve Coogan
By TODD MCCARTHY
"Let them have eye candy" pretty much sums up Sofia CoppolaSofia Coppola's approach to her revisionist and modernist take on the famous royal airhead who in the end lost her head. It is far from unpleasant to watch an attractive cast led by Kirsten DunstKirsten Dunst parading around Versailles accoutered in Milena Canonero's luxuriant costumes to the accompaniment of catchy pop tunes. But the writer-director's follow-up to her breakthrough second feature, "Lost in Translation," is no more nourishing than a bonbon. Opening in France simultaneously with its Cannes bow, "Marie Antoinette" will depend for Stateside success in October release by Sony on its draw with teen girls and young women, who may warmly embrace the picture as a heady fantasy of luxury and riches.
Conceptually, Coppola has reconceived the tale of the Austrian princess sent to France at age 14 to marry the 15-year-old future king of France as one of a girl who would just rather have fun. Costumes and decor conform to correct historiography, but otherwise the film more closely resembles a story of a youngster moving to a new high school, with its environment of gossip and petty rivalries, than it does any previous screen account of pre-revolutionary France.
To her credit, Coppola makes it surprisingly easy to swallow her conceit of laying out momentous history against a backdrop of contempo tunes, largely by not dealing with the history at all. Aside from the mounting pressure on the young bride to produce an heir, there is very little plot here; palace intrigue, political strategizing, scandal and accounts of growing unrest in the country are all but forsaken, the better to concentrate on the repetitive rituals of royal life and to evoke the virtual cocoon in which she lives.
On its own terms, the approach succeeds. From the moment Marie Antoinette arrives by gilded coach at the French border and, in a historically correct scene, is required to strip entirely naked to divest herself of all things Austrian, the film evinces a symbiosis with its subject in its fascination with the trappings of privilege and the behavior of the upper class, and not a speck of interest in the chess game of diplomacy or conditions outside the immediate realm of concern. As a portrait of oblivious self-absorption, it's letter-perfect.
With its tightly framed shots of Marie Antoinette's arrival showing off the costumes' fabrics in intimate detail, and with evident free rein to film all round Versailles, the film revels in its setting without ostentation. Mild comedy ensues from the presence of a large retinue, led by a bishop, presiding over Marie Antoinette and young Louis (Jason SchwartzmanJason Schwartzman) bedding down on their wedding night, and persists in its scrutiny of the continued, and increasingly worrisome, failure by the teenage couple to consummate their marriage. When Marie Antoinette's older brother Joseph (Danny HustonDanny Huston) comes all the way from Austria to educate Louis on successful bedroom conduct, one would dearly love to hear the conversation.
But here, as elsewhere, Coppola avoids writing, or filming, involved dialogue scenes, as if aware she can't pull off anything too complicated. Despite the vast number of people onscreen in many sequences, scarcely any scenes feature sustained group dynamics, multiple moves, ambitious staging or numerous characters interrelating verbally. To get around this, she tends to attractively and straightforwardly film individuals or simple groupings and then lay in the desired content via voiceovervoiceover snippets of letters, isolated conversational snippets or, better yet, songs that can simply be played over a brief montage of shots. It's an easy-listening style of filmmaking, where the basic visual notes are hit but complexities, nuances and deeper meanings remain ignored.
To pull off such an approach, great flair would be a help. This is not forthcoming, so one must be content with watching the lovely, perfectly cast Dunst adroitly making her way through a succession of scenes in which not much more is asked of her than to effortlessly hold center screen for two hours — a task she handles as if it were second nature. Dunst's Marie Antoinette reacts to the pressures of the court as if nothing all that significant were at stake and, later, adapts gracefully to the role of mother and queen, with time out for some fun at balls and the theater and a dalliance (historically questionable) with a Swedish count. Her happiest moments occur at her private preserve in and around Le Petit Trianon, where she luxuriates in well-manicured "nature" and coddles her adored children.
When "the mob" finally materializes, the movie is practically over; Marie Antoinette's insulation from the common people and their discontent has been virtually total. Coppola avoids famous incidents that would normally make up the essence of drama: the affair of the necklace that so seriously stained her reputation, the chance discovery of the royal family as it fled; the king and queen's imprisonment and eventual execution. High schoolers won't be able to use info they learn here to pass any history tests.
Production looks plush without being extravagant. Some of the distinctive supporting thesps never really pop out of the backgrounds for lack of anything interesting to do, but several others have their moments. Despite his inescapable Americanism, Rip Torn projects vitality and a strong regal bearing as King Louis XV; Schwartzman grows appreciably into his problematic role as the initially disinterested, uncommunicative dauphin; Huston's urbane self-confidence suits his royal role perfectly; and Steve Coogan's wry circumspection gives the right edge to his role as the queen's personal advisor.
Marie Antoinette
A Sony Pictures Entertainment (in U.S.), Pathe (in France) release of a Columbia Pictures presentation in association with Pricel and Tohokushinsha of an American Zoetrope/RK Films production. Produced by Ross Katz, Sofia Coppola. Executive producers, Francis Ford CoppolaFrancis Ford Coppola, Paul Rassam, Fred RoosFred Roos. Co-producer, Callum Greene. Directed, written by Sofia Coppola, based on the book "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" by Antonia Fraser.
Marie Antoinette - Kirsten Dunst
Louis XVI - Jason Schwartzman
La Comtesse de Noailles - Judy Davis
Louis XV - Rip Torn
La Duchesse de Polignac - Rose ByrneRose Byrne
Madame Du Barry - Asia ArgentoAsia Argento
Aunt Victoire - Molly Shannon
Aunt Sophie - Shirley Henderson
Joseph - Danny Huston
Empress Maria Teresa - Marianne Faithfull
La Princesse de Lamballe - Mary Nighy
La Comtesse d'Artois - Sarah Adler
Count Fersen - Jamie Dornan
La Duchesse de Chartres - Aurore Clement
Vergennes - Guillaume Gallienne
Leonard - James Lance
Le Comte d'Artois - Al Weaver
Raumont - Tom Hardy
Ambassador Mercy - Steve Coogan
By TODD MCCARTHY
"Let them have eye candy" pretty much sums up Sofia CoppolaSofia Coppola's approach to her revisionist and modernist take on the famous royal airhead who in the end lost her head. It is far from unpleasant to watch an attractive cast led by Kirsten DunstKirsten Dunst parading around Versailles accoutered in Milena Canonero's luxuriant costumes to the accompaniment of catchy pop tunes. But the writer-director's follow-up to her breakthrough second feature, "Lost in Translation," is no more nourishing than a bonbon. Opening in France simultaneously with its Cannes bow, "Marie Antoinette" will depend for Stateside success in October release by Sony on its draw with teen girls and young women, who may warmly embrace the picture as a heady fantasy of luxury and riches.
Conceptually, Coppola has reconceived the tale of the Austrian princess sent to France at age 14 to marry the 15-year-old future king of France as one of a girl who would just rather have fun. Costumes and decor conform to correct historiography, but otherwise the film more closely resembles a story of a youngster moving to a new high school, with its environment of gossip and petty rivalries, than it does any previous screen account of pre-revolutionary France.
To her credit, Coppola makes it surprisingly easy to swallow her conceit of laying out momentous history against a backdrop of contempo tunes, largely by not dealing with the history at all. Aside from the mounting pressure on the young bride to produce an heir, there is very little plot here; palace intrigue, political strategizing, scandal and accounts of growing unrest in the country are all but forsaken, the better to concentrate on the repetitive rituals of royal life and to evoke the virtual cocoon in which she lives.
On its own terms, the approach succeeds. From the moment Marie Antoinette arrives by gilded coach at the French border and, in a historically correct scene, is required to strip entirely naked to divest herself of all things Austrian, the film evinces a symbiosis with its subject in its fascination with the trappings of privilege and the behavior of the upper class, and not a speck of interest in the chess game of diplomacy or conditions outside the immediate realm of concern. As a portrait of oblivious self-absorption, it's letter-perfect.
With its tightly framed shots of Marie Antoinette's arrival showing off the costumes' fabrics in intimate detail, and with evident free rein to film all round Versailles, the film revels in its setting without ostentation. Mild comedy ensues from the presence of a large retinue, led by a bishop, presiding over Marie Antoinette and young Louis (Jason SchwartzmanJason Schwartzman) bedding down on their wedding night, and persists in its scrutiny of the continued, and increasingly worrisome, failure by the teenage couple to consummate their marriage. When Marie Antoinette's older brother Joseph (Danny HustonDanny Huston) comes all the way from Austria to educate Louis on successful bedroom conduct, one would dearly love to hear the conversation.
But here, as elsewhere, Coppola avoids writing, or filming, involved dialogue scenes, as if aware she can't pull off anything too complicated. Despite the vast number of people onscreen in many sequences, scarcely any scenes feature sustained group dynamics, multiple moves, ambitious staging or numerous characters interrelating verbally. To get around this, she tends to attractively and straightforwardly film individuals or simple groupings and then lay in the desired content via voiceovervoiceover snippets of letters, isolated conversational snippets or, better yet, songs that can simply be played over a brief montage of shots. It's an easy-listening style of filmmaking, where the basic visual notes are hit but complexities, nuances and deeper meanings remain ignored.
To pull off such an approach, great flair would be a help. This is not forthcoming, so one must be content with watching the lovely, perfectly cast Dunst adroitly making her way through a succession of scenes in which not much more is asked of her than to effortlessly hold center screen for two hours — a task she handles as if it were second nature. Dunst's Marie Antoinette reacts to the pressures of the court as if nothing all that significant were at stake and, later, adapts gracefully to the role of mother and queen, with time out for some fun at balls and the theater and a dalliance (historically questionable) with a Swedish count. Her happiest moments occur at her private preserve in and around Le Petit Trianon, where she luxuriates in well-manicured "nature" and coddles her adored children.
When "the mob" finally materializes, the movie is practically over; Marie Antoinette's insulation from the common people and their discontent has been virtually total. Coppola avoids famous incidents that would normally make up the essence of drama: the affair of the necklace that so seriously stained her reputation, the chance discovery of the royal family as it fled; the king and queen's imprisonment and eventual execution. High schoolers won't be able to use info they learn here to pass any history tests.
Production looks plush without being extravagant. Some of the distinctive supporting thesps never really pop out of the backgrounds for lack of anything interesting to do, but several others have their moments. Despite his inescapable Americanism, Rip Torn projects vitality and a strong regal bearing as King Louis XV; Schwartzman grows appreciably into his problematic role as the initially disinterested, uncommunicative dauphin; Huston's urbane self-confidence suits his royal role perfectly; and Steve Coogan's wry circumspection gives the right edge to his role as the queen's personal advisor.