‘Marie Antoinette’: 18th-Century Paris Hilton

October 25, 2006

Sophia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” was a complete disaster.
They should have removed the very unnecessary nude scenes and just marketed it toward Paris Hilton-loving, Lindsey Lohan-wannabe teen girls.
The movie begins with Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) being married off to Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). Coppola portrays Antoinette as a Paris Hilton type; she even carries around a stupid little dog.
Antoinette has a difficult time adjusting to the many traditions bestowed upon her by the French Royal court, even exclaiming, “This is silly.”
The rest of the hour is filled with Antoinette shopping, a little more pouting about the traditions, more shopping, giggling with friends about the other girls’ wardrobes and hair, sneaking out of the castle to attend a party, more giggling and even more shopping.
Oh, there were also a few minutes of Antoinette and her girlfriends laying around reading gossip from a paper about what is being said about Antoinette and half a dozen bedroom scenes with Antoinette trying to entice Louis XVI into consummating their marriage.
The movie is topped off with about a 20-minute scene where Antoinette’s third child dies, it is taken away in a casket, the French people are yelling and holding torches ready to destroy the kingdom, King Louis and Antoinette refusing to leave, and then, oh, wait, they leave.
The 1980s pop music was another swing and a miss. It didn’t work for Heath Ledger’s “A Knight’s Tale,” and it definitely didn’t work here.
A shoe-shopping montage was made even more awkward and harder to take in with Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy” blaring in the background.
Although the music wasn’t the worst part of this movie, I don’t know whether to blame the acting or the casting.
I’m a huge fan of Schwartzman; come on, “Rushmore” was genius, but his portrayal of King Louis XVI was laughable and embarrassing.
Ditz, I mean Dunst, was really hard to watch for two hours.
Neither Dunst nor Schwartzman was a strong enough actor to carry the entire movie, and the trite dialogue made it even harder to swollow.

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Poze • Sep 4, 2014 at 10:34 am

I had reached the point in my life where I could not bare the idea of seeing another historical-costume-drama. The thought of seeing another actor attempting the stilted period lingo and mello-drama gives me a headache, BUT Miss Coppola has undone my pain with this fresh take on the period drama, with her lovely and off-beat MARIE-ANTOINETTE. Usually you watch the piece from afar, thinking, “Wow, life sure was hard back then,” but you never really can relate to the characters, but Coppola breaks tradition in a completely refreshing way, so that you can really understand these characters. She uses modern day music (not like the horrible A KNIGHT’S TALE did) and hand held camera work. Her style is much more free and alive. She takes her time with the material so that we get a feel for time period and all of the free time they had. The acting is first rate, other than a mis-cast Rip Torn who’s a little too over-the-top. If you’ve enjoyed her other movies (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES & LOST IN TRANSLATION), then you are sure to enjoy this film. But if you are looking for another stilted period drama with forced accents and dead camera work then rent THE PARTRIOT or VANITY FAIR. I really enjoyed MARIE-ANTIONETTE, though I’m not sure how historically accurate it is, it’s a fine film. Some have criticized Coppola for making a French subject so American, but that is not the point, she has created an accessible historical biopic, that people of MARIE-ANTIONETTE’s age could enjoy and relate to.


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