Beautiful and quirky, not just a chick flick!

Rating: 8/10 (25 August 2008)

Just watched it again( with my husband - his first time) and we loved it. He missed the (in)famous Converse shoes so I rewound for him, but they don't matter anyway, they're just there as a symbol of her "teenager-ness" (is there such an awkward word? Never mind, you know what I mean!). I love the way Marie Antoinette is portrayed in this film, a young girl thrown into a strange place, with the huge weight of expectation laid on her, yet still managing to retain her feisty character. Versailles is gorgeous as always, when I visited it (before seeing this film) and saw the sumptuousness of decoration I was blown away, you can see how the extravagance would have angered the starving peasants but it's so beautiful! This is a story of two children, too young to be married, too young to rule a country but getting on with it as best they can. The courtship they should have enjoyed was conducted after their marriage rather than before, that's why it took so long for them to become lovers, along with their youth and inexperience. The young Queen is shown to have more depth of feeling than she's usually credited with, as well as her famous love of beautiful things and extravagant spending.