Laughing... red of frustration.

Rating: 3/10 (29 January 2007)

Where to start? As many viewers, I had high expectations about this movie, after all, so much money involved into fabulous costumes and sets HAD to come with a good movie overall, right? I started to have a strange feeling about it from the very first minutes. I understand Coppola wanted her movie to have an actual feeling, but COME ON! Where in the world does she think a royal princess moves around with undone hair on the day she will be "handed" to her royal husband's representatives (not to mention the hairstyle itself, typically layered 21st century)?
Where in the world has she seen any princess grab a cup of tea as if it were a dollar mug ? (forget about the raised little finger, we are talking not holding the handle at all!).
A Dauphine would surely be bowed to deeply the first day she arrives in her castle and the subsequent days too (the film shows a crowd of onlookers almost mocking her and not bowing in a total absence of conventions). So that the audience can understand this poor girl very easily just in case they were dumb, conventions are very heavy for her, but the courtesans are free to disparage her openly in the corridors and never bow in her presence. COME ON! She was going to be the Queen! Being a courtesan was all about showing a good face and acting differently behind curtains only. Criticizing her openly would have been a courtesan's political suicide, not worth the pleasure of talking openly.
I felt strangely into one of the 10210 series with a bunch of rich kids only knowing how express themselves with typical American mannerisms. French DO NOT tap someone's shoulder when they hug if they ever hug, they do not open they mouth wide and roll their eyes up when someone wins at a game (MA's friend). If I am not mistaken, I think I even saw a spelling mistake in De Nouailles' name when they play a game with names of people written on their forehead, the "a" seemed missing... ! (This is actually something that could have happened at the time as spelling was horrible with these people, but I doubt the movie did this on purpose).
From 10210, we sometimes jump into a sort of reality TV that could have had Paris Hilton in it with : "Wow! I Loooove those shoes!" (great we were saved from a "that's hot" comment). Sometimes, it felt like the making of a photo shoot by Vogue of people in 18th century costumes taking poses in a sunrise. But never did it feel like a Versailles located in France on the verge of a revolution (it seems helping the Americans in their revolution was much more crucial to these silly politicians at the time, or again, is there something wrong with the director?!)
Anyway, even though the focus of the movie was not on politics, overall, the movie felt as if Coppola stopped short of entering any issue specifically because she would have needed to study or would have missed the fun of showing food and shoes again and again. They ate cakes, the food was amazing, yes, of course, it was one of the most splendid courts in the world, but don't we get it after 5minutes? Couldn't she show a bored queen any other way? It feels that Coppola is taking us with her on her own discovery of the royal fasts, not one minute has she thought that a lot of people already knew about these basic and generally known aspects of that court. Getting a little deeper into one or two subjects may have given her movie a true direction AND actually taught something to her audience, but I guess - sadly- we will have to wait for a more intellectual director for that or get back to history books. The three points are for the costumes and sets.