An affecting portrait of an 18th century Paris Hilton

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2006)

We all know the story: Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. Social brat, rich, politically unaware, spoiled little girl. I'd thought this movie would offer some new revelations into Antoinette's life, but, for the most part, it didn't. Which is to compliment the movie. What the movie does succeed in doing is pulling sympathy out of the viewer. We come to know Antoinette as pure and rather innocent, guilted by the very people in government for not being aware of France's misery that had sheltered her away from it in the first place.
The very last shot of the movie epitomized this tragedy, and also the tragedy of the end of monarchic France. (Those who have seen the film won't be able to forget this shot.) It is a still shot of the chandelier of Antoinette's bedroom, on the floor, shattered. I don't have time or room here to explain all of the things this shattered chandelier means. But it sums up a lot: France's ruined glory, Antoinette's ruined innocence, the end of the king and queen, the end of their parties and misters and mistresses, the end of it all. It is a heart-wrenching, Ishiguro-esquire ending. And it makes the movie, despite the film's errors of cinematography and context development, very worth-seeing.