Sofia Coppola's brilliant film ends too soon

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2006)

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette is the story of a girl extricated from her country and estranged from her family, subjected to "ridiculous" ritual, and trapped by duty. A girl subjected to constant scrutiny and supervision. An often lonely, bored and frustrated girl who escapes into acquisitiveness and hedonism. The French Revolution is kept away from her by custom and lifestyle thus the film, which adopts the protagonist's point of view, is not intended as a lesson on a most significant historical event. This intimist approach is only betrayed briefly, late in the film, when meetings between American revolutionaries and the French monarchy are dramatized to provide a bit of geopolitical perspective. Otherwise, Marie Antoinette is about the girl inside the Queen. It's bedroom scenes connect Marie Antoinette to Lost in Translation's Charlotte, alone in a hotel room in a foreign land and, even more dramatically, to the Lisbon girls of The Virgin Suicides, confined to their bedroom in suburbia. Miss Coppola has, in the span of three features and a short (Lick the Star, about a 7th grade "princess" being outcasted by her peers), developed a unified body of work linked by common themes. Whether transpiring in the early 70s or the late XVIII century, whether set in Detroit or Versailles, Sofia Coppola's films bear the mark of a true auteur.
Marie Antoinette is a sensory experience, an audiovisual feast. Cinematographer Lance Acord (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) covers the scenes with a varied repertoire of shots while the lighting is uniformly diffuse, somewhat somber at times. The occasional use of hand-held cameras is quite effective, as when Marie Antoinette walks towards the castle as people stand on both sides to welcome her. Also highly deserving of credit are the costume design by Milena Canonero (Barry Lyndon, Titus), the set decoration by Veronique Melery (A Very Long Engagement), Anne Seibel's art direction, and the original music composed by Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin.
Given the attention received, the film's music deserves further consideration. The opening credits are scored to the Gang of Four's hard-rocking "Natural's Not in It", a thematically-appropriate song about the commodification of love and being trapped by the social order, with the recurring refrain "this heaven gives me migraine". So much talk of "80s pop" when, in reality, the first half of the film is dominated by the music of Jean-Phillipe Rameau (1683-1764) and the period-congruent original score. Then comes a celebration of materialist excess to "I Want Candy" and a few judiciously selected snippets of 80s tunes. These accentuate what is, for the most part, an impressionistic portrait of the young queen.
Given the narrow focus, Marie Antoinette's greatest asset is Miss Kirsten Dunst, who's perfectly cast in the lead role. She's a charming actress who can credibly play a character over a twenty year span beginning in mid-adolescence and convey a whole range of emotions with ease.
It seems obvious to me, that the four years that passed from her narrow escape from Versailles until her beheading are most interesting and poignant. I think it's lamentable that the film leaves out a major, most tragic, and challenging final chapter in her life. As a result, the film ends on a shallow note, in that it doesn't concern itself with Marie Antoinette once she's surrendered her pampered, luxurious lifestyle. Given the abrupt ending, the lack of end titles providing a brief summation of her final days is perplexing.