Off With Their Heads!

Rating: 2/10 (2 April 2007)

While it's true that Maria Theresa instructed her daughter to be nice to Madame du Barry, the real reason isn't made clear. Madame had supreme influence over Louis XV, and - after helping bring about Choiseul's downfall - she seriously threatened the Franco-Austrian alliance. I don't know which was funnier: Mercy-Argenteau telling Marie to make nice with Madame or him getting cheesed because she didn't read the brief on Poland! And why is Marie being told to make nice when Louis's guests openly diss Madame at dinner?
Marie and Fersen were not lovers (despite rumors at the time), and it is outrageous to insinuate that he fathered Louis-Joseph. Who knows if the real Fersen actually strutted around the battlefield like Napoleon (the funniest thing in the movie), but any sympathy I had for Marie I lost when Coppola had her put out for this Swedish meatball!
Coppola has Marie smoking weed and at least two guests snorting coke! Although that would explain A LOT, there is no proof that she or anyone else in her posse got blasted on anything stronger than champagne and bonbons!
France backed America for one reason: to stick it to her arch-enemy, England. I assume Coppola insinuates that we caused the Bourbons' downfall to please the Bush-haters, but to no avail: the Bush-haters at Cannes booed Francis's little girl right out of the theater!
Coppola blew a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Who wouldn't kill to film at Versailles? But it could have been shot on a sound stage for all I knew. 50% mess, 50% acid-trip, she doesn't even try to weave the music in so that it jibes with what we're seeing! Some critics have opined that she was trying to convey Marie's state of mind. That would have worked had Marie been played by an actual actress. Instead, we get Dunst, whom, I'm convinced, was born zonked. Schwartzman is downright laughable as Louis XVI. Thirty seconds of these twits, and you understand why there was a Revolution! Dare I say it, Marie-Antoinette deserves better.