A French Story for Americans

Rating: 6/10 (23 October 2006)

Marie Antoinette,was nominated this year for a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. In all reality, this was a ridiculous and laughable attempt at "Americanizing" the French aristocracy. Starring the crisp Kirsten Dunst, and questionably casted Jason Schwartzman, Marie Antoinette portrays aristocracy and the french revolution as somewhat of a hip music video. Fortunately, Sofia Coppola lends very competent directing, by creating fascinating cinematography to save the film from total disillusionment. Lack of accents diminishes the painstaking role of authenticity, not withstanding the casting of Texas drawled Rip Torn as King Louis XV. Just think, I actually waited in line four hours to view this film at this year's Cannes Film Festival, to be disappointed. How disconcerting is that??
Coppola does manage to evoke the feeling of the 18th century way of life for royalty in Versailles. Living in huge palaces with gilded furniture, being waited on hand and foot, and never really worrying about anything was life in Versailles. Gossip, gambling, drinking and coke were also some of the other, more sinful indulgent pleasures the people of Versailles used to escape their miserable lives. Being married to the young Louis XV, Marie Antoinette is a fourteen year old virgin, pushed into this marriage to better the Franco-Austrian relations at the time. Coppola does invigorate the sense of loneliness and alienation Antoinette endured during her stay in France, due to both her naiveness and the fact that she was Austrian. Becoming the queen of France only 5 years later, Marie Antoinette drives herself further away, as she begins to cater deeper to the royal French treatment, it took so long to become accustomed to in the first place.
Lavished with beautiful set design, exuberant costumes and exotic pastries this failure as a film will be sure to gather up Oscars in those categories, bereft of any other substance. I do have to admit that had Coppola taken herself less seriously in this attempt, the film would have been more enjoyable. Baz Lurman knew what he was doing in his modern rendition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, never taking himself too seriously. Maybe Papa Bear Francis Ford never had that DVD lying around the shelves at home. Those looking for an accurate historical depiction of Marie Antoinette look elsewhere, but those looking for an evening of eye candy and Strokes music blaring as Kirsten Dunst dances in a field of lilies, look nowhere else.