A Great New Classic

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2007)

Marie Antoinette -2006
A true classic, it has been a while since a movie has been made to such caliber. Marie Antoinette accomplished a great deal not only was it able to take a classic story from 17 hundreds and make it historically accurate, but it managed to be creative as well. To compare, Marie Antoinette is at the same creative level as the award winning Amadaous. Marie Antoinette stars Kirsten Dunst as the famed Marie Antoinette. The film starts with her as a girl of 14 being wed to the French Louis XVI and moving to the extravagant Versaille outside of Paris. The film then goes through the life of the French queen, the life of parties and excess. Ending with the historical end of that french era.
Not only is the theme incredibly interesting, but the way Sofia Coppola the writer and director went about it could make a lazy Sunday into a roller coaster, so the two together combine to form a masterpiece. For example in the soundtrack choice Sofia Coppola used modern music that while had a feel of the classical age, the film took place, also had an up beat modern tone that created a greater connection for the audience in 2006. The music also helped with the atmosphere of parties, fun, and the "let them eat cake" ideal of the french nobility.
The imagery as well was helpful in creating the desired feeling. With the time appropriate clothing matched with the vivid color it was hard not to feel engulfed in decadence. With all the pinks, blues, yellows, silvers, and golds of Versailles compared to the grays of downtown Paris it was easy to foresee the building tension between the classes in France that would eventually lead to the downfall of the royal family.
One interesting and different fact about this movie was its approach on the life of Marie Antoinette. She was the main character after all, but history for the most part portrays her as being distant, stuck up and basically hateful to anyone under her. In the movie however you end up sympathizing with her, and it is not because facts are changed, most of the movies is held to accuracy they just were able to portray Marie Antoinette in a sense that although she was Queen of France, in a way that you can relate to her.
All in all with the acting, cinematography, creativity and beautiful detail this movie easily makes it into the category of recent greats.