A really, really long music video

Rating: 2/10 (21 September 2008)

There may be 10 pages of dialogue in this picture, but I wouldn't lay money on it. It works best when approached as a sumptuous, very long music video. The editors do a fabulous job of saturating the eyes with gorgeous colors and shapes while mixing an almost unbroken soundtrack of '80s Goth and New Wave hits along with opera and incidental music. The successful mixing of these elements is the only saving grace of this otherwise historically inaccurate and ultimately dull film.
While the insane pressure of "getting an heir" is adequately explored, the rest of Marie Antoinette's life is left relatively untouched. We get glimpses of set pieces in her country house or on the stage, but none of it is put into any context. By film's end, anyone without an intimate history of her tragic end will be left relatively cold.
Buy the soundtrack. Skip the film.