Marie Antoinette

Rating: 8/10 (5 December 2010)

There is such a misconception about the so called flop of Marie Antoinette. Although the movie divided critics ,the major critic reviews were favorable if not very good or even enthusiastic.I am among the enthusiastic ones. First because I know very well the story of M.A. and how it is difficult to interpret her story without being wrong. What Coppola did was to portray a sympathetic portrait of a woman forced to be queen without any help by her mother, husband or courtesans.Coppola brilliantly succeeds to evoke the real situation of that 14 years old girl,who was all alone. Poltics is left out but we are in the world of M.A. I appreciate very much that Coppola didn't want to film the revolution period because if you want to understand the point of view of M.A. you have to forget that she was executed. Coppola is more interested to examine the woman rather than the Queen and her personal feelings towards the entire situation. Besides, we have to remember that this is a movie,not an historical account. The movie is loosely inspired by the book of Antonia Fraser. I believe that Coppola is a very outstanding director. Kirsten Dunst was simply perfect and,in my opinion,deserved more recognition than what she had. She gave a very honest and moving performance.She was fantastic as the naive,spoiled,sensitive,frivolous and unaware Queen. But this is only one of the many sides of that woman. Coppola didn't show us the other aspects of the Queen because she has other purpose that is humanizing the despised and misunderstood Queen of France. There is not her political side , her faults and her disadvantages .It's the private side that only few people knew and not her public side. The supporting cast is appropriate as well. To me the movie was very snubbed by the Academy since I believe that it should have been nominated for best director and best actress.The movie was never meant to be an in depth biography.It could not be a substitute of a book .Coppola portrayed the elements of her story that fit to her trilogy of films(Lost in translation and The virgin suicides). But I think that the main problem is that someone doesn't like Coppola style.A very underrated great director.