An exceedingly valuable view into 18th century French royalty.

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2007)

I was absorbed from the first scenes of this wonderful and valuable film. The cinematography of the horses and carriages while Marie was traveling to France from Austria to meet her French betrothed set the mood for the remainder of the film. Perhaps I am making too much of it but I felt I was looking at a particularly good home-movie rather than a big-time Hollywood costume drama. I realize that it is impossible even with the best of intentions to historically create a costume drama from centuries of hindsight but Coppola, at least to me, carried it off superbly.
Diane had read a biography of Marie and everything in the movie was accurate to that biography. I would suggest that any student of royalty in this period or any other should examine this film to see just how weird royal life was. As I said the journey from Austria to France seemed to be a metaphor for the drama that unfolded at Versailles when Marie becomes the French prince's bride. As someone always interested in history, I was fascinated be the peeks provided by Coppola into the daily life of someone caught in this royal merry-go-round.
The scene where Marie gives birth to the heir is fascinating. I guess if you want to make sure that there can be no baby switching and that the heir to the throne is really the heir to the throne, then you have twenty or more people standing around watching the birth--not just a doctor and accompanying nurse. I was struck throughout the movie about the public nature of being royal; seemingly everything you do was accompanied by people watching your every move. I guess for these reasons I will never forget this movie because I have never seen scenes like the ones Coppola wrote and directed.
I would urge anyone who has any curiosity about just how royalty actually worked, to make every effort to see this wonderful film.