Marie Antoinette Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)November 7th, 2006
MARIE ANTOINETTE
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 (out of ****)
Pretty as a picture and as empty as a French peasant's *portefeuille*, Sofia Coppola's new film "Marie Antoinette" marks a disappointing third feature from the director who so impressed with her dynamite debut ("The Virgin Suicides") and essential sophomore effort ("Lost in Translation"). It's an 18th Century period piece that spends so much time on its sumptuous details that it forgets to tell an involving story.
Perhaps we should blame Marie-Antoinette herself for being so bland and uninteresting a character.
The infamous and ill-fated Dauphine of France (whom scholars now tend to agree never uttered those immortal words "let them eat cake") is played by Kirsten Dunst. The role demands a fresh-faced young talent with a fondness for lace and lapdogs and Dunst certainly fits the bill, but there's no depth to her characterization of a well-known historical figure: she's simply a naïve young girl who fails to understand (and subsequently adopt) the conventions and protocols befitting her appointed station in life.
For, at the tender age or 15, the inexperienced Austrian Archduchess is married off to France's Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) whose father, Louis XV (Rip Torn), rules France with a courtesan (Madame du Barry, played by Asia Argento) forever on his arm.
"This is ridiculous," Marie-Antoinette observes, soon after having stood naked and exposed until further higher ranking courtiers arrive to dress her. Likewise she's perplexed by an audience's failure to applaud a stellar performance of the Opera Garnier. But it's for not addressing the King's favorite that she is first privately admonished-- "those are the last words I'll speak to that woman," Marie-Antoinette swears after publicly meeting her criticism by pithily commenting on the abundance of visitors to Versailles in du Barry's presence.
Coppola has cast her film well, from Shirley Henderson and "SNL"'s Molly Shannon as giggling, gossiping aunts to Steve Coogan as the young queen's advisor, Ambassador Mercy, to Judy Davis as the snooty Comtesse de Noailles. But Marie Antoinette plays less like a slice of history and more like an extravagant Hollywood costume party. Perhaps recognizing this Coppola has "opened up" her film to a younger audience by melding a plethora of contemporary (i.e., 1980's) new wave songs on the soundtrack--Bowwowwow, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Adam and the Ants. Music has been integral to the writer/director's previous outings and it works surprisingly well here. If only the supporting drama could have been as brazen.
The crux of the film, when it's simply not trying to wow us with the vulgar cost of its lavish production design, would appear to be the young dauphine's role in supplying France's next heir to the throne. Unfortunately her betrothed is totally disinterested in matters of the flesh and more preoccupied in the hunt or the making of keys. Schwartzman plays the young Louis as a puffy mute so Marie-Antoinette has her work cut out for her.
"Marie Antoinette" the movie treats us to many glorious, unobstructed views of the Palace of Versailles as well as the unsparing opulence and grandeur within its walls. And it causes us to wonder, peripherally, what it must have been like for a bored teenager to fit, figuratively speaking, into all those shoes. But, much like the pink italics of its opening titles and Sex Pistols-inspired poster art, Coppola's third forever feels like playing dress-up.
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David N. Butterworth
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