Moody Review: Marie Antoinette

  History – what a drag, right?  Laden textbooks, memorization of dates, obscure references to social movements and political intrigue – history was never supposed to be fun.  But wait: just like today, people back then had to know how to…kick up their heels and party, right?  Of course they did!  Even in the 18th century.  And even—quelle horreur—in France.   That is exactly the point Sofia Coppola is trying to make with her frothy, modern-historical take on that doomed Austrian queen of France in Marie Antoinette, her third feature fresh from that film festival in a place called Cannes. Everything from the fashiony high school girl montages set to punk alternative rock to the pair of baby blue 20th century Converse sneakers lying in plain sight (!) is meant to turn the stuffy concept of the costume drama on its ear (or head, as it were). Unfortunately, the studied portrayal of this historical icon – and what a visually arresting portrayal it is – eclipses any real sort of story or emotional investment that would bring the tragedy and legacy of this special monarch home.   Coppola spends the entire film trying doggedly to remove the gravity of the ‘historical figure’ of Marie Antoinette, preferring to show her as just a girl, a young girl at that, thrown into a life she isn’t prepared for but nonetheless tries to enjoy. It’s a refreshing decision – the shots, the context, the mood of the film all serve to constantly remind that this person, although a queen and a legend, was also just a person and that her gestures and her actions were no grander or more special than that of others. Perhaps they were more significant, in that there were always at least 20 people watching her every move from when she rose to the moment she got into bed, with her husband, but in the end, she was a girl who thought it all to be a little ‘ridiculous’.  It is with this in mind too that Coppola goes to great lengths to modernize, almost normalize, the pomp and circumstance of old royal tradition, not worrying herself too much about getting each and every detail absolutely authentic.  It’s not about that, at least not here, so history buffs take note: don’t nitpick too much.  The flexibility of the language is similarly quite interesting – French is thrown around, here and there, as if the principal actors had picked up a bit of it and tried it on for size during the shoot.  This, probably, is exactly what Marie Antoinette herself had to do, seeing as how she was a completely new arrival and had to assume a new life, language and culture immediately.   But after getting to know this person on an intimate, personal level, the potential for real dramatic development is wasted.  The problem is that this ‘lightening’ of her character isn’t carried through.  After bubbly sequences of parties and crushes, the climate changes quite abruptly.  All at once, as the people of France make themselves heard and the starving masses raid Versailles, Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette takes on a ceremonious gravity that causes her to lose touch with her audience, not for lack of trying to appeal to our sense of sympathy.  But after such well-handled sequences of intimacy and privacy, especially at her paradisiacal private retreat at Le Hameau – Trianon, her image as the doomed queen is both pompous and overly heroic.  Of course these events – the French Revolution itself – would drastically change anyone’s character, but the iconic distance she takes on betrays the very real girl we had just gotten to know.   The story’s potential here is very rich.  Marie Antoinette’s was a life easily viewed, in one aspect, as a minefield of pain and heartbreak: take a virginal young royal from Austria, literally drop her into the middle of just-pre-revolutionary France without even the shirt on her back, and then watch as she spends her life pressed under the impossible expectations and projections of countless snooty courtesans, viziers, and ladies-in-waiting, etc.  And then of course, we all know what happens to her at the end. Or do we?  For those of us less well-versed in history, it is nonetheless important to understand – and perhaps see – the specific circumstances surrounding her death. Without giving too much away, certain elements necessary to the conclusion of this incredible life were vagrantly absent at the end of this film.  A trashed interior at Versailles simply doesn’t suffice to communicate the enormity of an event like the French Revolution.   Look out for an excellent supporting cast – most notably the subtle and hilarious Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI, a small boy just as lost as his pre-arranged wife.  Asia Argento shines as well, as a rock star harlot who does wonders in helping to launch this story out of the moldy and stuffy ranks of its fellow costume dramas.  In the end, Marie Antoinette is grade-A eye candy.  If you’re in the mood for a searing portrait of one of the most hotly contested historical figures in the history of France (and furthermore Europe), those coldhearted and factual textbooks might actually not be so boring in the end. Copyright © Dan Heching