Running Time: 123 minutes
Admittedly, it was a snippet of Peter Shaffer's comedy "Lettice and Lovage" that reminded me of the famous French queen, known throughout the world for her eccentric behavior and flippant disregard for the starving masses of her country. And so, with her ultimate fate in mind, i popped the DVD into my drive and dove into a daring recreation of the life of Marie Antoinette.
From the start, it's rather apparent that "Marie Antoinette" is not your typical period film. The brash soundtrack, inescapably modern, clashes greatly with the eighteenth-century dress and look appropriate to Marie's story. But keeping in revolutionary France is evidently not director Sofia Coppola's goal: anachronisms litter the film, including incandescent bulbs and converse shoes. If the mock episode of the MTV hit show "Cribs" with Louis XVI is any indication, this rendition of the tragic monarch's story has a rather clear target in mind: Generation Y.
Coppola's style is certainly not without its merits, however. The stuffy lifestyle most likely occupied by the majority of Marie's peers (granted, her own is supposed to be the exception) would probably have led to a rather boorish film. Replaced, however, with the upbeat mile-a-minute tempo of the film, Versailles 1776 quickly becomes quite the engaging world.
For those not quite up-to-par on their history, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) was born into the privileged class of Austria. At the tender age of fourteen she was married to the then Dauphin of France, who would upon the present king's death be pronounced Louis XVI (Jason Shwartzman). Marie has been remembered by history as a woman characterized by excess in all she did: eating, drinking, dressing, and particularly her outrageous hairstyles. Her lavish lifestyle and naive entry into royalty contributed to a sort of laissez-faire attitude toward the masses, resulting in the now immortal response to the peasant starvation, "Let them eat cake."
For a girl whose previous roles have included many bubbly lovers, including Spiderman's Mary Jane, Kirsten Dunst is probably the ideal pick for the imposing role of Marie. Cute but often cloyingly ignorant, Dunst's Marie brings happiness to everyone she meets and yet concern to everyone in her counsel. As Henry reminds the viewer in his short prayer upon receiving word of the monarch's death, the young couple is not prepared to take the reins of France.
Ultimately, "Marie Antoinette" is a playful romp through an outrageous situation in history, but this is perhaps its greatest flaw. If Marie is truly as careless and naive as she is depicted, it's very little wonder that the peasantry of France sought (and gained) her head from the guillotine. The innocence that one is expected to derive sympathy from is simply a cheap facade for what Marie clearly was: her tryst with a visiting soldier seems without consequence, and we might imagine it is not the only time the queen was unfaithful to a mostly neglecting husband. And so, as torches and pitchforks surround the Versailles estate, it is impossible to muster more than the faintest of pity for the condition most likely brought about by Marie's own outrageous spending habits and poor interaction with the common people.
Coppola seeks, in her pseudo-modern approach to the tale, to bring to life characters from the dusty annals of history. However, if Marie Antoinette is as coquettish and immature as she is portrayed, it is ultimately an unsolvable dilemma that she be the heroine of this, or any, film.
Links:
~Marie Antoinette on IMDb
~Marie Antoinette official site
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