All the pretty nothings.
Marie Antoinette
Director: Sophia Coppola
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis
2006
Sophia Coppola’s much anticipated “rock n’ roll” version of Marie Antoinette’s life is a gorgeously realized trifle of a film. Intended for a teenage audience, the film is unfocused in its presentation, and its anachronisms are forced and pretentious. However, for all its boring posturing, I must say that the film is absolutely gorgeous. Not just regular gorgeous, unnaturally gorgeous. Easily one of the most beautiful films made in the 2000s.
The plot, such as it is, starts with a young Marie Antoinette (Dunst) being shipped off from Austria to France to marry the Dauphin, Louis XVI (Schwartzman). Her wedding, her place in court, her relationship with her husband, her extravagant friends, her children… the film wanders freely between all of these topics, eventually ending not in her famous beheading but her retreat from Versailles.
Coppola claimed to make the film because she felt Marie Antoinette was “misunderstood,” and she wanted to present a “sympathetic” portrait of the famous queen. However, due to the supremely unfocused and meandering tone of the film, it is hardly sympathetic to the queen. There are moments here and there where we see her kindness and her courteousness, but in terms of her spending and her extravagance, the qualities that eventually earned her a place in jail, the film seems largely unsympathetic. Her spending IS extravagant, she IS lazy and bored and gambles and drinks to fill her time. This, in contrast with the occasional kindness, serves more to confuse and disorient the viewer. While I am certain that people can have many facets, can have a good heart yet have faults at the same time, the film itself seems undecided about Marie instead of seeming intent on presenting her as a complex and actual person.
Kirsten Dunst has long been Sofia Coppola’s muse, so it makes sense that she would cast her in the lead role. However, Dunst seems wildly out of her element. Perhaps due to the wandering nature of the overall story, Dunst alternates between girlish naïveté and spoiled socialite. She seems to feel some sort of duty to her country and her husband, but these senses of noble compunction are few and far between. Dunst underplays the queen in certain scenes and overplays her in others. When it comes to exhibiting actual emotion, she fails utterly in a scene where the queen collapses in wracking sobs. That particular scene is almost laughable in its lack of believability.
Kirsten is sad she's not a better actress.
Matching Dunst every step of the way in mediocrity is Jason Schwartzman as her husband, King Louis XVI, an actor I admire normally. He pulls off the young, timid adolescent king believably enough, but he is constantly giving too little somehow. The few turns of the king later in the movie behaving nobly and making legitimate decisions seem to be vastly out of character. Perhaps that was the point, but I will say that if Coppola was going for a sympathetic portrayal, she failed utterly. Schwartzman, in his role as Louis XVI, is just as shallow and trivial as his queen. When the two of them share an occasional legitimate moment together, you can just feel the futures of “The Hills” and “Gossip Girl” being born.
The major “focus” of the plot is on Marie Antoinette and Louis’ consummation of their relationship, something that took quite some time. It is revisited between scenes describing the queen’s frivolity. When the two finally do have sex, we see how happy Marie is, and I admit to feeling a sense of satisfaction as well. When she gives birth, yes, it is a joy! The importance of bearing an heir to the throne seems to be one of the queen’s few life goals, so the achievement of that goal, yes, it is important. Given this, I am utterly confounded at the lack of time spent on the death of one of the queen’s children later in the film. We are not shown the birth, we are not shown the child, and we are not shown the death. We see a short scene of a funeral, then a short scene of Marie wandering the gardens, apparently despondent. Given how the production of children is one of the few overarching plotlines of the film, I am utterly surprised that more is not made of this story. It would serve to humanize the queen, and it’s a completely wasted opportunity by the filmmaker.
Despite its slow pace, random scene sequence, and confused structure, the film more than deserved its Oscar for Best Costumes. The costumes are breathtakingly exquisite. They go far beyond the typical beautiful costume drama fare; these are on a completely different level. In every single shot, Dunst is bedecked in some new color of satin and lace, shockingly beautiful and lovely. Coppola plays with the pastel color palette, outfitting everyone in court in pale pinks, baby blues, and lovely sage greens. Beauty, thy name is Marie Antoinette. I have, flat out, never seen more shockingly gorgeous costumes in any film. Ever. I have never seen a film more deserving of an award for them.
While not an actual screenshot from the film, this could be. So. Insanely. Gorgeous.
Perhaps the drop-dead stunning sets and costumes are what make this ultimately, bizarrely, superficially watchable. It is almost an 18th century version of “My Sweet Sixteen.” Out of control spending, crazy parties, beautiful people and gowns… yes, that does indeed sound familiar. It’s a bit like a car crash; you can’t look away at the monstrosity of it. I cannot imagine how much this film cost to make; they were able to actually film at Versailles, a rare occurrence indeed, and that had to cost a pretty penny. If only there were something more substantial to show for it. The film is too rambling, too incoherent, too all over the place. It is completely unclear how we are supposed to perceive Marie Antoinette. Normally I applaud films that let the audience member make up their own mind on a particular situation, but usually those films actually manage to present arguments for and against something. Marie Antoinette does little in the way of presentation. Here, marvel at the frivolity! As a whole, it is a gigantic, beautiful piece of cotton candy; all fluff that dissolves as soon as you apply any pressure to it.