Yeah, I Liked It That Much
Not much going on over the weekend, except Marie Antoinette.
My verdict? Excellent.
I have said before that Kirsten Dunst is a good actress, and this film proves it. She exudes the girlishness she always does, which is appropriate for a princess married off at fourteen and pampered for the next ten years, but she always communicates first the bewilderment of her new situation, the intricately political realm of the French court, and then the sadness and resignation when she fully recognizes the reality of her world. I could go on about her, but I won't.
The post-punk soundtrack (only quibble: why the Strokes?) set the mood, as the music evokes the empty decadence of Versailles perfectly. Hollow-sounding songs like Gang of Four's "Natural's Not In It" and Siouxsie and the Banshee's "Hong Kong Garden" groove along but suggest the ennui that the characters on the screen are experiencing.
Yes, the film is open to charges of being overly mannered and nothing but a pretty surface without substance, and the same has been said of Sofia Coppola's other films, but wasn't the royal lifestyle at Versailles pretty surfaces without substance? I think Coppola captures not just the events but the very essence of the French court on the eve of the Revolution.
And yay for Molly Shannon--I love seeing her in the film...
My verdict? Excellent.
I have said before that Kirsten Dunst is a good actress, and this film proves it. She exudes the girlishness she always does, which is appropriate for a princess married off at fourteen and pampered for the next ten years, but she always communicates first the bewilderment of her new situation, the intricately political realm of the French court, and then the sadness and resignation when she fully recognizes the reality of her world. I could go on about her, but I won't.
The post-punk soundtrack (only quibble: why the Strokes?) set the mood, as the music evokes the empty decadence of Versailles perfectly. Hollow-sounding songs like Gang of Four's "Natural's Not In It" and Siouxsie and the Banshee's "Hong Kong Garden" groove along but suggest the ennui that the characters on the screen are experiencing.
Yes, the film is open to charges of being overly mannered and nothing but a pretty surface without substance, and the same has been said of Sofia Coppola's other films, but wasn't the royal lifestyle at Versailles pretty surfaces without substance? I think Coppola captures not just the events but the very essence of the French court on the eve of the Revolution.
And yay for Molly Shannon--I love seeing her in the film...