Marie Antoinette
This is the last movie I will be writing about. In fact, I wanted to watch Marie Antoinette much earlier, because I wanted to write a review with the title “Dunst im Schloss” XD – it’s a nickname that Milkmaster gave this movie since the beginning of its release.
Even though I would place this movie far behind Zodiac and Scoop, I must admit that Marie Antoinette actually made a certain impact on me: After all, I have always been interested in her as a person and the french revolution. Aside from that, I am a huge fan of the costumes of the Ancien Régime and I love the looks of the movie; that’s also why I didn’t feel bored at all while watching it even though the pace was horribly slow actually – 1 3/4 hours and nothing really happened until the revolution dropped on everybody’s head, argh XD I can’t get those beautiful scenes out of my head (and the lovely candies either!)
In fact, the movie was quite funny in some ways. I remember us laughing at the scene where she had a whole ship on her hairstyle; or another one where Léonard (who the hell is that?) makes her hair and a second later you see that the hairstyle is like 50cm high. The (unintentionally) funniest scene however was Fersen on his horse making that Napoleon pose. Oh my god, that is so laughable.
The other laughable thing was, well, the music. Oh god, is it even possible to combine even more awful music to the beauty of those costumes? If I had watched it in the cinema (which I luckily didn’t), I guess I would have been forced to shut my ears. I don’t like that kind of music and I especially find them offending in that kind of unfitting context. It literally hurts my ears.
Usually, I really like Kirsten Dunst. She’s the kind of pretty girl who looks different than others and cannot be marked as truly ‘beautiful’. But in this movie, I actually noticed that she is a really crappy actor. She probably will never get a better role than Spiderman’s girlfriend, because she can’t play anything else. In Marie Antoinette, the only thing she does is smile expressionlessly; and even her crying doesn’t feel real. Maybe it’s only my impression, but even though I think she looks good, I think somebody else might have incorporated Marie Antoinette better than her. Naomi Watts maybe? Julia Stiles? (But she looks too smart.) I don’t know.
The last thing I would like to comment on is the french revolution and the lack of criticism whatsoever: Yes, the movie lacks it and I do have the impression that Sofia Coppola is quite ignorant of it. On the one hand, I do think that sociocriticism would have killed the beauty of the movie, on the other hand, it hurts me to see the history being torn so much. At the beginning, I tried to understand that it’s difficult for a Hollywood director to handle to subject of the french revolution and I didn’t really mind an image of a naive and innocent Marie Antoinette (the Marie Antoinette of Lady Oscar is very innocent and warm-hearted too). But after an hour, it actually annoyed me a little bit how positive everything looked like, and how there are homeopathic doses of historical background given. It’s not like the french people only starved because they sent troops to America. And it’s not like Mme de Polignac was merely a playful friend, in fact, she was a scheming, rude woman who betrayed Marie Antoinette in the end.
Oh, whatever. I want a Marie Antoinette costume too… and a body shape like Kirsten Dunst. XD By the way, the japanese version of the DVD is the most amazing: “A limited edition special Japanese boxed set will contain the two disc DVD set, a jewelery box, a Swarovski high-heeled shoe brooch, a hand mirror, and a lace handkerchief.” (Quote from Wikipedia, like always.) Isn’t that… premium? XD
PS. I couldn’t decide for which poster to use, so I decided for both french ones.