MARIE
ANTOINETTE
With
Kirsten
Dunst,
Jason
Schwartzman,
Judy
Davis,
Rip
Torn,
Asia
Argento,
Marianne
Faithfull
Directed
by Sophia
Coppola
Sophia
Coppola
chose
to go
the
period
piece
route
as a
follow-up
to her
awesomeLost
In Translation,
by doing
a biopic
of the
legendary
Marie
Antoinette.
Married
into
the
French
royalty
at 15,
becoming
queen
at 19,
her
modest
demeanour
slowly
get
swallowed
into
the
opulence,
convention
and
sheer
excess
of their
lifestyle.
But
Coppola
chose
not
to demonize
her
as an
insensitive
rich
brat
ignorant
to the
plight
of the
peasants.
In stead
the
focus
is on
her
entering
this
cold
world
as an
outsider
with
a disinterested
husband
and
a court
of vicious,
gossiping
backstabbers.
And
as we
all
know
how
the
story
ends,
Coppola
also
chose
to depict
her
life
in a
dignified
manner.
Naturally
the
Versailles
location,
costumes
and
décor
is stunning.
One
strange
device
she
employed
however
was
the
use
of predominantly
‘80s
British
alternative
pop
songs
like
Adam
&
The
Ants...
In many
scenes
it doesn’t
work
at all.
Ladyhawke’s
electronic
soundtrack
was
acceptable
and
in A
Knight’s
Tale
the
pop
songs
worked
–
this
is however
not
based
on fiction.
A period
film
holds
the
inherent
potential
to become
a timeless
piece
with
its
date
of creation
irrelevant
(see
Barry
Lyndon
Amadeus
and
the
many
composer
films
of Ken
Russell
).
But
when
bound
to modern
music,
this
diminishes
that
possibility
–
perhaps
two
decades
from
now
people
will
think
this
movie
was
made
in the
‘80s.
The
Broadcast
Film
Critics
Association
on the
other
hand
gave
it a
Best
Soundtrack
nomination
–
it’s
a good
soundtrack,
yes,
just
not
very
fitting.
Coppola
could’ve
approached
this
from
a modern
heiress
media-darling,
pop-punk
rebel-in-the-spotlight
point
of view,
perhaps
hipped
it up
a touch
to get
a younger
generation
to go
out
and
see
a genre
they’d
normally
avoid.
Won
the
Oscar™
for
Best
Costume
Design
(Milena
Canonero),
a couple
of BAFTAs,
and
Cannes
kudos
for
Coppola.
4
/ B
- PB
1 2
3
4
5 6
A
- B
- C