MARIE ANTOINETTE
US, 2006, 122 minutes, Colour.
Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Judy Davis, Rose Byrne, Rip Torn, Danny Huston, Marianne Faithfull, Shirley Henderson, Molly Shannon.
Directed by Sofia Coppola.
Marie Antoinette and her (alleged) remark when the French peasants protested that they had no bread, ‘Let them eat cake’ are part of world heritage. When this film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, 2006, many of the French booed and star, Alain Delon, declared that a film about Marie Antoinette should be made only by a French director. In fact, Marie Antoinette was an Austrian princess who became the French queen.
The film has been written and directed by an American, Sofia Coppola, daughter of famed director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse Now). Her two previous films were The Virgin Suicides and the award-winning Lost in Translation.
During interviews, Sofia Coppola made an interesting statement about her film. While she based her screenplay on the historical biography by Antonia Fraser, she did not want to make a historical film as such. Instead, she wanted to invite the audience to spend a couple of hours in the company of Marie Antoinette. Within those terms, she has been successful.
The contemporary score during the opening credits indicates that we are definitely not locked into the 18th century. More songs (Fools Rush In, I Want Candy) accompany key scenes and the score veers from rock to classic to opera excerpts. In this context the eclectic accents do not jar as they do in strictly historical epics. What the film does is offer an interpretation of Marie Antoinette.
It must be said that the film is sumptuous to look at - many have used the word gorgeous - no expense spared for costumes, wigs and décor, for locations (including interiors and exteriors of Versailles palaces and parks). Myriad details are exquisitely precise - the food selection stands out abundantly laid on ‘groaning’ tables.
There is not a peasant in sight until the final five minutes of the film. We are interned, so to speak, as Marie Antoinette herself was in Versailles, straitjacketed by luxury. (At this display of wanton extravagance, many in the audience may be internally shouting, ‘Come the Revolution’.)
She was in her early teens when she was bargained away by her imperious mother to cement Austrian- French relationships. As she travels by coach from Vienna, she is stopped at the French border and literally stripped of everything. Everything from clothes to coiffeur and to pet dog had to be French.
She was a spoilt young girl who knew nothing else of life. Frivolous and spendthrift, she was also the victim of nasty gossip about ‘the Austrian’ and mocked because it took Louis Auguste seven years to consummate their marriage. She was hemmed in by protocol at every moment, waking, dressing, eating, walking, speaking. At first it seems ridiculous to her and she says so, but she is expected to toe the line and she is not above some snobbery herself, especially in her disdain of Louis XV’s mistress Madame Du Barry.
Marie Antoinette also confides in the audience that she could never say, ‘let them eat cake’. Whether she did or she did not, she stood by Louis XVI for four years of the Revolution and was executed with him.
Kirsten Dunst really is Marie Antoinette. Sofia Coppola cast her cousin, Jason Schwartzman (better known for comedies like Rushmore, Shopgirl, I Heart Huckabees) as the young and cloddish key maker Louis XVI. The supporting cast perform well – and come from everywhere. Who would have thought of Rip Torn as Louis XV or Asia Argento as Madame du Barry? Judy Davis is all protocol and starch as the queen’s decorum mentor. Steven Coogan is her confidante, the French Ambassador. Danny Huston is the Emperor of Austria and Marianne Faithful the dowager Empress.
Obviously not to purist historians’ taste – but yet it might be.
1. Popular knowledge about Marie Antoinette? "Let them eat cake"? Her death in the French Revolution?
2. The movie tradition, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI as older? Pictures of the French aristocracy, decay? The films about the French Revolution? A Tale of Two Cities?
3. The work of Antonia Fraser, Sofia Coppola's interpretation of the historical character? The screenplay intentions for the audience to spend time with Marie Antoinette rather than a historical
study? The tone, the touches of satire?
4. The impact of the contemporary score, the opening credits, for various sequences, songs, opera excerpts? The 21st century tone of the interpretation of Marie Antoinette?
5. The production values, re-creation of the 18th century, costumes, wigs and décor, make-up? Lavish sets? The detail of the production design - the food?
6. The locations, Vienna, the Austrian and French countryside, Versailles, the palaces, the Trianon? Paris?
7. The pomp and ritual of the court, the abundance of servants, the formality of dress, manners, etiquette? Rules and protocol? For waking up in the morning, for getting dressed, for meals, for the marriage, the ceremonies, the marriage bed - and the religious blessing? Audience reaction to this kind of formal protocol? Marie Antoinette waiting to be dressed by successive ladies-in-waiting - and her comment that it was ridiculous? Her being continually reprimanded and reminded of what was expected of her?
8. Marie Antoinette and Kirsten Dunst's interpretation? A young teenager, her lack of experience of the world, no knowledge of the world, being raised in luxury? Having to leave home, separation from family, the loss of her dog at the border? Her being confined? Straitjacketed by luxury? Her thinking that the protocol was ridiculous? Her gradually adapting to the pressures? The political expectations of her? The expectations of her pregnancy? Others giving birth - and the awkwardness of the king, his delaying consummating the marriage? The film showing Marie Antoinette as having strengths of character - but, because of lack of experience, her weaknesses?
9. The political implications, Maria Teresa and her demands, the persuasion of the French ambassador, the continued diplomacy, her mother writing letters to her, urging the pregnancy? The emperor coming to speak to her, to speak to the king? The impact of the death of the empress?
10. The Austrian context: the empress and her strength, influence, negotiations with the French ambassador, the use of Marie Antoinette for the political marriage? The farewell? Seeing her later, her concern about the pregnancy, writing the letters? The emperor and his visit to Paris? His mother's death?
11. Marie Antoinette farewelling the court, the reality of the travel, distance, tiring? The border, her dog being taken? Her literally being stripped of everything, given French clothes, style,
coiffeur? The influence of the Countess de Noailles? Marie Antoinette's arrival in Paris, the reception by the king, the presence of Madame Du Barry? The nobility? The aunts and their gossiping - and the
condemnation of 'the Austrian'?
12. The portrait of the court, the aunts, the ladies, the symbol of Marie Antoinette waking, dressing, the protocols, having to wait for the ladies to dress her? The daily routine of mass - at a distance, dressed up but uninterested? The routines of the breakfast, the servants, the gongs and sounds for the serving of the meal, the drinks? Her gathering a group of friends, her talking with them, chatter?
13. Louis XV and his style, the welcome, wanting an heir? His attitude towards Louis Auguste? The relationship with Madame Du Barry, at table with her? The ambassador persuading Marie Antoinette to speak to her - one sentence, vowing never more to speak? The king and his pleasure at this? His dying, sending Madame Du Barry away? Madame Du Barry and her style, her brothel background, getting the title, her manners, wanting to be accepted at court? Her being spurned? Her leaving?
14. Louis Auguste, his age, cloddish, a keymaker, loving to hunt, minimal talk and conversation, the ceremony of the wedding, the pomp of the wedding night, his declining? Seven years of declining? His hearty appetite? His being talked to by the Emperor Josef? The image of making a successful key and lock - and his success? The birth of his daughter? The later birth of his son? The portraits of the mother and children on the wall? The death of the child? His involvement in politics, anti-English sentiment, supporting of the American revolutionaries? His continuing to support them even when the peasants were hungry? His not really being aware of the situation of the French?
A fatalistic attitude towards life and death?
15. Marie Antoinette and the passing of the years, the frivolous life, the money, clothes, fashions, her love for gambling? Wanting to go out? Going to the opera, moving against the code and
applauding and everybody imitating her? Later when she was unpopular and people refusing to applaud? The masked ball, her meeting with Fernes? The king being present, his acceding to her whims?
16. The opening of the Trianon, her happiness in retiring there, trying to live a simpler life, clothes, the garden, the lambs, with her children? Playing the instrument, the song and her performance? The honouring of the soldiers who fought in the American war? Her meeting
Fernes again, the affair with him?
17. Her friends, especially the Countess of Polignac, her fashion, her chatter?
18. The murmurings against the monarchy, the taking of the Bastille and the report? The departures of the nobility? The king and queen staying, Marie Antoinette saying her place was with the king?
19. The final visualising of peasants, the crowd? Marie Antoinette on the balcony, her silencing the people, her gesture as if she were on the guillotine? The consequent history of her execution with the king?
20. Two hours in company with Marie Antoinette, trying to understand her? Being with the aristocracy, their self-absorbed and frivolous life, luxury, oblivious of everyone else? The inevitability of the French Revolution?
