Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzmann star as doomed monarchs of France
I knew it was bad news when Sofia Coppola didn’t show up two weeks ago for a much –publicized early screening of Marie Antoinette at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.
After sitting through the ho-hum biopic of the young Austrian princess who became Dauphine of France in the 1800s, I completely understood why Coppola didn’t bother to show. I know she’s pregnant – and this was the reason given for her absence – but she’s been photographed with her baby bump on many red carpets. She didn’t show up because her film blows.
When the film screened at Cannes audiences booed it. Filmgoers shouldn’t have wasted their breath – they shouldn’t have even bothered to go.
The film, starring Kirsten Dunst, begins by following the young monarch through her early celibate years of her marriage (apparently the two of them, Louis XVI played by Jason Schwartzmann, didn’t know what sex was until a visit from Marie Antoinette’s brother seven years later sorted them out.)
At first Marie Antoinette reminds viewers of Paris Hilton – the lavish spending on the latest fashions, the parties, the ever-present dog in her arms, the vapidity. She evolves later but only mildly so and by then it’s too late.
The ’80s music is one of the charming details and, if you like Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure, you’re gonna dig this. The clothing is fabulous and the shoes are to die for – it’s all been described in great detail how Manolo Blahnik designed delicious-looking shoes for the film. And they are scrumptious in gorgeous hues of pink, turquoise, yellow, looking like cake and pastries.
Coppola has made a career exploring the lives of girls in distress, girls looking to find their way in a changing cultural landscape – there was the charming The Virgin Suicides, which also starred Dunst. And of course Lost in Translation was a big winner. But those films had direction and Marie Antoinette lacks precisely that.
The script is weak, the dialogue embarrassing, and the story uninspired. Which is a damn shame considering Coppola convinced the caretakers of the Palace of Versailles to allow her to film on location – in places where some of the events actually occurred.
We get to see a discussion on the infamous “Let them eat cake” comment but we don’t get to see the suffering of the poverty-stricken French citizens. It’s all dreamy and very, very pretty but, overall, the film is bland.
Go see Departed instead if you haven’t already.
