Marie Antoinette
Written and directed by Sofia Coppola
Rated PG-13: for sexual content and partial nudity
The failings of Sofia Coppola’s latest film, Marie Antoinette, probably stems from the talented female auteur having perhaps too much power and creative freedom at such a young age. Her father Francis Ford Coppola has clearly been a huge influence in her rise to the young filmmaking elite.
Watching Marie Antoinette I was reminded of one of the great disasters in recent movie history. That film was Michael Cimino’s bloated, anti-western Heaven’s Gate. Many film historians cite Heaven’s Gate as the end of the auteur era, in which the new crop of young filmmakers who were given such creative freedom to make the films they wanted in the seventies was lost because Hollywood no longer trusted them. After Deer Hunter won five Oscars in 1978, Cimino was given a lot of money to make whatever film he wanted. He followed it with the bomb Heaven’s Gate, and the auteur era of the seventies gave way to the bleak, high concept, producer-controlled period in film history of the eighties.
After the fantastic Lost In Translation garnered some of the best reviews of 2003 and was nominated for four academy awards (she won a much-deserved Oscar for best original screenplay), Coppola was given similar creative control and power for her follow-up. It’s also interesting to note that her father was also part of the rise and fall of the seventies’ auteur age. Is this a case of history repeating itself? I hope not. Marie Antoinette is not going to have the lasting effect that Heaven’s Gate had in the world of movies, but it’s fascinating to draw parallels to other filmmakers who have failed after receiving so much power in Hollywood.
Coppola can’t decide what kind of movie she wants Marie Antoinette to be. Is it a period piece? Biopic? One long, drawn-out, music video? Or is it a shallow showcase of gossip, spending, shoe shopping, and naivety towards ones duties as a queen? Perhaps all of the above.
The use of new age eighties tunes has been discussed a lot. I think this stylish technique rarely works well (Moulin Rouge! is the only time I can think of where it worked). The songs chosen are great, except for the lamest montage in quite sometime in which Marie Antoinette shops for shoes all to the tune of Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy.” The use of modern music is a clever stylistic choice, and it sets the film apart from most stuffy period pictures. The problem is that the songs don’t contribute to the story (Or lack thereof) and instead feel like Coppola is making the audience sit through a bad retro music video.
An off-color and unusually bad cast also hampers the film. This is the most ridiculously miscast film in years. First off, Kirsten Dunst does try her best. She’s not that bad, but doesn’t feel inspired in her performance. She lacks the flighty quality that Coppola is trying to present in her queen. Jason Schwartzman is very funny with his subtle performance as Louis XVI, the sexually uninformed heir to the throne who weds Antoinette in the film’s beginning. The problem here, though, is even with Schwartzman’s good performance it is still obvious he doesn’t fit well in a period piece. Then there is Rip Torn as the promiscuous Louis XV and Molly Shannon as the gossip queen Aunt Victoire. Calling their casting in the film a mistake is an understatement when you see their wretched performances.
While Coppola’s previous film won many awards, Marie Antoinette will not receive anything in that department. That’s about as close to a guarantee as I can make on the subject. The film will not stop the career of Coppola by any means. Besides, I get the idea from the film that it is exactly what she set out to make. It’s another story about a young woman set adrift in a new place she doesn’t understand. Credit should always be given to a filmmaker who makes a personal film, even if that film will satisfy a select few. In that sense, I applaud Coppola. Ultimately, the film is a bit of a mess though.
HDFEST grading scale
-Marie Antoinette-
Story C
Acting C-
Visuals A-
Originality B+
Enjoyability D+
Overall Grade C
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