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Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle
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Marie
Antoinette
After her appearance in
Godfather
III, I didn’t
think it was possible that I could hate Sofia Coppola more, but her Marie
Antoinette really takes the cake (I didn’t
want to say, “off with her head.”
Everyone will be saying, “off with her
head.”).
Kirsten Dunst stars as
Antoinette
as we see her grow from being a young, 15-year old Austrian
royal married off to the future king
of France, Louis August (Jason Schwartzman), as part of an alliance,
all the
way through her life until the fall of the French royalty. However, this Marie
Antoinette suffers
mightily from a lack of dialogue, a lack storytelling and a lack of a
satisfying ending (again, like a date with me).
Writer/director Coppola
seems intent on going long periods of time throughout the movie without
any
meaningful dialogue to move the story forward (this from the same
person who
wrote Lost
in Translation?). This
would
work if the scenes and images did enough to tell the story, but they
don’t. The
audience is forced to wander
around from scene to repetitive scene trying to take it all in by
listening to
inconsequential murmurs, but can only take in some of the story without
adequate explanation of what is happening.
I guess you need to be some sort of Francophile to
appreciate the movie,
but are all of us students of French history, especially the young
people the
movie is trying to reach out to?
Also, and this might seem
petty, but no one is acting French.
I’m
not saying they have to walk around saying oui oui and eating
croissants, but Dunst,
Schwartzman and company speak English and never attempt to use a French
accent. This,
combined with Coppola’s
decision to use a score and soundtrack full of cool modern music, upsets the mood.
I
can understand that she wants this movie to be accessible to scores and
scores
of young teens who spend money on iTunes and at the cineplex, but this
feels
like pandering that takes us out of the setting and time period. If Dunst and company were
not up to the task,
there’s no reason to dumb it down, just hire more
accomplished actors. If
you want to go the anti-period piece
route, then go all the way with the dialogue, sets and costuming to
make it
feel modern or anachronistic. Coppola
gets caught in the meaningless middle.
Worst of all, Coppola seems
intent on skipping the biggest, most historical moments in
Antoinette’s life,
as if she wants to be so contrarian that she will refuse us the most
obvious,
but most anticipated moments, even if it ruins her movie (and it does). She pays a great deal of
attention to Louis’s
lack of desire for Antoinette and the embarrassment it caused for them,
but
doesn’t do a good job showing how the relationship changed. Then, we get to see the
riotous crowds
storming Versailles, but never get a good feel for the growing
disenchantment
that led to the action, never see a comparison between what the people
are
experiencing as we see the decadence Antoinette and the royals live in,
and
never get to see the dramatic way the Queen was finally captured. Even the “Let
Them Eat Cake” quote is a throw
away! Also, Coppola
avoids telling us
about the hardship that causes Antoinette to grow and make us feel some
sympathy for her as she and her children are horribly treated in
prison.
Oh yeah, Coppola
DOESN’T
SHOW US
ANTOINETTE GETTING HAULED OFF TO THE GUILLOTINE!
You don’t have a movie without that
ultimate
climactic scene. It
is THE scene. It is
THE moment. It is a
part of the movie that could have
made Dunst into a serious, well received dramatic actor and propelled
her to
Oscar talk. Instead,
we’ll just be
wondering which scenes used a body double, and which scenes showed her
actual
derriere.
Marie
Antoinette is a failed
project with lots of pretty scenery and clothing.
Coppola never finds one story to drive the
movie, doesn’t adequately show the development of the
characters and never
finds a coherent tone to draw us in, no matter how much you like the
music.
½
Waffle (Out Of 4)
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
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