Review: Marie Antoinette (2006)

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst in the title role, has been around for more than a decade; however, the movie hit Netflix only recently. 

This film received mixed reviews due to the unconventional way in which it told the French queen's history. As Dunst said, "It's kind of like a history of feelings, rather than a history of facts." Though the American faux-French accents are admittedly cringe-y at times (that of Rose Byrne, as the Duchesse de Polignac, especially), all cons are outweighed. Sacrificing historically accurate language and music, Coppola focused instead on the essence of who Marie Antoinette really was-- a teenager.

The rock soundtrack, featuring tunes such as a remixed version of "I Want Candy," contributes to this point of view and gives the movie a youthful tone relatable to the teenaged target audience. A scene set at a masquerade ball includes the blasting electric guitar and drums of "Hong Kong Garden" by Siouxsie and the Banshees, and close camera angles create the atmosphere of a packed high school party, all crowds and bouncy dancing.

When one watches the scene of Marie's eighteenth birthday party, it is easy to place oneself in the young royal's shoes. She and her friends stay up to watch the sunrise, giggling and twirling through the grass, as if a real group of teenagers had been laced into period dress, given actual alcohol, and let loose before a rolling camera. I was reminded of my own friends at that age, carefree and fun-loving without worries for the future.

Coppola's Marie Antoinette is a free-spirited child, combatting marital problems and the pressures of crushing expectation with retail therapy, partying, and dessert-- not unlike much of today's youth. The viewer is shown only what goes on inside the upper-class, only what Marie would have experienced, allowing the audience to grasp how little the queen understood about the plight of the common people. She made poor choices, it's true, but the audience easily sides with her when they are shown exclusively her perspective. This film is not meant to substitute for a history lesson, but to teach the public understanding in response to the blurred, negative connotation of the name "Marie Antoinette". The character grows over the course of the film, her emotional arc building from her departure from Austria to her final departure from Versailles.

History is written by the victors; was Marie Antoinette really the demonized, selfish, and unfeeling villain we have been told she was? Or was this less an issue of deliberate neglect and more a product of centuries of feudal culture and a corrupt monarchic structure, in which all of the nobility had an unavoidable hand? Was Marie Antoinette really a catalyst, or simply an under-prepared queen in power at the wrong time, in part victimized by the rolling snowball of her predecessors' mistakes? Could she, really, have done anything to prevent what happened to both herself and her people? Was averting the chaos and heartache ever even a possibility? Was it her fault? Coppola's genius is apparent when her audience naturally comes to these questions; she does more than tell a story.

The so-called "Madame Déficit" was married off at fourteen and thrown into the spotlight, woefully ignorant of the political and economic realities of what it actually took to reign. Historical accuracy was not the goal of the project, character was-- and Coppola's film was a tremendous success on that front. Besides being generally gorgeous (as lavish as the queen herself) and a treat for both the eyes and ears, the movie changes one's perception of the ill-fated queen and conveys a larger message than pure entertainment. An absolute masterpiece of the cinema, artistic and sumptuous yet full of real depth, Marie Antoinette is a 5-star favorite of this amateur critic.