So I just got back from seeing Sofia Coppola's
Marie Antoinette...against my better judgement. Don't get me wrong - I have loved Sofia's other 2 films (just check my ratings) and I even like Kirsten Dunst, but I
cannot stand period films with anachronistic soundtracks. Worse still, this particular soundtrack happens to be full of some of my favorite bands and songs (as Sofia's films always are, but that's usually a
good thing...). Anyway, the only reason that I saw this film today is because a friend of mine invited me and we tend to have similar tastes in films. We
did go into this one knowing that I was less excited about it than she and I let her know my reasons, however, she is in her early 20s and I am in my early 30s, so the very thing that was a major detractor for me (the soundtrack) was an attractor for her - it's
supposed to work that way, I get it...I ultimately consented to go to the film because I realized that I had a ticket for free admission to one of the better theaters in our area showing this film (I had previously planned to just wait for this to go to a second-run theater or DVD).
It's hard for me to separate my feelings for the film from my feelings about the soundtrack because, let's face it - the soundtracks are always an integral part of Sofia's films, but my young-but-wise friend summed it up nicely after the film when she said, "this film out of all of [Sofia Coppola's] films had the least [developed] story even though it merits the most". I would also like to add that I need to believe that it was Robert Smith's requirement to only allow a few bars of an instrumental intro to one of his songs to be played during the film and to only consent to having a song with his vocals to be played during the closing credits so that I can sleep at night (FYI, I do know which Cure songs these were, but I try really hard not to divulge
any spoilers in my blogs).