Marie Antoinette (2006)

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Directed by Sofia Coppola.

Starring Judy Davis, Kirsten Dunst, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne, Jason Schwartzman.

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Writer and director Sofia Coppola puts a new spin on the life and times of one of Europe's most infamous monarchs in this lavish historical drama which fuses a contemporary sensibility with painstaking recreations of the look of the 18th century. Born to Austrian nobility, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is only 14 years old when she's pledged to marry Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), the 15-year-old king of France, in an alliance that has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with love. Sent to France and literally stripped of her former life, Marie weds Louis, but to the consternation of the royal court, he seems either unwilling or unable to consummate the marriage while their advisors clamor for an heir to the throne. Young and more than a bit out of step with the new life that's been thrust upon her, Marie gives herself over to the pleasures of life in Versailles, knowing and caring little of the political intrigue that surrounds her. In time, Marie's trusted older brother, Joseph (Danny Huston), is brought in to coach Louis on the finer points of marital relations, and before long the couple is finally blessed with a child. However, as Marie tends to her children in the gilded cage of her palace and enjoys an affair with a Swedish nobleman, political power plays are throwing France into chaos, and the growing ranks of the poor rebel against the royals and their life of privilege. Also starring Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, and Asia Argento, Marie Antoinette was given a controversial reception when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Marie Antoinette (2006, USA, So ...
by CinemaRian in CinemaRian Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"I think the reason why so many people were disappointed with this movie (it was booed at Cannes) was because it had an excellent trailer that completely misrepresents the film. Marie Antoinette is a slow moving but fascinating character study, not the hip generation-Y fun that the trailer promised. It is a very good film nonetheless.I don't know enough about this area of history to determinate how accurate it is. It opens as Marie (Kirsten Dunst) leaves her native Austria to enter into an arranged marriage with the heir to the French throne, Louis XVI (Coppola's cousin Jason Schwartzman). Marie quickly finds herself in an odd situation - she is supposed to produce an heir, but the socially awkward and introverted Louis in unable to help. In other words, her sole purpose in life is to have sex with someone who doesn't want to have sex with her. Marie finds that she is not popular at court because of her difficulties.What I liked most of about the film was its portrait of Marie. ... " [More]

Pass The Duchess to the Left Ha ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

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"I don’t want to imply that I find all corset movies to be boring — though I’ve never been a big fan of that stuffy period-piece genre — but after watching the new trailer for The Duchess (courtesy of Moviefone), I’ve bookmarked the film as potentially the??most effective??sleeping aid??of 2008. The main problem is that Keira Knightley in a corset is one of the most tired things in filmmaking these days. In fact, Knightley in any type of period piece (even Domino was set in the past, remember)??is apt to make me drowsy. Too bad, considering I’d like to give The Duchess a chance, what with it originally being adapted by the excellent Danish scripter Anders Thomas Jansen (the current screenplay appears to be reworked by period piece scribe Jeff Hatcher – yawn). To me, The Duchess seems like a means for the true period-piece fans??to take back what’s rightfully theirs. It’s like a more traditional take on themes we saw in the wonderfully fresh Marie Antoinette. After all, Georgiana Spe ... " [More]

Craig Baldwin’s New Film in SF
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

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"If you like Next to Heaven, Rob Parrish’s found-footage noir web series that we talked about a couple of weeks ago on FilmCouch, chances are good that you’d probably get a kick out of Craig Baldwin. He’s probably best known for his 1995 film, Sonic Outlaws, an documentary which merged form and content by using montages rife with pop culture appropriations to tell the story of Negativland, who were essentially the first band to cause an internationally-publicized legal incident by creating a mash-up. All of the issues that intersect in Sonic Outlaws–piracy, fair use, underground artists vs. corporate interests–are totally current today, and yet Sonic Outlaws documents a world that’s entirely pre-digital. There are tons of clips from the film on Google Video, or you can buy a DVD directly from Baldwin’s DVD label, Other Cinema Digital. Or, if you’re in San Francisco, you can also show up tomorrow night at Artists’ Television Access,?? where Baldwin’s weekly Other Cinema series will i ... " [More]

Marie Antoinette
by stanjan1 in stanjan1 Blog

lost interest.

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"A very lavish production, great scenery, beautiful sets and costumes and yet very boring. It completely fails to contrast the the different way of living of the average Frenchmen and the nobility. After all, this is what brougnt about the French Revolution. Don'y waste your time on this one as I did hoping it would get better as the movie progressed! " [More]

Marie Antoinette
by TheWorkingDead in TheWorkingDead Blog

liked it.

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"This weekend the Girlfriend and I sat down to watch, with some small amount of excitement, Marie Antoinette. The excitement came from director Sofia Coppola, of whom I would consider myself a fan after her first two, amazing films. The Virgin Suicides, which I was completely ready to dislike, ended up being a haunting, melancholy and beautiful meditation on that last summer before discovering sex and 'growing up', with an absolutely brilliant soundtrack. The scene where the boys call the isolated Lisbon girls and they hold an entire conversation using only the records they play into the phone was one of the best uses of popular songs in a movie I've seen in awhile. Lost In Translation was, to me, even better, with a bittersweet romance that is no less real because it is never consummated. In fact, it feels more genuine because the two main characters, so obviously falling in love with each other, never become physical. The relationship between Bill Murray and Scarlett J ... " [More]

The thing that made me like it...
by montybrogan in montybrogan Blog

liked it.

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"A friend of mine saw this at the New York Film Festival last year and did not enjoy it. Hearing him talk about it he said that it's obvious historical inacuracies, failed attempt to get the viewer to feel sympathy for Ms. Antoinette and other short commings made this the first kink in an otherwise promising career for Ms. Coppola. To a certain extent I agree, that was however until I decided to view the film in a different light. If you look at the film just as a character study then of course you are not going to be impressed with these characters. They are the very definition of gluttons and even the attempts to feel sympathy for her (sticking with her husband) came off as another shirking of responsibilites (that of being responsible for the safety and well being of her children). Then I started to think about how visually pleasing and interesting the movie is. When you go from dreary Austria to colorful and vibrant france, the use of many different colors and the choic ... " [More]

Marie Antoinette - American Har ...
by MovieBabe in MovieBabe Blog

hasn't rated it.

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"By Tricia Olszewski Eighteenth-century teen queen Marie Antoinette has gone down in history for a shallow saying that will be forever linked to her. Writer-director Sofia Coppola’s biopic of the French royal may come to be remembered most prominently by a superficial declaration itself: It was pretty enough to eat. Coppola spins modern into Marie Antoinette, attempting to infuse the period piece with the giddy and rebellious spirit of a kid who wants nothing but to quell her inevitable boredom. Kirsten Dunst plays Antoinette, an Austrian (though American-accented) archduchess who, at 14, was married to the unattractive dauphin of France (Jason Schwartzman) to cement a new alliance between the countries. Stripped of everything associated with home—including her beloved pug, Mops—the girl is thrust into the hushed world of Versailles. Antoinette is a bit freaked by the crowds anxious to both greet and judge her; more so when she discovers, for instance, that a cir ... " [More]

Re: Top 5 Movies Directed By Women
by chesterfilms in chesterfilms Blog

loved it.

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"The Hitch-Hiker (1953) Ida Lupino: Not just a great film, but it's always been one of my favorite B-Noir films. The Hitch-Hiker has some genuine frightening moments that mostly playout through the cast due to Lupino's direction. Ratcatcher (1999) Lynne Ramsay: A very uncomfortable film that follows a boy and his family in Glasgow throughout a trash strike in 1976. Filth permeates the film through physical trash piled up, and through the deplorable thing that happen to the characters. Marie Antoinette (2006) Sofia Coppola: Images that reminded me of Barry Lyndon. More lavish and beautiful than you can imagine, and it's not just style over substance. Dunst gives her greatest performance. One thing is for sure, Sofia Coppola is becoming a very important director. Harlan County USA (1976) Barbara Kopple: Hard-hitting look into the heart of America. Because this film takes place over a period of years years Barbra is able to show us exactly who these families are. It&# ... " [More]

My Top 8 Of 2006
by chesterfilms in chesterfilms Blog

loved it.

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"It's always difficult to pick a top 5 of anything, so here's my 8 favorite films of 2006. Pan's Labyrinth: Promoted as a fairytale for adults, Pan's delivers just that. It's a film where you have to suspend disbelief and trust the director, but it is not hard to take that step. Incredibly hard to watch at times, but a powerful message that is not all heavy handed or forced. The Departed: No it's not Scorsese's best film. Yes he should have gotten it for his other films. Everyone, please get over it. The Departed can stand on it's own. It's a fantastic crime film. Gritty and epic,The Departed It wasn't the best of the year, but the best never wins.Marie Antoinette: Images that reminded me of Barry Lyndon. More lavish and beautiful than you can imagine, and it's not just style over substance. Dunst gives her greatest performance. One thing is for sure, Sofia Coppola is becoming a very important director. Children Of Men: 4 or 5 scenes th ... " [More]

Re: Top 5 Movies Directed By Women
by Jymkata in Filmspotting

disliked it.

"I had to think hard about this because I couldn't figure out why it was so hard for me to answer about female directors. I was hoping it wasn't some unconscious chauvinistic tedencies on my part causing me to devalue movies directed by females. I actually think that many of the female directed movies of the last decade or so tend to be "woman's pictures" that hold little interest for me in terms of style or story. That being said, there are some movies directed by women that I would rate highly regardless of who helms it. Ida Lupino was a real pioneer in female directing (not the first but the best known early director) and she directed a really nifty film noir - 1) The Hitch-hikerThe '80s are generally mocked as a shallow time in film, but at least women were given a chance to direct mainstream films and a few of the movies are among my favorite 80's and early 90's films:Amy Heckerling - (4 tie) Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Look Who's Talking, and Clue ... " [More]

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Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

is neutral about it.

As she did in her masterful Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola creates an involving sense of physical place in her period biopic Marie Antoinette. The first hour of this film plays well, in large part because the viewer enjoys being inside this remarkably ornate universe. After the film is over, one will be left with vivid memories of tea, shoes, and desserts, but without any idea about the lead character. Early in the film the young Austrian princess (Kirsten Dunst) is forced to give up her beloved dog -- once she marries into the French aristocracy she must leave behind anything from her previous court. She is wracked with tears when separated from her beloved pooch, but minutes later she is seen caring for and loving brand new dogs in Versailles. This film's conception of Marie makes it nearly impossible to care much for her as she merely flits from entertainment to entertainment, enjoying whatever she fancies at the moment until another distracting bauble comes her way. This might work in a film that intended to show the empty spoiled waste of the socially privileged, but Coppola wants us to care for her lead character as the rabble begin to call for an end to her reign. Not until very late in the proceedings does it seem that Marie wishes her life was any different than it is, and Coppola fumbles this sequence by using a pedestrian gauzy, romance-novel cover shot of the lover she longs for to symbolize her daydream. For all its splendid costumes, cinematography, and art direction, Marie Antoinette fails because the lead character never gets to choose the direction in her life, and is never made interesting enough for the audience to find her tragic. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Tags: decadence , coppola , slow , dresses , france
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