Film Reviews

Marie Antoinette

• Rating:
• Director: Sofia Coppola
• Starring: Jason Schwartzman
• Details: US / 123mins (12A).

Cultural dislocation is a running theme with Sofia Coppola. Her previous films, The Virgin Suicides and Lost In Translation, deal with protagonists that don't fit in with their surroundings and Marie-Antoinette continues on this premise. Kirsten Dunst plays the eponymous Austrian Archduchess, forced into marriage to Louis of France (Schwartzman) to secure the friendship between the neighbouring countries. Stationed in Versailles, just outside Paris, Marie Antoinette's married life starts off rather slowly and rumours abound that Louis isn't up to the task of securing an heir. The loveless marriage fails to gather steam, as Marie prefers to go to masked balls with her ladies-in-waiting while Louis favouring hunting to the marital bed. When the King dies, Marie and Louis are appointed to the throne, but rumours of a revolt build in France and the aristocracy realises it's not long for this world. Coppola continues with her aloof style of direction, making us leap into her world rather than her bending over backwards to welcome us. It is the most beautiful looking film she's shot so far, though, as Marie Antoinette fully realises the grandiose interiors of the palace and every penny spent is up on screen to fawn over. Coppola also knows a good tune when she hears one, and the inclusion of contemporary songs with chamber music doesn't jar the way it did in A Knight's Tale, or when Scorsese used U2 at the climax of Gangs Of New York. However, her film feels unfocused and unfinished - there was so much drama ahead in the life of the young queen, Coppola could have shaved twenty minutes from the muddled middle section and added her later years to the story - a period when Marie Antoinette's life was at its most interesting. Dunst is fine in the leading role, but a good night come Oscar time will still elude the young actress, while Schwartzman has too little to do and is underused. Reduced to one word answers, he plays the cold, emotionally-dead King with aplomb, but there is only so much you can do with a character like that. Coppola has delivered a somewhat interesting movie on an uninteresting story.

Review by Gavin Burke