DVD Review: Marie-Antoinette

DVD Review: Marie-Antoinette (Sofia Coppola, 2006, USA).

To say Sofia Coppola has had an interesting life would seem to be an understatement. Daughter of 70's uber-director Francis Ford Coppola, her life was in the spotlight since literally infancy as she was first seen on screen as a baby in The Godfather. She then grew up and famously replaced Winonna Ryder at the last minute in The Godfather Part 3, the subsequent reaction to which pretty much made sure that whatever she did in her adult life, it probably wouldn't be in front of the camera. Indeed this turned out to be the case. Her direcotiral debut, The Virgin Suicides was quite the indie darling. It never truly broke through to the maistream but the whimiscal yet disturbing air of the film, and a memorable soundtrack by french band Air, made sure that she ws to be a hip one-to-watch. Her next film the very funny, very moving, yet wholly overrated Lost In Translation earned her the respect of everyone in Hollywood and marked the resurgance of Bill Murray. Quite the hot property then. For her next film, Coppola had it all. Studio backing, access to some of the greatest locations in Europe and a cast consisting of pretty much whoever she wanted. The film made was Marie-Antoinette. Booed at Cannes, derided for its light and fluffy look at the Queen of France and a bit of a bomb, it seems Coppola had dropped the ball. I, for one, disagree.
Marie-Antoinette is taken from her home in Austria to become a symbol of the Franco-Austrian alliance and to cement this by marrying the future king Louis XV (Jason Schwartzman) who is also only a teenager. As she adapts to this strange world, she has to try and perusade Louis to have sex with her to have a child who will keep the union strong. Unfulfilled, Marie turns to hedonisitic parties and other men to make her happy. But then things get bad...
You can see why this film was booed at Cannes. Gaining unparalelled access to Versailles, given wonderful costumes (which earned the film its only Oscar nomination), and being given the chance to tell the story of one of France's infamous figures, Coppola has turned her story into that of a coming-of-age story in which in many ways, no-one comes of age. A pop-art explosion starts the film with contemporary guitar music filling the speakers. This, one suspects, is something not expected. The start of the film detailing Marie's journey echoes that of any teenage girl. excitement, gossip and boredom. The procession of marraige and consummating the marriage that follows is strangely surreal and very ridiculous, again not expected. none of this film is expected. No one attempts any kind of real accent, apart from varying degrees of English and American (Even a New Yorker accent highlighted in Asia Argento's bizarre performance). No french accenting here. This is a Hollywood film made in France, about, France but only taking the more ridiculous aspects into account.
Marie as a character feels relateable to any 16-year old girl. Bored by most things around her, wanting to indulge in drinking and boys, sneaking out to go to parties at night, one gets the feeling that Coppola is not interested in her real story at all and instead seeks to make a connection between the then and now. For all the ceremony and the different setting, the teenage years seem the same then as it is now. The use of music, the style of editing, the at time-s hand held camerawork all blend together to create this story. If I was a proud Frenchman, I would be furious. As I am not, I was throughly pleased by it, something I am suprised about. One thing I would agree with most critics of this film is that the ending seems very rushed. We are never too clear what part Marie is playing in the downfall of French society and yet she is blamed for everything. We see her escaping Versailles but this is all we get. No cards explaining what happened next even, just the credits. While the film was foucsed on a specific aspect of her life, it would have been nice to have some sort of closure.
Kirsten Dunst can do this sort of role in her sleep. She's beautiful, can be childlike, and seems like a bit of a twat. All it needs to be. Jason Schwartzman is forgettable, never does anything with his role but it feels like he needs to be a bit of a blank. Rip Torn is funny in his brief role of Louis XIV, Asia Argento is bizarre, and Steve Coogan is Steve Coogan. Nice, eccentric casting is always something I respect.
I feel sorry for Sofia Coppola. All 3 of her films have dealt with very similar themes, of girls feeling isolated. This, I would argue is her strongest film to date. The film is throughly entertaining, funny and gorgeous to look at. And yet while lost In Translation is seen as one of the best films of 2004, Marie-Antoinette looks like it will be forgotten about very quickly. That is a real shame and I hope Coppola doesn't change her track because of the negative reaction.

Video: Clean transfer, perfectly good, no noticeable faults seen.

Audio: Disappointing, Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. For a film with such an interesting use of soundtrack, it is sad that this is not as involving as I would like. OK use of surround for the music but no noticeable directional effects and no discernable use of bass at all. Sad.

Extras: Haven't seen them. Just wanted to get the review out.

OK, that's it. Back in the next couple of days with a review of Mike Judge's direct-to-DVD (over here) cult-in-the-making comedy Idiocracy. Also hopefully 300.