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Showing exclusively for about a week now at the Greenbelt 3 cinemas, Marie Antoinette is Sofia Coppola’s take on the young queen of France. Kirsten Dunst portrays the title role as a beguiling mix of overwhelmed youth and headstrong femininity, and she’s more than ably backed by Jason Schwartzman as the less-than-masculine Louis XVI, Rip Torn as the randier older Louis, and Judy Davis as the strict countess who molds Marie into a fashion icon for the ages.

Here’s what I think: Those expecting a more traditional and thorough look at a queen’s life (think Elizabeth, Mrs. Brown, or the upcoming movie The Queen)will be disappointed. Sofia Coppola flips the bird at the rules of historical drama, and clashes historical account with 70s Brit-punk music and Converse sneakers. Think a less gay Moulin Rouge, and directed with a more tender, insightful hand. The movie casts a sympathetic look at the much vilified queen, but it feels more like a quick glance than a probing look.

If, however, you enjoyed Coppola’s earlier films, then you won’t have a problem with Marie Antoinette. Coppola’s recurring theme is studying pockets of isolation and quiet desperation set in a dissimilar setting. It was adolescence in The Virgin Suicides; and cacophonic Japan in Lost In Translation. This time, Coppola uses the cloying luxury of 18th century France to offer us lovely little scenes of bewilderment and alienation.

I personally found sitting through two hours of punk music and sumptuous silk and taffeta a little bit too much, although I do admire Coppola’s courage to tackle a magnificent, sensitive topic as Marie Antoinette and present it in a completely screwy way. And if anything, it made me grab a copy of Vogue’s September issue to gobble page upon page of Antoinette-inspired gowns designed by John Galliano and Alexander McQueen and wonderfully modeled by Kirsten Dunst herself. If anything, I’ve realized that every budding diva needs a classic one-liner. Marie Antoinette’s was (although misquoted) “let them eat cake!”; Melanie Marquez’s is, among others, “Don’t judge my brother, he is not a book!” I’ve yet to find mine. If you have an idea, let me know. In the meantime, I think I’ll have some cake.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 6:00 am and is filed under Media (Books, CDs, DVDs, Movies). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.