DVD Review – Marie Antoinette

 (Dir: Sofia Coppola, 12, Running Time; 118 mins approx)

This film is amazing and that is not even in the slightest because of Kirsten Dunst’s partial nudity. Let’s be clear, this film won’t radically increase your understanding of the French Revolution; at least not the social forces and political intrigues that set the scene for one of histories most dramatic episodes.  Dunst’s Antoinette is a feckless teenager who has far too much disposable income. She behaves pretty much as any other teenager would in her position and indeed out of it, except she has the resources to fulfil her wildest desire with the flick of her wrist. Parental power is diminished by vast distance – wild parties, excessive drinking, gambling, shopping, eating, sex (but not with her husband) become the norm in this dazzling star’s life. It has to be said that, given the importance of sex (or in the early stages, the lack of it) to the narrative it is a minor miracle this made it to our screens as a 12. 

By contrast, Louis is a bore; his obsession for locks and keys extends to bedtime reading on the subject and his daytime passion is the hunt. Put simply, he is completely frigid and, although the French court and her mother blame Antoinette for failing to ‘inspire’ her husband, it is he who lacks any kind of passion for his wife. If there is anywhere you feel sympathy for Antoinette it is perhaps here; she tries but is only given coldness in return for her warmth. However, anybody could be forgiven a little performance anxiety if they woke up to be dressed by the entire court every day.  Antoinette was always isolated from the court due to her foreign lineage and towards the end of the film is as reviled by her peers as she is by her people. She struggled to exert any meaningful influence over the King and court life as a whole, due in part to her own lack of interest in political intrigue and in part to the hostility and manoeuvres of those at Versailles hostile to France’s alliance with Austria. Something of this isolation spills over into the film with snide comments about Louis coldness to his new wife being down to her being an Austrian spy ‘not making things warm in the bedroom’. No mention is however made of Louis own Austrophobia which was said to have been inculcated at an early age. 

Some people will see this film as an attempt to ’rehabilitate’ Antoinette and perhaps generate some sympathy  for her ‘tragedy’ but if that is the aim of the film then it does not succeed. It is based heavily on a sympathetic account of the Queen’s life written by Antonia Fraser and it is easy to see the books influence permeate the film.  However, stress which is placed on Antoinette’s philanthropy and humanity in the book is lost in the film. Overspending on parties left you no money to contribute to charity?? No problem, ‘ask Louis’.  It is only possible to empathise with Dunst’s Antoinette in so far as she appears as a somewhat dizzy, out-of-her-depth teenage girl; Dunst seems much more comfortable playing Antoinette, the vain and dizzy teen queen and this reflects a wider tension in the narrative between making a rock and roll take on the life of a pop princess and a desire to recast Antoinette as the victim of a Shakespearian tragedy of circumstance.  This has the side-effect that Antoinette appears in the film to be as shallow and self-absorbed as her enemies believed her to be. She is not a three dimensional human subject to unfair criticism from her kin and the intense pressure generated by the loneliness of being forcibly attached to somebody like Louis.  

This film is an amazing ‘history of feeling’ with no overt agenda and, like Antoinette’s life, it as a rollercoaster of sound and colour that will take your breath away. It will certainly appeal to teenage girls to whom it would represent a graphical representation of paradise however if you are looking for something with a bit more depth it is recommended that you read the book before or after watching the film.