Marie Antoinette, The Verdict

No beheading.  No limb from limb tearing.  Except at Cannes, where the film actually got booed.  Ah well, I still loved it. 

Gentry and I arrived half an hour early for the 4:30 pm showing at Forum des Halles yesterday and ended up getting the last good seats in the house. 

As we waited in line, we tried to spot who were Royalists and who were Coppolists.   Gentry was wearing her satin covered Marie Antoinette slippers and jacket with Chantilly lace cuffs and I wore no mascara and my hair was a little pouffy (by accident).  So it was very like seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show in drag. 

I’m going to start with the bad:  Kirsten mopes and sighs and runs down hallways suffocating in angst, and you just don’t care.  Not caring about Marie Antoinette is bad. 

And it didn’t have to be that way.  Sofia Coppola is the queen of young women’s private moments.  See:  the entire film Lost in Translation.  Woman waking up, woman in bathtub with her daydreams, woman just after she has said goodbye to her husband, woman looking longingly out window.  But.  Eh.  We just don’t feel it here.

And I don’t think it can be blamed on Kirsten.  I think it’s the script.

*Ducking*

The good!  The good!  The eye candy, my god.  The adolescent trippy hues, the party scenes, and the score.  Gentry confirmed that all of the costumes were historically accurate (she was kind of hoping it would be more 2006 stylized and spark some new trends) and there was a delightfully high pug quotient.  There was also a great supporting cast.  Molly Shannon and that woman from Bridget Jones were brilliant as gossipy aunts.  And I loooved the slutty, but good-friend-to-Marie, Duchesse de Polignac.  Especially when she visits Marie at Le Petit Trianon and says, “Ooooh, I lahve the country!”

I personally was a huge fan of the cameos by obscure French fashion people.  There were moments in big party scenes where I just turned to Gentry and said, “That's!” and she answered, “Yeah!”

And the beginning of the film is just terrific.  There's a scene where Marie Antoinette is riding from Austria to France to meet her husband and we see the Dauphin playing swords in the crispy fall leaves with his friends and everyone’s all nervous.  The anticipation is sweet and touching and the opening scenes just rock.   

The main complaint I’m hearing in France?  The film is too American.  I really don’t get that.  Are all movies made by Americans too American?  Is Schindler’s List too American?  I think the people who are saying it’s too American just mean that they would have preferred a film about history more than a young woman’s private life.  If that’s the case, you have to blame Sophia Coppola, not America.

And if you’re blaming Sofia Coppola, you can just pack up and leave, just leave right now!

Ha!  Ha!  I kid!

(No but seriously, if you don’t like Sofia Coppola, you aybemay ontday antway to aysay it erehay.  Psst.  Come closer, closer.  The Sofia Lovers will get you in your sleep and tear you limb from limb.)

La la la!  So!

(No, but seriously, they will get you.  You are in grave danger if you don’t leave right now.)

After the film, I had apéro with lovely young Annabel, who has this theory: if you wait for something long enough, you’re going to like it.

I love this because it totally flies against conventional wisdom to not set your expectations too high. 

I also think it’s true.  For me, no amount of bad dialogue could spoil the way Sofia Coppola films light filtering through trees.  Or carriages trotting by at sunrise.  The way she observes these things, quietly, from afar with no music, and you can just sort of smell dewy grass. 

Comments

[Sedulia]

Ihay atehay Ophiasay Oppolacay.

Especially that girl in "Lost in Translation." I kept wanting to slap her. (Hey, I'm French.) Maybe I'd have liked the movie if I'd heard it with the sound off.

I like YOUR writing, though.

[Elizabeth]

well thank god for the "delightfully high pug quotient" I now know the film will not disappoint.

And, as you are well aware, Sophia Coppola could scrape her name in the dirt with a stick and I would sigh with love.

[Medina]

I am not surprised...the movie was cruising for a booing. What'd I tell you about period pieces with rock soundtracks, Coquette?! The soundtrack is your cue to avoid the movie...at all costs.

I don't know, when I saw the preview, I also thought it was very "American". Save for the ridiculous continental accent, there's a certain look, feel, identity that's associated with our films. You see the difference when you watch an authentic French movie. This movie was laden with those 'cultural cues' (quite naturally/understandably, in fact).

This is just what people do. They put their own spin on the works they produce. Think...Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, for example...or ANY movie about Ancient Egypt (wtf?!). It's not surprising that the French issue would take issue with that.

[piu piu]

sophia coppola is the most 'artsy' (read=not very) of commercial american cinema, which is probably why she gets so much of a ribbing from the french

[Scarlet]

I love Sofia C.! I like your review, too. I'll definitely check this one out if only to see how she directed it and the cinematography.

[R J Keefe]

Thanks for the preview!

I love Kirsten Dunst, but I'm still trying to recover from the awful makeup/photo shown in a recent Go Fug Yourself entry. She's much prettier than Marie-Antoinette, and probably sweeter, too. My favorite MA is Joely Richardson in "The Affair of the Necklace."

[chester]

I tried looking it up so I wouldn't seem like a monoglot American, but what, exactly, is an "apéro"? From what I can tell, it's basically an apéritif, but specifically an apéritif of the bitters variety.

Which brings up the question: is an apéritif an apéritif simply because of its pre-meal timing or because it's a particular style of alcohol? And do digestifs actually have to aid digestion or are they "digestifs" so long as they are consumed after a meal?

And, finally, what if one were to drink an apéro after dinner? Or after, like, a movie, not within chronological vicinity of a meal at all?

Oh, and what sort of snacks are served in French movie theaters?

Okay, that's it for the questions.

[Claire]

I still can't wait to see it. Thank you for contravening cinema regulations to bring us that snap - that's dedication. As Elizabeth says if Sofia scraped her name in the dirt it would be beautifully shot with a great soundtrack and we'd all be somehow captivated but not know exactly why.

[Claire]

I didn't even realise it was BP Elizabeth until now. hi!

[paradise]

i'm not a huge fan of sophia coppola's movies but i like her as a person, even though i don't really know her, so ultimately, i try to like her work....try.

[sunny]

I am reading the MA book Sophia based the movie on. Um...because I got so excited about the movie I HAD to occupy my time until it hits NYC!

But my point is this: Kirsten Dunst is EXACTLY the MA character. Petulant, haughty, immature, self absorbed. So much so that you feel sorry for her, because she is SO sheltered...It fits perfectly--I can't think of a better american actress for this part. (And I've read the book!)

[Coquette]

RJ, I agree that Rochas dress wasn't her best, but it was far from a fiasco. So much more interesting than all of the Amanda Peets and Jessica Albas who are just trying to look pretty. Kirsten is up to something bigger. And that's how you can sometimes end up with something really orignal, right? (Okay, the hair and makeup were weird, but it was a nod to the way the runway models were styled. Someone probably made her do it.)

[Coquette]

Chester, Apéro is (or has become?) what people say for "having a drink." It's shorter than the alternative, "prendre un verre."

I rarely drink real pre-dinner aperitifs except at big family meals. Kir sometimes. Or a Ricard...I once read that it's gauche to drink a kir outside of an eating context, but this doesn't seem to be true. I order them at cafes/bars all the time. (When I'm not eating.) It's just white wine with some fruit flavored liquer.

French people hardly eat at movies. The smaller theaters only have a vending machine and an ice cream cooler. But Gentry and I were at a big theater with all the candy selections and popcorn like you would see in the US. We ordered popcorn and noticed the curious existance of Kit Kat balls served "frais." This means chilled. We remain intrigued.

[cassi]

hey coquette,

i think sofia is with "f" not "ph"... right? otherwise, i have a photo of her that i took in cannes & i will send it to you! i love her also... & you should see "volver," the new almodovar. it's phenomenal & penelope cruz is as well. also check out the short films on sofiamini.com. she is absolutely adorable. and oh so stylish. x, cassi

[cassi]

oooh, & one more thing. if you want to see the interviews & photo calls @ cannes go to:

festival-cannes.fr/

marie antoinette is on the 24th!

cassi xx

[The Bold Soul]

I'm looking forward to seeing this film when it gets to my neighborhood so I appreciated your review. However -- now calm down -- I was bored to tears by Lost in Translation and couldn't even finish watching it, which really disappointed me since I like Bill Murray and had heard such good things about the movie (and this is before Sophia snagged the Oscar, too).

I did appreciate your friend's point about "if you wait for something long enough you're going to like it" - that's exactly how I feel having now seen The DaVinci Code, which despite the fact it wasn't perfect or spectacular and they changed things they really didn't need to change, I still was glad I saw it and will certainly see it again when it's out in DVD.

[cassi]

okay, sorry for the 3rd comment but it needs to be said. marie antoinette is NOT, in fact, a typically "american" film. it is a film directed by an american with (mostly) american actors. the problem i have is when people make that out to be a bad thing. i wouldn't reference a spanish film in this way or brazilian film this way, etc. etc. even if they were shot by spanish or brazilian directors with spanish/brazilian actors. when people want to complain about "american" commercial cinema, what they MEAN to complain about, or what they should complain about is a film being oh so very "Hollywood." and NOTHING sofia coppola directs could be described as commercially "Hollywood". why? because it is not formulaic, or if it could be describes as following a certain formula it is most certainly one that sofia created herself. also--i would be happy to reference a handful of french "hollywood-type" productions (yes, yes, commercial formulaic shit really does exist here in france as well...they're not all perfectly artistic new wave endeavors. not. at. all!) to illustrate this point. commercial does not always mean america, just as commercial certainly does not exclude france. & medina, you most certainly do have the right to your opinion, but it's got to be said that coppola's last 2 film soundtracks were best-selling chart toppers & i have no reason to believe that this one will be any different. also, the "booing" happened by CRITICS @ cannes. the very same critics gave the very same reaction to the divinci code which had the 2nd highest grossing opening weekend of any film ever. so the critics don't always reflect popular opinion. and lastly, i don't think coppola's choice to use a continental accent is ridiculous. what IS ridiculous is if she chose to make her actors pretend they had a posh british accent as WE ALL KNOW m.a. wasn't neither american nor british! she wasn't speaking english at all! but in interviews sofia addresses this by saying that she wanted to make a film about this women, she wanted to modernize it (hence the accent, hence the music, even the champagne) so it was relatable. she also points out that she wouldn't have been comfortable directing the film in french. she doesn't speak french. because she doesn't speak french does this mean that she shouldn't be allowed to direct a film about a non-english speaker? of course not. she took artistic liberties with the character because it is a fictional film. a creative fictional film. art. subjective. creative. = non formulaic. what is crazy is to think that there is "a way" or a formula to create a period film. that is one of the most proposterous things ever imagineable.

i guess it is needless to say that i really loved the film.

cbm xx

[eurobrat]

I wish you were a film critic! Thanks for the review- I'm dying to see it although KD is too whiny (loved her in Interview with a Vampire, but that's about it). Although perhaps that is perfect for the role of Antoinette?

Sofia Coppola is definitely a talented director- I cannot wait to see the cinematography which you have praised.

I'm very excited that the costumes are historically accurate (costume freak)- but also glad that there are more modern touches... Merde! It doesn't come out in this barren region of the planet until October.

[tania, rogue connect]

Fantastic and entertaining review ;) Despite the booing, I'm still looking forward to it for the costumes and sets!

[c]

I hadn't paid much attention to this film (eep Sophia, I won't comment...) but now I've got to see it. You really should be offered a gig as a film critic.

[GdP]

I totally hate you because I can't stop singing: "Have I told you lately you're a pug dog/kitty?"

[Trudy C]

Coquette, In one of your early entries from way back when, you were bemoaning the fact that one downside of living in Paris was that movie releases lagged behind the U.S. Well, you should feel somewhat vindicated to know that you are way ahead of us in seeing Marie Antoinette. Thanks for the advance heads up!

[Neil]

If any movies have become "too American" lately, it is French movies. Quai des Orfèvres? A Very Long Engagement?

[French Toast]

I just love Sofia, and I can't wait to see "Marie-Antoinette". Actually, I only saw "Lost in Translation", but it was so, like, mmm… I don't know how to phrase it ! "Right on" I guess would be what I mean. So, I'm sure M.A cannot be so bad. Merci pour cette critique en avant-première !

[am*]

I scratched a comment yesterday and I'm glad I did, as the rest here have said it all better than I could have. needless to say, your review is wonderful and intelligent and witty. perfect. art (of which I hope film would aspire to) is subjective and if anything at all should be a rule it should instill contemplation. Ms. Coppola (and I must admit I have loved every one of her offerings) does contemplation to brilliant effect. Contemplation isn't everyone's bag - and when people said they were bored by Lost In Translation, I took that into consideration. Sofia wanted to make a fictional movie based on a real character that we can all only get close to by approximation. thank goodness she attempts such explorations - being enveloped into such wistful worlds is a pleasure.

do I really have to wait until Fall for this to hit LA? If this was an American Hollywood type film, that just wouldn't be the case.

[April]

Great review! I can't wait to watch this, primarily because it's Coppola, and not because it's Dunst. I think I'm over her. Bah. But maybe this movie will be the inspiration for my Halloween costume??? :)

[Jed]

did she say "let them eat cake" in the movie? LOL

[seb]

I saw MA yesterday and I loved it, sofia made again a great movie (include costume and casting, kirsten Dunst is naturally beautiful).
And coquette, I think is very french to say this movie is to American for American. It's like this when someone touch a tipacally french subject, something is always wrong...
Sofia coppola made a movie on adolescent life, it is a big part of MA's life, and this movie is funny, lively, intense (to my mind).
Apéro after a movie is a good idea, and apéro (whenever) is also a very good idea.

[stinkerbell]

I totally want to see it now. Just for the hell of it :)
will see how long the wait will last as I am waiting on a friend!

[Noire Dire]

Well, I have to say, this movie seems to have successfully seduced its target market - judging by the comments posted thus far.

Sofia seems to have a built-in market. I never even saw it coming. Whoa...

[Noire Dire]

Well, I have to say, this movie seems to have successfully seduced its target market - judging by the comments posted thus far.

Sofia seems to have a built-in market. I never even saw it coming. Whoa...

[les]

I saw this movie because you blogged how excited you were about it.

Oh my god, it was terrible! boring boring boring. You know that scene where they're having a summer party under a tent at her village escape and they're talking about the Marriage of Figaro and one woman talks about how much she likes it but another guy says it went on for too long. I thought at that moment, "yeah, but Figaro is good and this is crap." If the characters are talking about dramatic presentations going on too long, the script writer is just rubbing your nose in the fact that you haven't just walked out yet.

I stayed thinking I would at least feel some emotional satisfaction when they chopped her head off. But, no they didn't even give me that. They gave me nothing.

And really I hated the score. Even the crowd noises sounded boring and contrived. I could do a better sound track.

God, it was dull.

[Lindy B]

I can't wait to see this movie. I've liked both The Virgin Suicides and Lost In Translation. I hope I will like this one, if not for the costuming and set alone!

[King Negrito]

Well to be clear : that's the best movie I have seen in months.

[Noire Dire]

King Negrito: That would depend...How many movies have you actually seen in months?

Btw, you've got the cutest little nose and scarf!

[Noire Dire]

I, on the other hand, look forward to the release of Indigènes. Jamel Debbouze is such a firecracker and the film itself is sure to be absolutely amazing and timely...

[Alyson Wilson]

I have been dreaming about seeing MA since I caught my first glimpse of its bubble-gum hues and rocked-out soundtrack on the trailer... but, after reading your marvelous review, I fear I will wait for it to come out on video. It sounds too self indulgent for me to bear at this moment. Sofia has the luxury of being able to put together almost any project she desires. She abuses this privelege when she chooses stories with puny plots even if they have gorgeous hair and gorgeous Kiki and gorgeous music... OK, fine... I'll see it. But I'm going to a matinee.
-Alyson, thisnext.com/blog

[Serena]

I consider eye candy reason enough to see a movie.

[chester]

Wait...so if "apéro" is short for "prendre un verre" then I guess it eliminates the need for a verb, which means it's a verb itself, non?

In which case...does it get conjugated?

Anyway...I'm kind of dismayed to read that the French don't really eat at movies. I guess that's more sophisticated and cinéaste and all that, but I was hoping that, if I ever were to go watch a movie in France, I would be able to enjoy it with a hot palette of escargots or something. At least a wheel of camembert and a baguette.

And I just looked up Kit Kat balls. Apparently they're, literally, "Kit Kat Balls". A form-factor variation that's sold outside of the U.S. I feel as cheated as I am intrigued.

[Asian Lep]

Oh why do you torment me with Rocky Horror refs. My dvd player is broken and I need me some Tim Curry...

[fin]

I can't wait to see it.

[KRiSTOPHER DUKES]

Ooh la love. Maybe I'll wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it with the sound off... It DOES look gorgeous.

[Carolg@PB]

Well I walked out after a brief dodo...I lOVED her other movies but eye candy ain't enough for moi! HELL no character, no story, no acting..just a lot of prancing around pretty in pink. Total sugar overkill. Like who really cares if Ladurée did all the macarons? Sophia, how could you do this to us?
$$$ will win out malheursement :(

[richard crawford]

The best review is by THE BOLD SOUL. MOST people who see Marie Antoinette don't really SEE the movie.....sofia coppola is the most interesting creature in movies today.

[richard crawford]

The best review is by THE BOLD SOUL. MOST people who see Marie Antoinette don't really SEE the movie.....sofia coppola is the most interesting creature in movies today. SHOULD HAVE SAID: Most people who hate Marie Antoinette DO NOT SEE THE MOVIE.
Their heads are SO busy thinking....that they think they are using their heads and loving that process.....however, out of NOTHING COMES NOTHING. Western minds want density, complexity...they think THAT equates excellence. Sometimes one note is a symphony...the instinctual is primitive and romantic. Repetition. All of life is repetition.

[Coquette]

That's brilliant Richard.

[richard crawford]

tried to post, but havin' a bit of trouble.

[richard crawford]

Went to see the PRADA movie and did not like. Chuckled on the way out....thinking "Sofia could have made a good movie out it....not that she would touch the material." AW the editor of American Vogue evidently has asked Sofia to edit the October 2006 issue of the magazine for the American release date of MA, Oct. 20th. In that will be hints of her next project.....besides the baby. I hope.

[Coquette]

I heard about the editing project (which she has already done for French Vogue December 2004...I bought two copies!) but the baby I did not know!

[richard crawford]

Bought one copy of French Vogue December 2004. Now wish i had bought 8. am slouching still: love, love, LOVE your site.

It is difficult to lose a Poppa. My sympathy.