Don’t go see Marie Antoinette expecting to learn much about the French Revolution. Sophia Coppola’s first film since Lost in Translation isn’t about politics. It’s more about femininity, na’veté and indulgence: a visually stunning journey about a girl growing up, albeit under extraordinary circumstances.
The film covers the period in Marie Antoinette’s (Kirstin Dunst) life from when, at the age of 14, her mother arranges for her to move from Vienna to Versailles and marry future King Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) to several years later, when an angry mob drives her out of Versailles.
Coppola rejects several biopic conventions, making for an exhilarating ride. Anachronisms abound in the form of an eclectic soundtrack of modern alternative rock and ’80s post-punk, and there’s even modern vocabulary (i.e. “eww”) thrown into the mix.
Marie Antoinette takes a largely sympathetic look at the woman’s life, lived under a microscope. Almost all of the scenes take place in the cocoon of Versailles. Even though the film’s focus isn’t on Marie’s fall from public favor, the scenes that do portray it seem hastily tacked on and not severe enough to warrant the mob that eventually descends.
The fresh-faced Dunst is well-suited for her role, conveying an innocence that makes it more difficult to despise party girl Marie in all of her gluttony. Schwartzman does a good job presenting the king as a na’ve and awkward ruler, but it sometimes seems like he’s still Max Fischer from Rushmore parading around as a king.
Marie Antoinette is relatively sparse on dialogue, especially between Antoinette and her husband. We hear lots of gossip from the royal court, and most of the dialogue is superficial chatter, making the film more of an inside look at Antoinette’s environment than character.
Ultimately, Marie Antoinette makes up visually what it lacks in substance, as Coppola has her cake and eats it too.