Susan Hated Literature

Dir and Writ: Sofia Coppola

• Kirsten Dunst - Marie-Antoinette
• Marianne Faithfull - Maria Teresa
• Steve Coogan - Ambassador Mercy
• Jason Schwartzman - Louis XVI
• Rip Torn - Louis XV
• Asia Argento - Madame du Barry
• Shirley Henderson - Aunt Sophie

I really wasn’t expecting much from this film, so I suppose in a way it wasn’t a disappointment, but it didn’t even meet my low expectations. From the trailers I had guess it would be a very pretty but superficial-pretending-to-be-deep portrayal of Marie Antoinette. Well I certainly got the prettiness right, because everything looks great. But it doesn’t work, because everything looks like a model-shoot rather than a scene in a film. I also got the superficial bit right too, everything here is on the surface. Marie Antoinette is lonely, she doesn’t know anyone in Versailles, and they are all mean to her. Years pass. She has no kids because the king is a blunderer and doesn’t know what to do. All the court blames her, and Marie Antoinette is unhappy. But not to worry, her elder brother shows up and explains and badda-bing, we have a child. But she still isn’t happy and so spends more time and money on parties and shoes and pretty gowns. Fair enough, that’s all well and good, but there is no progression whatsoever in this film.

I thought Kirsten Dunst did a fairly decent job at making Marie Antoinette believable and somewhat sympathetic, but she starts the film as a silly girl, and ends the film as silly girl. There is no character development, hell, if it wasn’t for the fact that I know some historical facts I wouldn’t even have got any sense of plot from what went on.

Boring. Flat. Pretentious drivel. And with the historical inaccuracies; her dog was a Schitzu called Schnitzy, and she was allowed to keep it. Wikipedia tells me so, and everyone knows Wikipedia never lies.

But lots of prettiness.

IMDb | Oggs’ Movie Thoughts | PopMatters | Joe Blade | Confessions of a Film Critic

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