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luluxinhapr

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Coppola films solitude like no other, and when that is done using the French teen queen as a metaphor for our society, that is done even more brilliantly. An art film that is an exercise in pop culture.

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Posted sep 15, 2007 3:44 am pt

alichino

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I was surprised by this film. I hadn't expected it to be as good as it was. I had heard that it was set to modern music, had seen the bright pink ads, had seen the previews. All of which pointed to a, dare I say, adolescent approach to...
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I was surprised by this film. I hadn't expected it to be as good as it was. I had heard that it was set to modern music, had seen the bright pink ads, had seen the previews. All of which pointed to a, dare I say, adolescent approach to history.
I was definitely wrong.
This period piece will have a lasting and enduring quality to it because of the very slight modernization playing on behind the scenes. In fact it appears to me that this was to highlight the youth of Antoinette, the frivolity of her youth, and the natural decadence afforded the royalty of France at the end of the monarchy.
Coppola's approach is bordering on genius, because it touches the roots and metaphorically gives the audience a deeper and more relished understanding of the life of the last queen of France. Albeit, this story's accuracy is questionable, but that's not the point.
Dunst shocked me as well. Not since her youthful career has she put so much into a part. We get to see her grow up in a sense over the course of the film, settling into a path and finding focus.
This humanization of Marie Antoinette should do good to lessen the blow of her beheading, and the ugly historical context we've grown to see her in.
The sets are beautiful. The wardrobe amazing. Even the size of the crowds (extras aren't cheap!) are nicely done.
In the end, Sofia Coppola outdid her self.
Hopefully she took the cast and crew out for French Pastries and candy when it wrapped. If She did, I'll give the movie another star!!

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Posted may 17, 2007 11:42 pm pt

mammalazz

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wow I think this was a very cute movie i really enjoyed it i just think the end could have been better i wanted toi see her get her head cut off

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Posted may 3, 2007 7:50 am pt

Gold_Ruby

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Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette? I thought so too. But after seeing this movie, Kirsten Dunst was pretty decent, but I was disappointed at the lack of accent. (Everybody seemed to be either British or French, but the queen is American.)
...
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Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette? I thought so too. But after seeing this movie, Kirsten Dunst was pretty decent, but I was disappointed at the lack of accent. (Everybody seemed to be either British or French, but the queen is American.)

I'm not a big fan of historical movies, The New World was the only one that I like, but Marie Antoinette is a close second. The story moved at the right pace and you could really feel Marie's emotions. Sofia Coppola captured the doomed queen's angst perfectly. I just thought that Marie Antoinette seemed too modern, like she was based on one of Hollywood's starlets.

In the end, I realized that Marie wasn't a bad person, she was just somebody who was forced to grow too fast. She didn't set any limits for herself because nobody taught her too. Her life moved at a fast pace and in the end, she had to pay for it.

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Posted apr 15, 2007 12:43 pm pt

reggie186

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Marie Antoinette is a beautiful movie...there's no denying that. The costumes are especially wonderful, and the soundtrack is phenominal.

The problem is the lack of substance in the story. The movie seems very dull and very long....
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Marie Antoinette is a beautiful movie...there's no denying that. The costumes are especially wonderful, and the soundtrack is phenominal.

The problem is the lack of substance in the story. The movie seems very dull and very long. After the movie ended (the ending is another problem in itself) I was very disappointed in that I didn't feel that I learned anything new about Antoinette.

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Posted feb 25, 2007 7:05 am pt

Seraph67

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Marie Antoinette is the new period piece by rising female director Sofia Coppola. Kirsten Dunst plays the doomed Austrian royalty who marries French prince Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). The movie follows the drastic changes through Marie's life,...
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Marie Antoinette is the new period piece by rising female director Sofia Coppola. Kirsten Dunst plays the doomed Austrian royalty who marries French prince Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). The movie follows the drastic changes through Marie's life, which she seems like she's been glamorized as the old age Paris Hiltion, through he countless spending, eating and gossipping. Dunst does put in a good charming and loving portrayal as Antoinette but in my opinion the show is stolen by Schwartzman's hilarious scene stealing performance as the pathetic Louis XVI. With the addition of new age rock songs don't add much to the effect of the movie and can't compare to other movies who have used the effect before and used it better. The costumes and set designs are very eye popping to look at but after a while it begins to grow tedious. At first, seeing Versailles is breath taking but after seeing it over and over again, it goes quite tiresome. Along with the shoes and food, enough is enough, there was alot of food of course, but I don't need to see it over and over again. It's almost like subliminal advertising to buy more cakes. The first portion of the film is quite good but then in the final hour the film drags on and feels more like two hours longer. The good thing about the movie is that the characters are more human and seem more believable, but then you realize that they didn't have much responsibility and never seemed like they had something like they should had been doing, like... I don't know, how about the Estates General (Which is never ever mentioned at all in the film)? Plus all of sudden, the French Revolution pops out of now where. It mentioned once before hand for a brief moment and then it shows up right out of the blue. The most important historical step in government politics ever, the creation of today's democracy (though not the first, done by Greece but then forgotten) was a result of the French Revolution and yet it has no impact on the movie. Marie Antoinette had a huge impact on history when it came to the Revolution and it's never mentioned until the final two minutes of the film. She says that her infamous quote: "let them eat cake" was nothing but gossip, which seems to be rewriting history. In conclusion, this film had so much potential but it just comes off completely wrong in the end. The story is just terribly constructed. Even though it focusses on Marie's life, it would had been nice to have a few more scenes that illustrated the details of the French Revolution. However, it fails to do so, and it just makes little to no sense of how Sofia Coppola didn't believe it was neccessary to include such a pivotal role as the French Revolution until the end of the film.

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Posted feb 19, 2007 2:43 pm pt

Sandreea

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I really loved this movie!! One word is enough to describe it "beautiful" in every senses.
I must add that Kirsten Dunst is magnific in this movie and once again she proved to us how talented she is

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Posted feb 4, 2007 5:10 am pt

NoOneIsAlone

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Not entirely bad, but I did not think that it was that cool. Still, I found the story interesting, interesting enough for me to make me watch gthe movie over and over again. I really think that Kirsten Dunst was good in his role here, really good...
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Not entirely bad, but I did not think that it was that cool. Still, I found the story interesting, interesting enough for me to make me watch gthe movie over and over again. I really think that Kirsten Dunst was good in his role here, really good movie!

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Posted jan 31, 2007 4:13 am pt

dju010

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So I’m just back from the movie and I really liked it. I mean the big hype before the movie came out was about the historical inaccuracy. Well does it matter? No! I mean what do we really know about Marie Antoinette? We know only a few...
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So I’m just back from the movie and I really liked it. I mean the big hype before the movie came out was about the historical inaccuracy. Well does it matter? No! I mean what do we really know about Marie Antoinette? We know only a few things about her for a fact. For 99% for her live we have nothing, but some facts like when she was born and so on. So why can this film not be at least partly true? Some people wrote books and claim it isn’t – where they there? See, they can’t tell it as well. And who says that the things we know as facts are true as well? We are not.

So this film could be as good as true – it doesn’t matter and certainly can’t be a fact to judge this movie.
Then the film is criticised that not to be in French – how can that be any value point? The documentation you watch about anything is in your language and not in some “accurate� – or do you watch documentation about the Romans in Latin? See!

So let’s get to the movie. Marie has to leave France and really everything and everybody she know and everything she loved. That is a sad fact; still she is excited about everything and lands in Versailles. And yes that’s a bad thing. Her husband is as stupid as he looks like – and hurts her more and more, because everyone blames her for not having sex with him. At this time sex was the only thing people could do for entertainment – the reformation two hundred and fifty years earlier, stated four times sex a week is healthy (to prevent people from doing it more). So no sex is just something so uncommon like an alien.
So poor Marie flees into parties and ignores everything, but she gets her Louis, when he sees her enjoying her life – well and then her brother has the speech. So hilarious – especially because the mic hangs into the picture for like 10 seconds.
Soon Marie flees into her own little world, were she doesn’t need to be strong anymore.

Kirsten Dunst is really great in this movie. About 33% of the movie is focusing on her face and she does a marvellous job. It certainly isn’t easy to be the only main character over two hours always this close shots, but she manages it.
Well most characters are really well played. I already mentioned Louis, a man that was so incompetent as king and even back then everyone knew that even back then. It certainly isn’t that easy to play such a stupid character.

The movie has its strongest moments in the middle of the movie: the parties with the really cool rock sound and then the first time of Marie who has moved out of the big castle. My personal favourite is sure the moment where we see Kirsten Dunst lying there naked, but covered by her fan. I mean you really would like to jump on her right away.
As much party as we see in the first part of the movie so slow the movie is becoming towards the end. We see that sweet Marie Antoinette, fragile, alone, but still enjoying the nature, the peace and the quietness surrounding her. It looks a bit long in some parts, but actually I didn’t mind that.

There’s only one thing I do mind: the movie ends, when the king’s family leaves Versailles towards Paris. I don’t know, but a quick scene where you would see Marie look at the scaffold might have been a way better ending than this, especially considering the great character playing Kirsten Dunst does in here.

The film is provoking, since we never see anything of the really poor people surrounding her (also all the employees), then the music certainly is too, but I loved that sound. I had to laugh when we hear that hard rock playing while the king returns from his coronation. Also the parties, where we don’t hear any classical music but some exciting pop.

When you go to this movie just be aware that you don’t see any documentation, but the attempt of a portrait of a young girl, who dreams and loves everything that brings joy in her life. Yes Marie Antoinette almost looks like a common girl – a thing that might be way more accurate that the opinion of some so called experts.

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Posted jan 6, 2007 8:54 am pt

• [+] Washington Post
  
  100
  Coppola brilliantly conjures the young queen's insular world, in which she was both isolated and claustrophobically scrutinized.

  by Ann Hornaday | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Sun-Times
  
  100
  Kristen Dunst is pitch-perfect in the title role.

  by Roger Ebert | Read Full Review »
• [+] Los Angeles Times
  
  90
  Marie Antoinette gives a wide berth to the conventions of period dramas, especially their time-capsule remove, and instead tries to mainline the singular personal experience of the arch-villainess of French history (and freedom history, for that matter). The result is a startlingly original and beautiful pop reverie that comes very close to being transcendent.

  by Carina Chocano | Read Full Review »
• [+] Philadelphia Inquirer
  
  88
  A gorgeous confection, packed with gargantuan gowns and pornographic displays of pastrystuffs, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette is also a sharp, smart look at the isolation, ennui and supercilious affairs of the rich, famous and famously pampered.

  by Steven Rea | Read Full Review »
• [+] Rolling Stone
  
  88
  With lyrical intelligence and scrappy wit, Coppola creates a luscious world to get lost in. It's a pleasure.

  by Peter Travers | Read Full Review »
• [+] New York Post
  
  88
  Coppola works in weird ways, but the real Versailles was so much weirder.

  by Kyle Smith | Read Full Review »
• [+] Christian Science Monitor
  
  83
  Destined to become this year's love-it-or-hate-it movie. Is it OK to say I merely liked it a lot?

  by Peter Rainer | Read Full Review »
• [+] Entertainment Weekly
  
  83
  Coppola's stranded royal suggests that at heart, Marie Antoinette was just a simple girl who wanted to have fun, and got her head handed to her.

  by Lisa Schwarzbaum | Read Full Review »
• [+] The New York Times
  
  80
  A thoroughly modern confection, blending insouciance and sophistication, heartfelt longing and self-conscious posing with the guileless self-assurance of a great pop song. What to do for pleasure? Go see this movie, for starters.

  by A.O. Scott | Read Full Review »
• [+] Empire
  
  80
  Marie Antoinette is gorgeous, giddy, gilded filmmaking.

  by Ian Freer | Read Full Review »
• [+] Salon.com
  
  80
  Coppola captures the luxe insularity of Marie Antoinette's world in a way that leaves no doubt why the revolution had to happen. The picture's final image is a moment of devastating stillness that wouldn't be out of place in Luchino Visconti's end-of-an-era masterpiece "The Leopard."

  by Stephanie Zacharek | Read Full Review »
• [+] The Hollywood Reporter
  
  80
  In the revisionist Marie Antoinette, writer-director Sofia Coppola and actress Kirsten Dunst take a remote and no doubt misunderstood historical figure, the controversial and often despised Queen of France at the time of the French Revolution, and brings her into sharp focus as a living, breathing human being with flaws, foibles, passions, intelligence and warm affections.

  by Kirk Honeycutt | Read Full Review »
• [+] Austin Chronicle
  
  78
  In casting an all-American Jersey girl and surrounding her with Manolo Blahniks and the Strokes, Coppola draws a connection between her audience (domestically, at least) and the doomed dauphine, who is likewise insulated and distracted from her country's pointless involvement in a disastrous foreign war that is bankrupting its government and starving its people - and all the while she spends, spends, spends.

  by Marrit Ingman | Read Full Review »
• [+] Chicago Tribune
  
  75
  It's true that this sugarcoated romp doesn't take itself, or its source material, particularly seriously, but if you're confident your grasp of European history can withstand the assault of two hours of bubbly entertainment, Marie Antoinette guarantees you a good time.

  by Jessica Reaves | Read Full Review »
• [+] Premiere
  
  75
  Marie Antoinette churns a symphony out of a single note, too light and hermetically sealed in the minds of Coppola and her queen to transcend its artfully cared-for fluffiness.

  by Aaron Hillis | Read Full Review »