Customer Reviews

Marie Antoinette Bilingual

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Marie Antoinette was one of my favourite movies of 2006. Why it got such mixed reviews I will never understand. If you are looking for an historical drama about the events leading up to the French Revolution, you won't find it here. What you find is the story of a young girl hopelessly out of her depth at a foreign court just trying to fit in. So she indulges herself in fashion, food and petty palace intrigues. Marie Antoinette is totally isolated from the world in the royal zoo that is Versailles. She has not interest in the outside world because that is not her job. Her job is to produce an heir for the French throne, and that is it. When the Revolution finally comes, she is understandably bewildered.

The casting of the movie is inspired. While I am not a big fan of Kirsten Dunst, she does a remarkable job in the title role. Rip Torn and Asia Argento are excellent as Louis XV and Madame du Barry. The rest of the cast play their roles well.

I will admit the soundtrack was a bit jarring at first. You don't really expect to hear 80's pop music in a costume drama. But it wasn't used exclusively, and when it was used, it was approptriate such as the rave scene.

This movie is so much fun. I love historical fiction, and this movie does not miss the mark. The costumes, the scenery and the actors are all extremely good. The Movie is well writen and acted. Marie Antoinette was a very young and inocent when she married and made her way as she knew best. Her Husband the king was young and inocent as well and their story is of love and learning. I have watched this movie over and over. What a treat to see.

Excellent interpretation of Marie Antoinette's life. Scenes from Versaille excellent. Love the soundtrack.

As the movie was made at Versailles Palace the settings are fantastic. The costumes also are suberb.

However, the acting is terrible- especially Kristen Dunst's acting. She spoke like a typical american teenager would, not a queen. Jason Swartzman's acting was no better. Actors can only be as good as the script and this script is boring. I can only feel that a European screenplay and actors would have or could have done this story justice.

The movie included very modern music which had no place in the movie. There were no electric guitars in the 18th century!!

The movie also inlcuded very little in the way of political or societal comment. Fewer close ups of pastry tables and more substance would have improved the movie. There was no mention of the grinding poverty of the masses and the hunger that drove them to revoluation. As Marie Antoinette was in the carriage leaving Versailles for the last time, you really don't know why and what may be waiting for her. She could have simply been going for a drive or a visit to a friend.

Marie Antoinette is one of my favourite historical characters and this protrayal was so shallow as to be almost pointless. All that was shown was her extravagance and carefree living at the beginning of her married life as a spoiled youngest daughter of the Austrian Empress, married into the august house of Bourbon, but failed to show the latter mature woman who showed so much courage as she suffered the death of her husband, separation from her children, the false accusations of sexual perversion with her son, before fate swept her along to her beheading.

I was looking forward to seeing this film for months, what with the superb costuming and sets and the alternative music I grew up with and love, but I ended up looking at my clock every ten minuites, yawning and slouching further and further into my seat waiting for it to end. The film will probably appeal to a young audience still interested in the rock and roll excess lifestyle and still not wanting to face reality. It is indeed visually lavish, but even that offends me as it seems to suggest we should also disregard the suffering of the masses and be wastefull and overindulgent. I thought the film would have ended better with Marie's execution, to show the stark contrast between her world and the outside world, and to provide balance and a defined moral to the story. I didn't like Kirsten as Marie, as I thought she doesn't look like her, and I didn't feel I was learning about the historical figure, which I like historical films to do, educate. Kirsten has the physical features more of a fairy than the famous bouffanted french queen. I didn't enjoy the use of rock music either. The film is more of a costume party for us, than a historical story. ALso the dialogue is sometimes hard to hear, and we miss bits, including the last line of the film, spoken by the king.

I don't think a masqued ball would feel like a rave or a rock concert. I don't think people thought just like we do now back then. Things were different, they had very different expectations placed upon them, and different influences. I'm much more interested in real history.

As the movie opens, a marriage has been arranged for 14-year old Maria Antonia (Kirsten Dunst) of Austria and Louis, the Dauphin of France (Jason Schwartzman). She is immediately packed off to the court of Versailles where she is the object of suspicion as a foreigner, and her husband is unable or unwilling to consummate their marriage. Plucky Marie Antoinette manages to quickly adjust to her lavish and pampered lifestyle by indulging in power-shopping and taking a lover. At the age of 19, she is Queen of France, a mother, and totally unaware of the desperate conditions of the poor in Paris.

From the first punk rock tune during the opening credits, I knew this was not going to be a typical historical drama. Indeed, the soundtrack mixes rock songs with a few classical pieces, creating a quirky, surreal atmosphere. If you liked the odd mix of a period story with modern music in the movie "Moulin Rouge," you'll like this one.

On the plus side, it's easy to feel immersed in court life, where all the nobility had to do all day was dress in stunningly gorgeous outfits, gossip about everyone, and see and be seen. The costumes are incredibly opulent and much of the filming was done in and around Versailles, so this is a visual feast, to say the least. I did find it annoying that no mention is ever made of dates and the passage of time (19 years) is vague since the actors don't seem to age. Dunst is horribly miscast as Marie Antoinette. She looks and sounds like a mid-west Girl Scout, using words like, "yeah" and "gonna," and generally looking silly amid the sophisticated surroundings. I give it five stars for the photography and one star for Dunst and the soundtrack, for a score of 3 ***.

When i heard this movie was being made I hoped it would be a great historical picture from her coming to Versailles to the day she died and how she and the royal family got there. Instead it was boring and historicaly not as exciting as I hope. The sets and costums are 100% on! The music doesnt go along witht he movie. If you want a true picture of Marie Antoinette watch the 1930s version. It is WAY more historical to how she lived and what happened to her. I hate this movie and I am pissed off they didnt do it in the right way. Its very upset...she was such an interesting person adn they ruined it by makin this movie so bad and not craeting it in the way it should be.

I understand that Sophi Coppola's vision of Marie Antoinette was meant to appeal to teens, but I suspect it didn't at all. Beautifully and expensively shot, with enough major talent to carry a dramatic story, it simply didn't have one. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen, and soon longed for Marie Antoinette's demise. There was not a single emotionally connecting moment in the entire film. And the mixture of modern rock music with operatic fare was completely disasterous. I know what the director was trying to do, but she failed completely. I suggest she recut the film with more appropriate music ... nah, never mind. It's a bomb.

for a period movie,i felt this was more lite hearted than most.i found
it witty,even funny at times.it movies along at a good pace,and is
never boring.the movie is also virtually very nice to look at.even
though the overall tone of the film is fairly lite,it does treat the
more serious issues with the darker tone the deserve.much of the music
for the movie is contemporary,which might not work for some people,but
i didn't mind it.at first,i didn't care for much of the acting,but the
performances grew on me quickly.Kirtsen Dunst shines in the title
role.Jason Schwartzman is also good.in a what seems a strange casting
choice,Rip Torn also appears in the movie.but Torn makes his character
work.though i thought this movie was exceedingly entertaining,i wish
the ending had been different.it just didn't work for me.many people
may not liker the fact that the movie is done in a lite hearted way,but
that didn't bother me here.if it wasn't for the ending,i would have
given this movie a higher vote.but as it stands,i give Mare Antoinette
a 4/5