Amanda: Marie Antoinette

Written and directed by the great Sofia Coppola (winner of two Oscars for the brilliant, Lost in Transalation), Marie Antoinette spans the life of Maria Teresa’s youngest daughter from her betrothal to Louis XVI through her reign as queen of France. Assigning Coppola to this movie and allowing her to adapt the script from the historical book written a few years prior meant that there would be many twists and modifications to a typical film about history.

Throughout the film Coppola exhibits her great talent of allowing her audience to feel time moving without actually detaching them from the film. Her film technique is not to simply entertain but to connect the viewers and the characters in the film, and never rush through it. Each moment is deliberate and meant to be felt, but not to drag on or distract viewers. This method paired with the cinematography overall was amazing, and each and every shot in the film could have been a beautiful photograph on its own.

Another large aspect of this movie was the great soundtrack. Modern indie-rock music is combined with a film about the royalty in the 1800’s. This allows modern viewers to have a more personal, relatable relationship with the life of Marie Antoinette and provides the perfect clash between the world of the viewer and the subject. These factors set the overall tone of Coppola’s vision for the film, making it possible for the story of the individual woman, Marie Antoinette to be told, not the story of the queen of France.

Initially when I watched the film for the first time I was a bit let down by the ending, but after re-watching it and letting it process I’ve come to realize that it was the perfect way to conclude the story. The ending of the film did exactly what Coppola intended it to; it left me feeling let down, misguided and sympathetic to the looming fate that was to come of young Marie. The film’s focus on her careless lifestyle at the court in Versailles does not excuse or praise her actions, it boldly displays her lavish lifestyle as treason to her people, all the while humanizing her. In the same instant she is portrayed as an irresponsible, foolish ruler and a young girl who rejects the plans her parents have set out for her life. We receive an insider’s view on what her life was really like up until the immortal words “Let them eat cake” provoked the actions of the French revolution.