You’d think I could simply ignore Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette like any ordinary populist, but, once again, Romancing the Tome steers me to this amusing piece of news. Apparently, the Marie Antoinette Association has blasted Coppola’s film. President Michele Lorin notes, “We’ve spent years trying to convince people that the queen was not just a libertine who told the starving to eat cake. What do you see on the trailer? You see Marie Antoinette eating cake. You see her lying naked on a chaise longue. I fear the film is going to set us back many years.”
No complaints on the egregious 1980s soundtrack? Or Coppola’s diffidence to include Marie’s death? If Marie Antoinette’s most ardent supporters are protesting this film, then heaven help the reactions of a mass audience.
I think the movie looks rather…interesting. I think her goal was to show the early years of Antoinette, when she was this girl suddenly rich and powerful and had no knowledge of how to handle it. She could have made a modern version of this without Antoinette easily – maybe she just wanted fancier costumes?
Lorin might want to actually watch the film… Coppola has M-A say that she would never have said something as stupid as “they don’t have bread, well let them eat cake then…” As for the soundtrack; I thought it was great. I don’t think films should have ost filled with music from the time the action is actually set.
This being said, the film is not very good. Some beautiful photography, but M-A as a sort of queen of pop… give me a break! Can’t complain though: she has been pictured in such a bad light by most french historians for over 200 years that it’s actually refreshing to see another version, however biased it might be.
I am half-way through the book upon which the new movie is supposed to have been based, Antonia Fraser’s “Marie Antoinette, The Journey”. The book reads like a research paper and so far it shows MA in a favorable light. I am looking forward to seeing the movie just for the costumes and the scenery. I have read it was filmed at Versailles. I have also heard the costumes have been simplified. Today I attended a Mass held for MA at St. Denis Basillica. There were lilies on her memorial stone – and one on that of Louis XVI. I was very touched. God bless them both.