 Marie
Antoinette opens with a song by Gang of Four, one of the ‘80s
most influential bands. The lyric goes:
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
I do love a new purchase
A market of the senses
We all learned the story of Antoinette in school and the comparison between her life of excess and the words of the song is obvious. But Sofia Coppola is far too accomplished an artist to offer an audience such a surface reading of her subject. One clue can be found later in the song, which culminates in this line:
This heaven gives me migraine
Antoinette’s life ended with distress to the head but Coppola is driving at a far subtler point. More than any other contemporary director, Coppola understands that a person is defined not by major and dramatic events, but is built up from little moments and seemingly insignificant occurrences.
Watching the trailer for Marie Antoinette, it’s
easy to get the impression that the film will be an MTV-inspired
romp, replete with a pounding sound track, flashy editing and
snappy dialogue, but that expectation is broken from the moment
the film starts to roll. As with her earlier films, most notably Lost
in Translation,
Coppola offers more contemplation than fireworks.
Marie Antoinette is one of history’s most recognizable and reviled figures. It would be easy to deliver a story that cast Antoinette as a monster, disconnected from reality, obsessed with materialism and barely human in any recognizable sense. Other directors have done just that, but Coppola isn’t interested in taking the easy route. She gives us a portrait of a real person. We see Antoinette in the most intimate of moments, day dreaming, playing with her puppy, feeling the wind on her hand as it dangles out of the window of a carriage. Every effort is made to make Antoinette a relatable person, not a paper doll cut out of some dry textbook.
That isn’t to say that Marie Antoinette is
a complete fictionalization, far from it. The major events of
her life from the age of 14 to 21 are all here. But these are used more
as contextual devices. Marie Antoinette isn’t
a history lesson, it’s an examination of a real person who lived
and breathed and laughed and cried, who was bored and  elated, who was
by turns certain of herself and lost to doubts and fears.
Coppola’s technique is reflected most strongly in her approach to dialogue. Much of the film is scripted as overheard conversations, whispered comments and little asides. The dialogue has a verity to it that makes the characters seem immediate and understandable. Coppola is telling her audience in no uncertain terms that people, no matter how famous and no matter how far removed from our modern world, are still, at the core, just like us. They live the hours and days of their lives just like we do.
In order to accomplish this humanization, Coppola removed the most
obvious barriers typically presented by historic dramas. She
allows the actors to speak in their own voices, free from affected
accents and strained anachronistic language. She employs a carefully
crafted sound design that has the ring of practicality to it.
Voices reflect off of the walls and ambience drifts in through
the windows. In one notable example, we hear birds singing outside
as Antoinette and Louis are married in a massive court ceremony.
Though highly criticized for using a score composed of contemporary
songs, this is actually a stroke of genius. Coppola understands
that pop music makes up the soundtrack of our own lives and
that we easily incorporate it into the emotional fabric of our
self-images. Period music would have lent historic accuracy but
would have sacrificed a direct and immediate sense of connection
with the psychology of the characters.
While the little moments are the crux of the story, they wouldn’t carry the necessary impact if they weren’t presented against a backdrop of the outrageous excesses of Antoinette’s Versailles that we all know from history class. These are made palpable by Coppola’s decision to shoot at the château itself. There’s simply no way to reproduce the grand scale of Versailles, and in a very real sense, Versailles is itself a set on which the drama of the French monarchy was played out. Its photogenic quality is not unexpected. What does come as a surprise is how the massive and formal rooms are humanized by the drama that unfolds within them. It’s a clichéd thing to say, but Versailles really is a character in Coppola’s film.
Of course, none of these techniques would have amounted to anything
had it not been for the stunning performances by the principle
actors. Marie
Antoinette is
ideally cast. Jason Schwartzman delivers a reserved and subtly
comic performance as the daft king Louis XVI, who spends his
time hunting game and making keys. Rip Torn and Asia Argento
are perfectly matched as Louis XV and his royal consort the Comtesse
du Barry. Even the supporting roles carry a great deal of weight, each
offering a unique and memorable contribution to the film. Molly
Shannon in particular is surprisingly enjoyable as a catty aunt.
 Naturally,
the film’s success is keyed most strongly to Kirsten Dunst’s
amazing performance. Marie Antoinette gives
her an excellent platform to display her considerable acting
ability. She transmits the subtlest of emotional states with the simple
lifting of an eyebrow, the curling of a lip or the dropping of
her eyes. Coppola lingers on Dunst, giving the actress time to
think, feel and breath. She lets Dunst look right into the camera
because she knows that Dunst has the ability to see directly
through the lens. Dunst doesn’t need dramatic dialogue to render
her character; she gets everything across with a glance, the
pitch of her shoulders or the glimmer in her eyes. It’s hard to
overstate how accomplished Dunst shows herself to be in this
film and it’s
nearly impossible to imagine any other actress in the role.
Ultimately, what Sofia Coppola delivers is a historic drama that’s
anything but dated. Her message is that just because a person’s
life passes into the mists of time, she’s no less a human being.
We emerge from Marie Antoinette with the feeling that
we know the young queen in the same way we might know a good
friend. At just 37 years of age, Sofia Coppola again shows herself to
be one of the brightest and most promising directors working
today. Marie
Antoinette is arguably the best film of 2006.
 Video Presentation
Marie Antoinette was to be released simultaneously on DVD and Blu-Ray Disc. Unfortunately, the Blu-Ray version was delayed, and looking at the transfer on this DVD may give a clue as to why. There are two problems with it: First of all, the film elements used are not pristine. There are minor flaws throughout, mainly in the form of pinholes in the frames. A sharp eye will also spot some dirt and scratches in some scenes. Second, the transfer itself is overly soft and lacking in adequate saturation. It looks washed out, which is a shame since the movie relies on crisp colors as part of its thematic approach. If this disc had been released five years ago it might have been considered serviceable, but compared to the many flawless transfers released each week these days, it’s decidedly sub-standard.
Audio Presentation
Luckily the audio on this release is much better than the video. The 5.1 tracks in English and dubbed French accurately reproduce the original theatrical sound, with all its subtlety and depth.
Extras
Deleted Scenes – Two snippets of cut footage are offered under the Deleted Scenes menu. Only one of them could be considered a full-fledged scene. The other is just a brief trim. Both are preceded by a text screen on which the director explains why they were removed from the final film.
The Making of Marie Antoinette – Unlike the usual EPK
material that passes as extra content on most discs, this is
a very interesting and watchable piece that includes interviews
with key figures from the cast and crew. Keeping with the Coppola
family dynamic, the making-of featurette was directed by Eleanor
Coppola, Sofia's mother. It has a sort of home movie quality
about it that’s
very satisfying. My only issue with it is that it’s far too brief.
Cribs with Louis XVI – In this amusing segment, directed by Sofia’s brother Roman, Jason Schwartzman leads us on an MTV inspired tour of Château Versailles.
Trailers – The disc includes the original theatrical trailer and teaser for the film as well as a gallery of trailers for six other Sony releases.
 Conclusion
After the success of Lost in Translation, many people wondered if Sofia Coppola could catch lightning in a bottle a second time. Marie Antoinette shows that she can do exactly that. It’s a finely crafted work that firmly places her among the best filmmakers of our time. The only thing that keeps this DVD release from getting our highest rating is the decidedly sub-par video transfer. I can only hope that the delayed Blu-Ray release will remedy that issue and give us a version that accurately reproduces the beautiful colors and crisp images that were evident in the theatrical release.
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