Marie Antoinette (2006)
I’ve never been a Sofia Coppola fan. I don’t like indie movies that feel ad-libbed and captured by a college pal’s camera. However, after seeing the beautiful costumes and professional-looking footage in the preview of Marie Antoinette, I decided to give her one more chance. I’ve learned my lesson, and it’s been 20 years. The upside: Marie Antoinette is beautiful to watch. The costumes come out of every little girl’s princess dreams, and our favorite teen heroine gets to prance around in them! Kirsten Dunst is inherently likable, and she looks more beautiful than ever in her updos and pastel makeup palette.
The downside: the script, acting, and music. Once again, Sofia managed to create a movie that felt ad-libbed. The actors seemed to have been told a basic concept of the scene (like, “you’re getting a bunch of new clothes”) and then without any character development or knowledge of the time period, they started talking. Money was tight, so the first take was kept. Sofia and her musical director must have forgotten that they were creating a movie set in the 1700s. Rock songs from the 1980s and 1990s were used to underscore scenes – what were they thinking? I’m relatively confident in betting my life that people in the Antoinette time period didn’t say, “Oh, wow!” or “Oo, cool!” Those were just unforgivable ad-libs by the actors (unless they were unaware the camera was rolling – which was quite possible) and even more unforgivable of the director and editor to leave those words in the final cut.
Unless you’re a huge Sofia fan or you love mixing modern details into historical settings, don’t bother with this movie. Stick with the 1938 masterpiece instead. It actually tells the story of Marie Antoinette, instead of filming a bunch of young ladies in fancy gowns as they act like high schoolers from 2006. This film was a gigantic waste of beautiful sets and costumes.
More Kirsten Dunst movies here!
Be sure and check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 1938's Marie Antoinette here!
The downside: the script, acting, and music. Once again, Sofia managed to create a movie that felt ad-libbed. The actors seemed to have been told a basic concept of the scene (like, “you’re getting a bunch of new clothes”) and then without any character development or knowledge of the time period, they started talking. Money was tight, so the first take was kept. Sofia and her musical director must have forgotten that they were creating a movie set in the 1700s. Rock songs from the 1980s and 1990s were used to underscore scenes – what were they thinking? I’m relatively confident in betting my life that people in the Antoinette time period didn’t say, “Oh, wow!” or “Oo, cool!” Those were just unforgivable ad-libs by the actors (unless they were unaware the camera was rolling – which was quite possible) and even more unforgivable of the director and editor to leave those words in the final cut.
Unless you’re a huge Sofia fan or you love mixing modern details into historical settings, don’t bother with this movie. Stick with the 1938 masterpiece instead. It actually tells the story of Marie Antoinette, instead of filming a bunch of young ladies in fancy gowns as they act like high schoolers from 2006. This film was a gigantic waste of beautiful sets and costumes.
More Kirsten Dunst movies here!
Be sure and check out Hot Toasty Rag's review of 1938's Marie Antoinette here!