Marie Antoinette : The third feature of Sofia Coppola (Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation) and I had high hopes, being a fan of LIT. Kirsten Dunst, appearing again for Coppola after her role as the eldest sister in the Virgin Suicides, does well enough with the role given to her, as Marie, although in truth, the period tracked in the film (from her wedding to immediately prior to her incarceration and ultimate beheading) is hardly the most compelling, story wise. What the story does demonstrate is the enormously absurd ritual that surrounded the royal family in Versailles in the fifteenth century and how dislocated they were from the people they were required to rule. Not so dissimilarly to Borat (below), they wouldn’t know a common person if they fell over one in the palace garden.
The colour and costume and palatial wealth is captured in this film but neither Dunst, nor Jason Schwartzman as her husband, King Louis, can quite save an otherwise bland script. This is a pity because some of the best rendered images on screen are the food (cake gets a knowing glance at least twice) which look anything but bland.
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