Enter your email Address

ENTROPY
  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Animal Form

      January 22, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Fantasy and Artifice

      January 19, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Tales From the End of the Bus Line: Aging Ungraciously

      January 18, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness by Heather Sweeney

      January 21, 2021

      Review

      Review: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres

      January 18, 2021

      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch

ENTROPY

  • About
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Advertising
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Info on Book Reviews
  • Essays
    • All Introspection
      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      The Animal Form

      January 22, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      On Fantasy and Artifice

      January 19, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Tales From the End of the Bus Line: Aging Ungraciously

      January 18, 2021

      Creative Nonfiction / Essay

      Salt and Sleep

      January 15, 2021

      Introspection

      The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow

      January 2, 2020

      Introspection

      Returning Home with Ross McElwee

      December 13, 2019

      Introspection

      The Birds: In Our Piety

      November 14, 2019

      Introspection

      Variations: Landslide

      June 12, 2019

  • Fiction
    • Fiction

      The Birds: Little Birds

      December 11, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Perdix and a Pear Tree

      December 9, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: A Glimmer of Blue

      November 23, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: Circling for Home

      November 13, 2020

      Fiction

      The Birds: The Guest

      November 9, 2020

  • Reviews
    • All Collaborative Review Video Review
      Review

      Review: Dear Marshall, Language is Our Only Wilderness by Heather Sweeney

      January 21, 2021

      Review

      Review: Shrapnel Maps by Philip Metres

      January 18, 2021

      Review

      Perceived Realities: A Review of M-Theory by Tiffany Cates

      January 14, 2021

      Review

      Review: Danger Days by Catherine Pierce

      January 11, 2021

      Collaborative Review

      Attention to the Real: A Conversation

      September 3, 2020

      Collaborative Review

      A Street Car Named Whatever

      February 22, 2016

      Collaborative Review

      Black Gum: A Conversational Review

      August 7, 2015

      Collaborative Review

      Lords of Waterdeep in Conversation

      February 25, 2015

      Video Review

      Entropy’s Super Mario Level

      September 15, 2015

      Video Review

      Flash Portraits of Link: Part 7 – In Weakness, Find Strength

      January 2, 2015

      Video Review

      Basal Ganglia by Matthew Revert

      March 31, 2014

      Video Review

      The Desert Places by Amber Sparks and Robert Kloss, Illustrated by Matt Kish

      March 21, 2014

  • Small Press
    • Small Press

      Gordon Hill Press

      December 8, 2020

      Small Press

      Evidence House

      November 24, 2020

      Small Press

      death of workers whilst building skyscrapers

      November 10, 2020

      Small Press

      Slate Roof Press

      September 15, 2020

      Small Press

      Ellipsis Press

      September 1, 2020

  • Where to Submit
  • More
    • Poetry
    • Interviews
    • Games
      • All Board Games Video Games
        Creative Nonfiction / Essay

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Games

        Hunt A Killer, Earthbreak, and Empty Faces: Escapism for the Post-Truth Era

        September 21, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Victoriana and Optimism

        December 14, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: Lady of the West

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Session Report: Paperback and Anomia

        July 27, 2019

        Board Games

        Ludic Writing: The Real Leeds Part 12 (Once in a Lifetime)

        November 10, 2018

        Video Games

        How Zelda Saved Me: The Inspiration, Feminism, and Empowerment of Hyrule

        November 2, 2020

        Video Games

        Best of 2019: Video Games

        December 13, 2019

        Video Games

        Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the Spirit of Generosity

        December 31, 2018

        Video Games

        Best of 2018: Video Games

        December 17, 2018

    • Food
    • Small Press Releases
    • Film
    • Music
    • Paranormal
    • Travel
    • Art
    • Graphic Novels
    • Comics
    • Current Events
    • Astrology
    • Random
  • RESOURCES
  • The Accomplices
    • THE ACCOMPLICES
    • Enclave
    • Trumpwatch
FilmReview

Marie Antoinette (2006), Sofia Coppola

written by Emily Collins May 27, 2017

Even into the 21st Century the people of France continue their disdain for their last Queen, Marie Antoinette, more colloquially known as Madame Déficit. When Sofia Coppola’s contemporary rendering of her reign was turned into film and presented at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival it was received with boos and distaste for its elevated depiction of one of France’s most notorious villains. Understandable, a libertine and a squanderer, this sovereign now serves as a symbol of pre-Revolutionary France, class conflict, extreme aristocracy and absolutism. With minimal historical accuracy, Coppola’s Marie is naïve and misguided, thrust into a position of abundant privilege and discontent at the ripe age of fourteen. Following suit with her previous work, The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006) is an acute portrayal of female isolation, loneliness and longing.

Leading us from Austria to France, from peace to revolution, Coppola presents a fun and flirty rendition of a coming of age story baroque-style. Her studded cast is led by Kirsten Dunst in the title role, cousin Jason Schwartzman as King Louis XVI, and Rose Byrne and Steve Coogan in supporting roles. Using modern pop music and marked self-awareness, Coppola inflicts contemporary elements into a very classical framework of the past.

Revolving around the pressure on Marie to produce an heir to the throne, her unconsummated marriage remains as such for many years on account of her stuffy unaffectionate husband. Painfully dull and kind of a brat, he is more enticed by the logistics and history of key making than his young adoring wife. As to be expected in the 18th Century, women were objects of desire, reproductive machines and tools to carry lineage. Exploiting this time and place, Coppola constructs a sympathetic and feminist vision of the queen’s life, humanizing the character and the court.

In moderate pace, Coppola repeats scenes to elapse time and emphasize the redundancy and superfluity of Versailles, and Marie’s burgeoning ennui. Everything and everyone appear too idle and too particular. Growing exasperated with the situation, Marie makes sincere, but failed, attempts to engage and allure Louis. Typical of her on screen performances, Dunst brings sincerity and tenderness to her role and subsequently to the throne. We feel her vulnerability in brief nude glimpses, sexual rejections, and perplexed and precarious expressions. Not to mention, the creepiness of being awakened every morning by a parade of courtly women encircling her bed to… wait for it… dress her.

The esthetic thrills and frills of the film are as indulgent as the characters themselves. An edgy I Want Candy Remix revs up the montage of Manolo Blahnik shoes and Ladurée macarons while Marie’s clique primps and fusses. The resulting record high beehive is a feat of its own. Coppola raises Marie to a style-icon status, much like herself, making a crinoline and a girdle look both funky and chic. These powdered faces flood parties filled with drinking and decadence, seeking self-gratification into the early morning hours.

Shot in actual Versailles, the exaggeration is not inflated. Just outside these confines lies increasing unrest within the people of France concerning widespread poverty and illness. Both Marie and her husband cannot be bothered with issues of politics or decision-making, and truthfully, neither are suited for such. When brought to her attention, Marie oh-so-selflessly forfeits her ongoing supply of diamonds. Admittedly, her immoderation does not stand out amongst her colleagues and surroundings. Amid the spending and frivolity, Marie is not immune to pain and suffering. First, in her abrupt uprooting, forcing all ties to her former Austrian home to be severed, the harsh Royal French rules imposed on her, and her new evil stepsisters unable to drop her Austrian-ness. Then to the public ridicule and gossip about her sexual shortcomings, and later, the death of her mother and of one of her children.

Marie seeks refuge in a cozy cottage nearby with the daughter she finally bears and a new Swedish lover. Magical and ethereal, Instagram-filtered garden scenes with her little cherub Marie Therese follow. They prance through the gardens and grass in euphoric rococo stature. Though, her separation and loneliness do not subside after childbearing and a lover. She remains trapped as a pawn to her mother and her country, in an effort to retain an Austrian-France alliance. An eternal outcast, Marie never truly fits in and so, was never fully accepted.

Coppola’s themes of teenage alienation and an unusual coming of age echo a semi-autobiographical tone. Along with Dunst, both can easily understand adolescence under pressure and in the spotlight, and gender discrimination, authenticating perspective and sentiment. Sharing light moments of laughter and farce, this satire also looks to the harsh reality of female injustices.

Slightly iconoclastic, Coppola’s interpretation breathes life into the royalty. This highly modernized and stylized portrayal opts for an emotional focal point rather than an epic historical biopic. Making the story her own, Coppola turns elements of melancholy, teen angst and lavish lifestyles into an anti-period-flick on point for irreverent millennials, allowing us to closely align ourselves with Marie and/or other characters. If any of the above doesn’t resonate somehow, then, haven’t we all experienced a debilitating hangover from too much Champagne, experimented sexually and been passed a rolled substance at a party to inhale. And really, how could anyone resent or resist Kirsten Dunst’s sweet dimples and cutesy hairstyles?

 

Marie Antoinette (2006), Sofia Coppola was last modified: May 24th, 2017 by Emily Collins
0 comment
2
Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Emily Collins
Emily Collins

Emily Collins’ work has appeared or is forthcoming The South Carolina Review, Eclectica Magazine, Entropy, The McNeese Review, and others. More work can be found at www.emilycollinswriter.com.

previous post
The Birds: Dream of a Statue
next post
“Silence While Screaming Inside” A review of g.o.a.t.’s Silent Light

You may also like

Session Report: Nemo’s War and the Rise of Victory Point Games (Part 2)

August 9, 2017

Give me your Hand, it’s Dark and I Know the Way: A Review of “Finger: Knuckle: Palm”

July 14, 2014

Proxies: Essays Near Knowing by Brian Blanchfield

July 12, 2016

Gun Show: Sam Cha’s “American Carnage”

October 23, 2018
Facebook Twitter Instagram

Recent Comments

  • Lei Yu wow so beautifully written!

    Review – : once teeth bones coral : by Kimberly Alidio ·  January 18, 2021

  • Lisa S Thank you so much for your kind words and your feedback. I can only hope my story is able to help someone who needs it.

    WOVEN: This isn’t love ·  January 8, 2021

  • Ann Guy Thank you, Josh. And glad you didn’t get tetanus at band camp on that misguided day.

    A Way Back Home ·  December 24, 2020

Featured Columns & Series

  • The Birds
  • Dinnerview
  • WOVEN
  • Variations on a Theme
  • BLACKCACKLE
  • Literacy Narrative
  • COVID-19
  • Mini-Syllabus
  • Their Days Are Numbered
  • On Weather
  • Disarticulations
  • The Waters
  • Session Report series
  • Birdwolf
  • Comics I've Been Geeking Out On
  • Small Press Releases
  • Books I Hate (and Also Some I Like)
  • The Poetics of Spaces
  • Fog or a Cloud
  • Tales From the End of the Bus Line
  • 30 Years of Ghibli
  • Cooking Origin Stories
  • YOU MAKE ME FEEL
  • Ludic Writing
  • Best of 2019
  • The Talking Cure
  • Stars to Stories
  • DRAGONS ARE REAL OR THEY ARE DEAD
  • Foster Care
  • Food and Covid-19
  • LEAKY CULTURE
  • Jem and the Holographic Feminisms
  • D&D with Entropy

Find Us On Facebook

Entropy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

©2014-2020 The Accomplices LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Read our updated Privacy Policy.


Back To Top