Review: Marie Antoinette

UK Release: 20th October 2006

Director Sofia Coppola’s modernist take on the life of the infamous 18th-century monarch who said “let them eat cake” plays like an extended 1980s pop video.

Although based on Antonia Fraser’s respected biography, hard fact gives way to a stylised portrait of the naive 14-year-old Austrian princess (a coquettish Kirsten Dunst) as she heads to Versailles to marry the shy Dauphin (a blank Jason Schwartzman). The seven years it took before the consummation of her marriage meant navigating ruthless court protocol, manners and diplomacy, and it’s the pressures of privilege that interest Coppola more than any revolutionary incident.

Historical authenticity is undercut further by bursts of anachronistic pop music (including a masked rave to Siouxsie and the Banshees’s Hong Kong Garden). The film is ravishing to look at, thanks to the production team’s unprecedented access to Versailles, but its frothy charm eventually wears thin.

Radio Times rating:

***

UK cinema certificate 12A
Running time 122mins

Review by Alan Jones

News: Jason Schwartzman

Whether appearing as decadent King Louis XVI in his cousin Sophia Coppolla’s latest movie will boost his career is hard to tell. He is, however, in talks to appear in the Wes Anderson-directed feature-length take on Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr Fox, due out sometime next year.

This would mark a welcome re-teaming of the actor and director following their successful partnership on Anderson’s breakout 1998 flick Rushmore. Whether other Anderson favourites Bill Murray and Owen Wilson will also appear is unclear, but The Life Aquatic and The Royal Tennenbaums co-star Angelica Houston is also in talks.