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Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is a punk-rock version of history. While teens may enjoy the music, the movie's relatively slow pace might end up turning some of them off. For those of us who remember our history, she does indeed get beheaded, but it doesn't take place during the movie. There are a few scenes in which Marie appears naked (shown from the back or with her arms over her chest), but not in a titillating way, and there's some sexual allusion when a doctor asks Louis whether his body is "responsive." A couple of sex scenes show brief skin, the king's mistress is buxom and breathy, and there are a couple of birth scenes. This is French history, so naturally there's champagne and wine. In one scene, drugs are snorted and -- as is becoming all too usual in PG-13 movies -- there's smoking.
Families can discuss the movie's take on the famous 18th-century queen, presenting her as a raw teenage girl rather than a tyrannical royal. How can you tell that Marie feels isolated in her new court? Why does she get so caught up in shopping and partying? How is her behavior like that of today's teens? How is it different? How would you feel if you were in her position? Is it realistic to expect teenagers to rule a country? How do Marie and Louis XVI come to appreciate each another's limitations and support each another in the face of increasing criticism and -- eventually -- rejection by their subjects? Also, what do you think of the movie's music (which is unusual for a period piece)? Is it jarring or exciting?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
A thoughtful, sometimes-playful retelling of the story of Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola's film focuses on the doomed queen's adolescence. The punkish titles and soundtrack choices (Gang of Four's "Natural's Not in It," Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" and "Fools Rush In") and the luscious color palette (pastelly pinks, pale blues, delicious greens) depict the girl queen as a product of her times, living up to official expectations while also rebelling in whatever small ways she can manage.
In 1768, at age 14, young "Antoine" (Kirsten Dunst) is sent off to France. Leaving behind all she knows in her native Austria (including her beloved pug), Marie is meant to cement "the friendship" between the two nations by marrying the 15-year-old French dauphin, Louis-Auguste, soon to be Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). Her days-long journey from Vienna to Versailles appears as a series of gently allusive, nearly wordless vignettes: Marie in the carriage, playing cards with her ladies in waiting, cuddling her dog, and looking wistfully out the window. Marie is on her way to a future she can't imagine.
When she crosses the border, she's literally stripped of all remnants of her previous life -- her clothes, her dog, her name (Maria Antonia) -- and instructed by the supremely efficient Comtesse de Noailles (Judy Davis). Once over the border, she's introduced to shy Louis-Auguste and his randy father, Louis XV (Rip Torn).
Arriving at her new home, Marie soon learns that royals get to do whatever they want, as long as they perform certain public duties. The king has a voluptuous mistress, Madame Du Barry (Asia Argento), whom gossipers call a "harlot" and whose own husband maintains his distance from her. And while Marie and Louis present a facade of marriage at dances and official functions, at night, he's too shy and uncomfortable to consummate the union.
Marie is ever aware that it's her "job" to entice the king into sex and produce an heir. She's reminded by snickers from her assigned French "aunties" (Shirley Henderson and Molly Shannon), letters from her mother (Marianne Faithfull), and advice from attentive Ambassador Mercy (Steve Coogan). Finally, two years later, Marie's brother Joseph (Danny Huston) arrives to "speak to" Louis in a way that inspires him to get his duty done.
But MARIE ANTOINETTE is less concerned with plot than with context. The film reveals Marie's changing sensibility in gloriously detailed images: her clothing, jewelry, food, shoes, and glances -- at courtiers, companions, and her Swedish "beau," Axel von Fersen (Jamie Dornan). Timid at first, Marie gains confidence and poise, ultimately being crowned queen at 19 (at which point Louis notes, "We are too young to reign"). The changes in her family are rendered in deft strokes -- namely, a short montage showing several Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun paintings of mothers and children, subtracting an infant who dies just before her first birthday.
Increasingly troubled by her "bad press" ("Don't they ever get tired of these stories?" she asks, as wearily as any teenaged celebrity frustrated by the tabloids today), Marie is eventually undone by history. The film alludes only briefly to the French Revolution and the fall of Versailles -- the royals hear that the Bastille has been stormed and face an angry throng outside the palace. Omitting both Louis' and Marie's beheadings (his in 1791, hers in 1793), the movie leaves her looking slightly sad as she departs from the palace. She is, as ever, resigned to her role as the public face of a monarchy bound to fall amid demands for republican government.
Families who enjoy this movie might also like the 1938 Marie Antoinette (with a very adult Norma Shearer in the role), The Scarlett Empress (starring Marlene Dietrich as Catherine the Great), or the previous Coppola/Dunst collaboration, The Virgin Suicides. For more information on the queen, try Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey, the book Coppola cites as her inspiration.
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Sexual ContentCorsets and dramatically shaped gowns show cleavage; Marie appears naked (from front with arms over chest, from the back) in scenes where others dress her; Marie and Louis XVI appear in bed, worrying about not having sex/producing heirs and then, very briefly, having sex (not graphic); Marie's affair with a soldier appears in a sunny, sweet montage, with kissing, some lovemaking (with brief nudity); the King's mistress appears "sexed up" (ample bosom visible) and in a sexual situation with the king (having fun in bed, contrasted with Marie); references to "bosom," Louis XVI's "unconsummated marriage," the "royal bush," and "harlot." Lots of talk of Marie needing to conceive. |
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ViolenceReferences to offscreen violence: the American Revolutionary War (which France helps fund), and the French Revolution, which takes the form of a "mob" arriving at the palace with pitchforks and hoes; Marie's mother and an infant die offscreen. |
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LanguageSexual slang ("bush," etc.). |
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Social BehaviorIffy, but not atypical for privileged, insulated royals in the 18th century. The royals leave their unseen subjects to suffer poverty (this leads to the revolution); members of the Royal court gossip, sometimes cruelly; card-playing and gambling; adultery; constant partying. |
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CommercialismMarie is very materialistic; she shops constantly for clothes and shoes. |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoDrinking of expensive wine and champagne; in one scene, partiers snort powder; another shows partiers passing a pipe. |
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