Marie Antoinette (2006 film)

Marie Antoinette
Directed by	Sofia Coppola
Produced by	Sofia Coppola Ross Katz Francis Ford Coppola
Written by	Antonia Fraser (book) Sofia Coppola
Starring	Kirsten Dunst Jason Schwartzman Judy Davis Rip Torn Rose Byrne Asia Argento Marianne Faithfull Molly Shannon Steve Coogan
Cinematography	Lance Acord
Editing by	Sarah Flack
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	France May 24, 2006  United States October 20, 2006  United Kingdom October 20, 2006
Running time	123 min
Country	United States
Language	English, some French
Budget	$40,000,000
Gross revenue	$75,000,000 (Worldwide)

Marie Antoinette is a 2006 American historical biographical film written and directed by Sofia Coppola about the life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France in the years leading up to the French Revolution. It won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Soundtrack 5 Response 6 Box office 7 Nominations and awards 8 Inaccuracies 9 DVD release 10 References 11 External links

Plot

Maria Antonia Josepha Joanna (Kirsten Dunst), affectionately known as Antoine, is the naïve, 14-year-old and youngest daughter of Austria's empress Maria Theresa. She is selected by her mother to marry her second cousin, the Dauphin of France, Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), and seal an alliance between the two rival countries. On a small island in the middle of the Rhine, a symbolic crossing-over ceremony takes place. Per tradition, the soon-to-be Dauphine must relinquish anything belonging to the foreign court from which she comes; this includes not only all her clothing and personal effects, but also her friends, ladies-in-waiting, and even her dog. Emerging from out of a tent onto the French side of the river, Maria Antonia becomes the Dauphine Marie Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette soon meets Louis XV (Rip Torn),and his grandson, her soon-to-be husband – the Dauphin and his aunts Aunt Victoire (Molly Shannon) and Aunt Sophie (Shirley Henderson). After very little time spent getting used to her new surroundings, Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin Louis are officially married. Toasts are drunk to their happy marriage and they are encouraged to produce an heir as soon as possible. That night, after the consecration of their marriage bed, the royal household leaves, waiting in anticipation. The next day it is reported to the King that 'nothing happened'.

As if an increasingly fruitless marriage weren't problematic enough, Marie Antoinette is finding Versailles to be very different from Vienna. Courtly life at Versailles is stifling for the Dauphine, who is never without an unwanted entourage of servants and noblewomen who neither know nor care for her. The courtiers at Versailles disdain Marie as a foreigner – an Austrian, no less – and consistently blame her for not having produced an heir.

The Court in France is rife with gossip. The King's mistress, Madame du Barry (Asia Argento), is the least liked among the ladies at court, particularly because it is known that she was not previously allowed at court until King Louis made her a comtesse to make her appear "respectable" to her royal counterparts.Marie Antoinette is encouraged by Aunt Victoire and Aunt Sophie not talk to her. Rumor also has it that Marie Antoinette has no love whatsoever for her husband; she is looked upon by many as a cold and distant Austrian, even though she is portrayed as being warm and affectionate to those around her. Marie Antoinette ruffles more feathers by defying the high formality of the French court. She accompanies her husband and his friends on hunting excursions, passing out food to them and occasionally to the animals, claps at the opera, and often snubs other members of the aristocracy and royal family. She receives a letter from her mother, Maria Theresa (Marianne Faithfull), the Holy Roman Empress, warning her that an unconsummated marriage is easily annulled and encouraging her to inspire the Dauphin to sexual fervour. That night, Marie Antoinette attempts to seduce her husband but her advances are rebuffed.

Time passes in the same fashion and Marie Antoinette's mother continues to write to her giving advice on how to impress and seduce the Dauphin; also telling her to stop snubbing Madame du Barry as this is akin to criticizing the King's behavior. The Court continues to snipe at Madame du Barry, criticizing her fashion and her behavior, demeaning her as a harlot whose title was bought for her by the King. Marie Antoinette finally condescends to speak to Madame du Barry, remarking at a reception that, "There are a lot of people at Versailles today." As she leaves with her husband, the Dauphine remarks that those would be the last words she would ever say to du Barry.

Marie Antoinette finally finds a handful of confidantes and begins to adjust to her new life. She finds solace in buying lavish gowns and shoes, eating elaborate cakes and pastries (produced for the film by Ladurée), and gambling with her ladies. One night, she sneaks out with her husband and friends to attend a masked ball where they continue in their frivolity.

After Louis XV passes away, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are crowned as the rulers of France. Before being crowned, Louis XVI knelt down on one knee and asked for God's help because he knew he and Marie Antoinette were too young to reign.

While the growing poverty and unrest among the French working class, Marie Antoinette continues her spending spree and remains indifferent. The new King is young and inexperienced and begins spending more money on foreign wars, sending France even further into debt.

Marie Antoinette's brother Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (Danny Huston) comes to visit, counseling her against her constant parties and associations and though she fails to heed his advice. Joseph then meets the King at the Royal Zoo and (in the presence of an African elephant using its trunk to play with the King's buttons) explains to him the "mechanics" of sexual intercourse in terms of "key-making" – as one of the King's favorite hobbies is making keys. That night, the King and Marie Antoinette make love for the first time. On December 18, 1778, the young queen gives birth to a girl, Marie Thérèse. Although she would prefer to breastfeed the child herself, this is not socially acceptable. The baby princess grows older and Marie Antoinette spends much of her time at the Petit Trianon, her own private sanctuary on the grounds of Versailles. It is also at this time that Marie Antoinette is shown entering into an affair with Count Axel von Fersen (Jamie Dornan), which is only alleged in history.

France continues to subsidize the American Revolution, despite the enormous expense. Food shortages grow more frequent, as do riots in Paris. Marie Antoinette's image with her subjects has completely deteriorated at this point. Her luxurious lifestyle and apparent callous indifference to the common people result in unflattering and obscene political cartoons and earn her the title "Queen of Debt". The Queen is now a mother and has begun to mature. She focuses less on her obligations as a socialite and more on her family, and tones down her opulent lifestyle, including a decision to stop purchasing diamonds. A few months after her mother's death in November 1780, Marie Antoinette gives birth to a baby boy, Louis-Joseph, the new Dauphin. Next she gives birth to a second boy who dies.

The French Revolution comes into full fruition and an angry mob begins a march from Paris to Versailles. As most of the nobility flees the country, the royal family resolves to stay. The rioting sans-culottes reach the palace and the King and Queen are forced to leave the following morning. The film ends with the royal family's departure from Versailles. The last image of the movie is a shot of the Queen's bedroom, destroyed.

Cast

• Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette
• Jason Schwartzman as King Louis XVI
• Judy Davis as Comtesse de Noailles
• Rip Torn as King Louis XV
• Rose Byrne as Duchesse de Polignac
• Asia Argento as Comtesse du Barry
• Molly Shannon as Aunt Victoire
• Shirley Henderson as Aunt Sophie
• Danny Huston as Emperor Joseph II
• Marianne Faithfull as Maria Theresa
• Mary Nighy as Princesse de Lamballe
• Sebastian Armesto as Louis, comte de Provence
• Jamie Dornan as Count Fersen
• Aurore Clément as Duchesse de Char
• Guillaume Gallienne as Comte de Vergennes
• James Lance as Léonard
• Al Weaver as Comte d'Artois
• Tom Hardy as Raumont
• Steve Coogan as Ambassador Mercy

Production

The production was given unprecedented access to the Palace of Versailles^[1]. The movie takes the same sympathetic view of Marie Antoinette's life as was presented in Fraser's biography.

While the action happens in Versailles (including the Queen's Petit Trianon and the petit hameau) and the Paris Opera (which was built after the death of the real Marie Antoinette), some scenes were also shot in Vaux-le-Vicomte, Chateau de Chantilly and Hôtel de Soubise.

Milena Canonero and six assistant designers created the gowns, hats, suits and prop costume pieces. Ten rental houses were also employed, and the wardrobe unit had seven transport drivers. Shoes were made by Manolo Blahnik and Pompei, and hundreds of wigs and hair pieces were made by Rocchetti & Rocchetti. The look of Count von Fersen was influenced by 1980's rock stars such as Adam Ant. Ladurée made the pastries for the film; its famous macarons are featured in a scene between Marie-Antoinette and Ambassador Mercy.^[2]

Soundtrack

Main article: Marie Antoinette (soundtrack)

The film's anachronistic soundtrack contains New Wave and post-punk bands New Order, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bow Wow Wow, Adam and the Ants, The Strokes, Aphex Twin, Dustin O’Halloran, and The Radio Dept. Some scenes utilize period music by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Antonio Vivaldi, and François Couperin.

Response

In several 2006 interviews, Coppola suggests that her highly stylized interpretation is very modern in order to humanize the historical figures involved. She has taken great artistic liberties with the source material and the film does not focus simply on historical facts – "It is not a lesson of history. It is an interpretation documented, but carried by my desire for covering the subject differently." Perhaps because of this unusual approach, the film was booed at early screenings at the Cannes Film Festival.

People magazine's movie critic, Leah Rozen, wrote in her wrap-up of the Cannes Film Festival that, "The absence of political context, however, upset most critics of Marie-Antoinette, director Sofia Coppola's featherweight follow-up to Lost in Translation. Her historical biopic plays like a pop video, with Kirsten Dunst as the doomed 18th century French queen acting like a teenage flibbertigibbet intent on being the leader of the cool kids' club."^[3]

On the Rotten Tomatoes website, which compiles mostly North American reviews, the film has received an average rating of 6/10. Some 54 percent of reviews were "fresh", meaning generally positive, and 46 percent were "rotten", as of January 2008.^[4]

Box office

In the United States and Canada, the film opened with $5,361,050 in just 859 theaters, with $6,241 per theater.^[5] Nevertheless, the film quickly faded, grossing $15 million in Northern America, and has grossed around $61 million worldwide.^[6] The film made over $7 million in France where the film is set, but fared less well in the United Kindgom where it took only $1,727,858.^[7]

Nominations and awards

Academy Awards record
1. Best Costume Design, Milena Canonero

• Won the Academy Award for Costume Design (Milena Canonero).
• Nominated for three BAFTA awards, for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup & Hair.
• At the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Marie-Antoinette was entry for Official Selection of Golden Palm and won the Cinema Prize of the French National Education System.^[8]
• The film was nominated for Best Feature at the Gotham Awards.^[9]
• Won Best Art Direction at the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards.
• Won Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design at both the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards.

Inaccuracies

The film contains a number of factual errors,^[10], most of them done deliberately by director Sofia Coppola as a way to represent the timelessness of the themes of isolation presented in the movie; a common issue for the director. Among these are the following:

• The palace shown at the beginning of the film after Marie is awakened in her bedroom is neither Hofburg Palace, where she was born, nor Schönbrunn Palace, where she was raised.
• The film opens with a title card: Austria, 1768. In the next scene, Marie is warned by her mother that "all eyes will be on you" as she is then sent away. In fact, Marie had been in training for her role as the Dauphine since 1768. She was married by proxy to the Dauphin on 19 April 1770. They were wed formally at Versailles on 16 May.
• Mercy informs Marie that they have reached Schuttern for the handover. The handover actually took place on an island on the Rhine River near Kehl.
• Marie Antoinette was presented to Louis XV and Louis XVI at Versailles, not after the handover. In fact, the only two members of the court present at the handover were the comte and comtesse de Noailles.
• The scene where Marie, Lamballe and Gabrielle are being fitted for new gowns as they try on shoes, a pair of blue Converse sneakers are visible. Coppola has stated in interviews that the shoes were purposely put in the shot to portray Marie Antoinette as a typical teenage girl.
• The scene of the masked ball was filmed in the Grand foyer and on the Grand escalier of the Palais Garnier, which did not open until 1875.
• Louis and Marie are informed that the comtesse de Provence has delivered. The real Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy, wife of Louis Stanislaus, comte de Provence, was childless. The infant in question, the duc d'Angoulême, was the son of Charles, comte d'Artois, and future husband of Louis and Marie's daughter, Marie-Thérèse.
• Marie and the comte de Provence are shown as being on friendly terms. In fact, de Provence despised Marie, and plotted intrigues against her. She was actually very close to her other brother-in-law, the comte d'Artois.
• The comtesse de Provence is introduced by comtesse de Noailles to Marie as "your sister-in-law". As the film has Marie and Louis marry in 1768, the comtesse would not have as yet met the comte; they married in 1771.
• In the film, Louis and Marie Antoinette have three children. In fact, they had four. A portrait showing the queen with three children is put up, but is taken down after the youngest suddenly dies. A second son, Louis-Charles (1785-1795) was born four years after Louis Joseph. The fourth child not shown in the film was Sophie Hélène Béatrix (1786-1787), who died shortly before her first birthday.
• The flowering tea Marie Antoinette prepares during her brother's visit (which she says was sent by the Qianlong Emperor of China). Blossoming teas were not created until the 20th century.
• The scene of Marie being introduced to Gabrielle by Lamballe at the opera is fiction. Marie did not meet Gabrielle until she was presented at court in 1775.
• Gabrielle is introduced as the duchesse de Polignac. She was styled duchesse de Polignac in 1780.
• Gabrielle was married and had children, and was appointed by Marie governess of her children, but the movie ignores this.
• Vergennes is shown advising the king and queen to leave Versailles after the fall of the Bastille. Vergennes died two years before the Bastille fell.
• Louis XVI was crowned at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Reims, not at Versailles.

DVD release

The Region 1 DVD version of the movie was released on February 13, 2007. Special features on the disc include a "making of" featurette, two deleted scenes and a brief parody segment of MTV Cribs featuring Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI of France. The Region 2 DVD version, including the same special features, was released February 26, 2007. No commentary is available for the DVD. In France, the double-disc edition included additional special features: Sofia Coppola's first short movie Lick the Star and a BBC documentary film on Marie Antoinette. A collector boxset, Coffret Royal, was also released in France and included the double-disc edition of the movie, Antonia Fraser's biography, photographs and a fan. The Japanese edition was released on July 19. This two disc edition includes the same extra features as the North American release though it also includes the American, European and Japanese theatrical trailers and Japanese TV spots. A limited edition special Japanese boxed set contains the two disc DVD set, a jewellery box, a Swarovski high-heeled shoe brooch, a hand mirror, and a lace handkerchief.

References

External links

• Marie Antoinette at the Internet Movie Database
• Official trailer at Sony Pictures
• Translated interview with Sofia Coppola
• 'Marie Antoinette': Best or Worst of Times? - The New York Times Cannes Journal
• Rotten Tomatoes entry for Marie Antoinette
• Screencaps

Films written and directed by Sofia Coppola Lick the Star (1998, short) • The Virgin Suicides (1999) • Lost in Translation (2003) • Marie Antoinette (2006)