Marie Antoinette
6 September, 2008
I cannot figure out why I like this film so much. It’s pretty, yes. It’s filmed luxuriously and is incredibly well-costumed. The art direction is spectacular and the acting is superb. The editing is quite good, the music and the sound are all exceptional. But it lacks depth. I think. Maybe it only appears to be superficial. I can’t decide. The glossy sheen on it is deliberate, right? I am so confused. Sophia Coppola is either a genius, or a very spoiled girl who gets to play with very expensive toys.
It is the ending, really, that leaves me wondering whether what I just watched was what it seemed. So smart, so abrupt, so very very unexpected. But of course, Sophia knows how to end a film. We know this, from her earlier work. I think she starts from the ending and works back, to be honest. She has an image, something she knows will catch and stick, and builds backwards from it.
I’ve read interviews with the costume designers and shoe designers for the film. The clothes aren’t made with period cloth, and the shoes are made with modern buckles and trimmings.
They were told that the sheen, the sense of modernity and superficial decadence was the goal. I’m pretty sure it was on purpose.
I left that film with the sense that I had just flipped through the prettiest family album ever.