Marie Antoinette-Fashionista
Cultural fashions come and
go. Apparently, of late, there has been a resurgence of interest in the life of
Marie Antoinette, late of Austria and Queen of France during the period of the
great French Revolution that began in 1789. Although you would not know that
revolution was in the air from this film since it is very tightly focused on
the alleged trials and tribulations of being a teenager, fodder in the dynastic
politics of the period and unsuccessfully maturing in the late 1700’s. And it
is also a quasi-feminist attempt to bring Marie into the ‘sisterhood’ of modern
feminism. Someone once said that revolutionary periods create conditions where
the old society can no longer rule in the old way (although they sure as hell
try) and produce leaders particularly ill-suited to the tasks of the times. That
is certainly the case here. Ms. Coppola’s attempt to create some retroactive
sympathy for the character of not so sweet Marie simply does not work. Although
Marie probably did not say “Let them eat cake,” off her performance here she
certainly could have.
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