Marie Antoinette (2006 film)
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| Marie Antoinette | |
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| Directed by | Sofia Coppola |
| Produced by | Francis Ford Coppola |
| Written by | Sofia Coppola (screenplay) Antonia Fraser (book) |
| Starring | Kirsten Dunst Jason Schwartzman Judy Davis Rip Torn Rose Byrne Asia Argento Marianne Faithfull Molly Shannon Steve Coogan |
| Music by | Air Jean-Philippe Rameau |
| Cinematography | Lance Acord |
| Editing by | Sarah Flack |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Entertainment Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 20, 2006 World Premiere: 24 May 2006 (Cannes Film Festival) |
| Running time | 122 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English, some French |
| Budget | $40,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
Marie Antoinette is a 2006 film written and directed by Sofia Coppola about the life of Marie Antoinette. The film is loosely based on the historical biography Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Lady Antonia Fraser, and ends with the fall of Versailles.
It is the first full-length biopic of Queen Marie Antoinette to be made in the English language since the 1938 Oscar-nominated Hollywood film starring Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power.
- Tagline: Let them eat cake.
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[edit] Plot
Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), a naive, young Archduchess of Austria comes to the Palace of Versailles, to marry the Dauphin of France (Jason Schwartzman). She is immediately immersed in conspiracy and scandal, including a minor conflict with the King Louis XV's (Rip Torn) mistress, Madame du Barry (Asia Argento). Marie Antoinette rebels against the structured and socially isolating atmosphere of Versailles and at the death of the King Louis XV, becomes France's leading fashion icon. The film touches upon Marie's alleged affair with Count Axel von Fersen (Jamie Dornan) as well as the difficulties with Louis XVI to create an heir, but these are presented in a sympathetic manner. It ends on the day the palace is attacked and the royal family are taken back to Paris to face house arrest and, four years later, execution.
[edit] Production
The production crew was given unprecedented access to the Palace of Versailles, where the real Marie Antoinette lived from the time of her marriage in 1770 until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. The movie takes the same sympathetic view of Marie Antoinette's life as was presented in Fraser's biography. An earlier biography of the French queen, written by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig in 1933, was rejected by Coppola for inspiration because she believed it was too hostile and unsympathetic to Marie Antoinette's youth and inexperience.[1]
Although eyebrows were raised at the casting of young American actress Kirsten Dunst in the title role, previously, Dunst has won praise for portraying difficult characters, such as the vampire-child Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (1994), a suicidal suburban teen in her first Coppola collaboration, The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Marion Davies in The Cat's Meow (2001). In a recent interview, Dunst revealed that she felt a powerful sense of empathy with Marie Antoinette—who was exploited by the ambitious courtiers, who sought to use her position for their own advantage.[citation needed]
[edit] Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack contains songs by 1980s New Wave and post-punk bands such as New Order ("Ceremony", "Age of Consent"), The Cure ("All Cats Are Grey", "Plainsong"),Siouxsie and the Banshees"Hong Kong Garden", and Bow Wow Wow ("Fools Rush In", "Aphrodisiac" and "I Want Candy") as well as newer material by The Strokes, Aphex Twin and Radio Dept..
This is unconventional and may prove controversial (as with the unusual technique of the actors using their natural accents rather than French), as historical films are rarely scored with noticeably contemporary music.
In several 2006 interviews, Sofia 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.” .[2] Perhaps because of this unusual approach, the film was booed at early screenings in Cannes [3], and received chilly reviews from the French press. [citation needed] At the opposite extreme of opinion, British historian Lady Antonia Fraser, author of the acclaimed bestselling biography which the film is loosely based upon, proclaimed that the film was "beautiful" in an interview with The Times.
Some scenes, however, utilize Baroque music, principally composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Three of his pieces are in the film:
- Les Indes Galantes - "1st Menuet Pour Les Guirries et les Amazones, 2nd Menuet"
Performed by William Christie & Les Arts Florissants
Courtesy of Harmonia Mundi France (P) 1991
- Castor & Pollux - "Tristes apprêts, pâles flambeaux""
Performed by Agnès Mellon (soporano) with William Christie & Les Arts Florissants
Courtesy of Harmonia Mundi France (P) 1993
- Platée - "Aux languets d'Apollon"
Performed by Carolyn Sampson (soprano) with Jeffrey Skidmore & Ex Cathedra
Courtesy of Hyperion Records, Ltd.
"Les Barricades Mystérieuses", composed by François Couperin, and two numbers from Aphex Twin's drukqs album, "Jynweythek Ylow" and "Avril 14th", are also featured.
[edit] Trailers
An early trailer for the film was unusual in that it lacked dialogue, voiceover or ambient sound it included the song "Age of Consent" by New Order, though the song would not appear in the film or soundtrack. Songs featured for later trailers were the Gang of Four song "Natural's Not In It", "Ceremony" by New Order and "What Ever Happened?" by The Strokes. Subsequent trailers are more conventional and have included dialogue.
[edit] Response
In early reviews the film's loose adherence to the facts and offbeat style has already divided critics. Roger Ebert in his Cannes Log on his website, explained, "But now let’s step back and be fair. Yes, there was booing. But I was present at the screening and would guess not more than five people, maybe 10, booed. Many others applauded. Booing is always shocking to North American critics; I am not sure I have heard booing more than once or twice in all my years at the Toronto, Sundance, Telluride, Chicago, Montreal or New York festivals. In Europe, they boo all the time, sometimes because they think a film is bad, sometimes because it is (according to them) politically incorrect."[4]
Roger Ebert gave the movie a rating of four stars (out of a possible four) in his Chicago Sun-Times column.
People'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."[5]
[edit] Box Office
The film debuted at #6 in the Dutch Boxoffice top ten, grossing over € 35,448 in that week (June 8 - June 14, 2006). In total, the film has grossed over € 183,562 in the Netherlands. [6]
In the USA, the film opened with $5,361,050 in just 859 theaters, with a respectable $6,200 per theater. [1]. However, the film quickly faded, grossing $15 million domestically, and just under $11 million in the rest of the world, for a total just under $26million. Considering its budget and its failure to garner the critical praise that Soffia Coppola's previous Lost in Translation enjoyed, Marie Antoinette is somewhat of a failure.
[edit] Nominations and awards
- 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.[7]
- The film was nominated for "Best Feature" at the Gotham Awards. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ Trivia. IMDB. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
- ^ 1 Marie Antoinette. Newsnetnebraska.org. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
- ^ "Marie-Antoinette" hué par les critiques de cinéma. NouvelObs.com. Retrieved on November 12, 2006.
- ^ Cannes Film Festival. Suntimes. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
- ^ Kirten's Marie Antoinette Fizzles at Cannes. People. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
- ^ BoxOffice Week Editie. Sneakpoint.com. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
- ^ BoxOffice Week Editie. Sneakpoint.com. Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Marie Antoinette at the Internet Movie Database
- Official Trailer
- Translated interview with Sofia Coppola
- CANNES JOURNAL: 'Marie Antoinette': Best or Worst of Times?
- Marie-Antoinette at Rotten Tomatoes
| Sofia Coppola |
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| Lick the Star (1998, short) • The Virgin Suicides (1999) • Lost in Translation (2003) • Marie-Antoinette (2006) |
