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.