Marie Antoinette Review

 

Directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman the 2006 film Marie Antoinette details the life of a young king and queen who were thrusted to power after the former king died. This film did so many things well and the final result is a great movie, it details the good the bad and the ugly. It shows the life of a young women in a world where women were used but not really appreciated fully. The film also does a great job of showing a steady downfall of a king and queen in power. 

One aspect of this movie that made it great was the camera work. The picture above shows Marie Antoinette arriving to versailles, it gives us a shot of her reaction as well as all the on lookers reactions. We see some disproval reactions, blank faces and smiles. This shot was also followed by POV shots of her walking down a line of what seemed to be endless people. As a viewer it I was able to see and feel the excitement but also the pressure Marie would be under.  Another common camera shot that was used was a long range view of different locations.

This was a shot from the scene when Marie was leaving Versailles after what was a terrible reign as queen. It made the scene feel bleak and almost dead which was the exact emotion Marie would be feeling and what we as viewers were feeling.

This film also did a really good job of foreshadowing in pretty sneaky ways. Looking back at the scene where she enters Versailles when we get the POV shot of her entering the palace, at the start of her walk people seemed very happy and excited for a new queen. As she gets closer people faces change, they are nervous or almost angry looking. In a way this outlines her time as queen, people loved her at the start but as she got reckless approval went down.

Overall, this film was really great and surprised me in many ways. The way we as viewers were able to feel compassion for a young woman in a tough position but slowly understand she was not doing a good job was a wild ride. I loved the complexity of camera shots and overall creativity. This film was great and I would highly recommend.