<p>Anyone else see it? I confess, I love Coppola’s style–but I am a visual nutter so maybe that explains it.</p>
<p>I thought Dunst was good but could have been better. Not a believable 14 year old for one thing.</p>
<p>I wasn’t impressed with Louis XV but I loved the overall effect–even with the wacky sound track.</p>
<p>I love anything in costumes, and thought the costumes worth about 30 minutes. But overall, I thought it boring and it didn’t have to be. The Swedish intrique, the swirling tides outside of the palace, the source of the King’s (and Queen’s wealth), the relationship between nobles and peasants, all in the context of Marie Antoinette, could have made for a great movie. But it wasn’t.</p>
<p>I liked the scenery</p>
<p>Kirsten Dunst was a lot more believable as a 14 year old than Norma Shearer!</p>
<p>Definitely more style than substance.</p>
<p>The problem I had with it was that it tried too hard to be an intense, realistic biopic WHILE being a fun, rock and roll in the past, type deal, if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>(not a parent btw, just browsing)</p>
<p>I was so looking forward to this movie, as I love Versailles and any costume drama, and I like Kirsten Dunst too. I did like the movie, but it was rather weird. My college-age D went with me; she didn’t like it. </p>
<p>The costumes are wonderful. After thinking about it for quite a while, I really don’t think Dunst had the star power to carry this off. She looks lovely, but you don’t really connect with her emotionally.</p>
<p>My 15 year old daughter and I went–we were so anxious for it to come to our small town and were disappointed that it ended up being more style than substance. It was very stylish and visually entertaining–loved the music as well. The Swedish angle could have been explored in greater depth and the ending was so abrupt. I think having read Fraser’s book made it harder to enjoy the film for what it was.</p>
<p>I’ve had numerous holday conversation about this movie and ‘The Queen’. Coppolla is not interested in making historical documentaries. She is interested in producing artful commentary about life in the 21st century.</p>
<p>In this movie, she may have been making a statement about the dangers of under-educating beautiful young girls. Maire Antoinette was the youngest of 15 children and historians have suggested she did not receive the proper training from her (exhausted) mother–despite being sent into the most important of political marriages. </p>
<p>Perhaps the underedcuation of young girls–or the promotion of frivolity as a way of life–is a sore point with Coppola. That wouldn’t be new territory for her. She parodied Carmeron Diaz as the Valley Girl buffoon in LIT.</p>
<p>In any event, there are modern day comparisons to the woefully undereducated and unintellectual Marie Antoinette --Paris Hilton and – Princess Di to name two.</p>
<p>Marie was astonishingly incapable–even in the bedroom! Her older brother had to come and sort out her sex life–after SEVEN years of sharing a bed. It’s hard to imagine a young woman could be so incapable, frankly. </p>
<p>Perhaps Coppola deliberately focused the movie on the indulgent life Maire lived and the exclusion of any political or intellectual life–and she meant for viewers to draw comparisons to modern life in the US ( MTV’s ‘Sweet Sixteen’ comes to mind).</p>
<p>I thought the overwhelming emphasis on shoes and clothes was also a direct line of criticism on modern female preoccupations.</p>
<p>cheers:</p>
<p>My understanding was that Marie Antoinette was well prepared for her role as queen by her ambitious mother–and that did not include educating her according to our modern notions. As far as her being incomptent in the bedroom, it was expected of brides that they be totally ignorant of the facts of reproduction. I was taught that it was Louis XVI who had to be told what to do–in Latin–when it became evident he had failed to do his duty. Remember that getting up in the morning and getting into bed were very public functions. He was supposed to be the knowledgeable one, but he, too was very young when he married. His roue grandfather, Louis XV, had apparently neglected that side of his education.</p>
<p>Cheers, after reading your comments on the Coppola film I’m curious to know what you thought of ‘The Queen’?</p>
<p>I saw The Queen yesterday and I LOVED it. The audience just seemed spellbound to me. The whole theater was filled, many older people there. I didn’t see anyone under 35. To me, it shows that there is a sizable movie audience desperate for intelligent movies.</p>
<p>Helen Mirren was wonderful.</p>