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November 13, 2006
Quick Update/Marie Antoinette
On a post that has since dissapered, I mentioned that the Wordhereders were moving to a new server, so I kust wanted to throw up a quick post here to see how things are working. I'll hopefully have some new posts up soon, but I've been re-tagged with whatever nasty cold or flu is circulating around here. I'm cuddling up with antibiotics, a big bottle of water, and a movie or two tonight, so hopefully I'll be back to normal soon.
I did catch Marie Antoinette (IMDB) this weekend and I think AO Scott's review pretty much gets it right. It would be a little too easy to sneer at the film's depiction of a "story of the silly teenager who embodied a corrupt, absolutist state in its terminal decadence." And, certainly, to condemn the film for its historical innacuracies would be to miss the film's point entirely. That being said, I found myself becoming impatient with the film in places, often finding what could have been decadent fun just a bit tedious (which may also be part of the point). Worth noting: director Sofia Coppola wisely underplays the story's ending, resisting the urge to depict Antoinette's viloent death.
Hoping to have more to say about the film later. I've missed writing movie here, but to be honest, I haven't seen that many movies in the last month or so. Hoping to get back in that habit as well.
Update: Michael's review of Marie Antoinette over at CultureSpace also describes much of what I like about the film and Sofia Coppola's films in general.
Update 2: Cynthia has a much more critical reading of the film, noting the problematic representation of Madame du Barry, King Louis XV’s mistress.
Posted by chuck at November 13, 2006 7:31 PM
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Comments
i think everyone who calls this film brilliant is being way too kind to it, they are describing the film they want it to be and not the film it is. i fully understand what her intentions were, which i must state up front because everyone who likes it is dismissing the haters as merely "missing the point", which is not the case--sofia missed the mark and everyone is acting as if she didn't.
Posted by: cynthia at November 18, 2006 12:55 PM
I'm not ready to call it "briliant" by any means, and in fact I had some of the same reservations you did about the depiction of Madame duBarry. I'm probably over-correcting in writing a semi-positive "review" because I was in a profoundly bad mood when I watched the film and thus worried that I wasn't treating it fairly.
Posted by: Chuck at November 18, 2006 5:18 PM
ha understandable. and i didnt mean you necessarily, just the general tone of those glowing reviews (which are right at about 50% according to rottentomatoes.com, proving the highly polarized reactions to the film) which assume anyone who dislikes the film is too dumb to grasp what she was trying to do. we grasp it. we just dont like it.
Posted by: cynthia at November 18, 2006 7:33 PM