Amanda Vance

I chose 'Marie Antoinette' revolutionary by Bruce Kirkland of the Toronto Sun. He rates the film as 3.5 / 5 stars. I agree with this review and rating, but I do have some different opinions.

I have two different views of this movie. From a historical standpoint I found the movie somewhat unimpressive and lacking. You don’t see a lot of how Marie and Louis “cause” the French Revolution, but perhaps that is Sofia Copolla’s point. They didn’t see it much either. They ignored what was happening in France in order to pursue their own comforts and pleasures as privileged royals. You can see that their youth was detrimental to their decision making and made them rely on councilors and advisors. Unfortunately it was what they were born with. Some other things were the Converse shoes in the one scene – quirky, but bizarre – and the other out of place elements of the movie, such as the music.

On the movie as a whole I agree with Kirkland, it is a mixed production, but I think the movie was done rather well. The one big issue was the music. The 80’s “punk” music picked up the somewhat slow plot at times, but sometimes the music just didn’t fit in any way.

The ending, however, was disappointing to me both historically and as entertainment. Sure most of us know she got captured and had her head sliced off via guillotine, but I thought that the ending was rather abrupt. Maybe Kirkland wanted to see her head cut off, but I for one would have been content with just a more fulfilling and interesting ending.