16 thots about marie atoniette

1) there is a section, early on, where marie, dressed in white, is about to become the dauphin's wife, she is driven in a blue carriage, to the edge of the woods, a tent is set up half on the border of austria, half on the border of france. her white dress is stripped from her, and she is dressed in the same blue as the carriage. the men waiting for marie are a darker shade, almost indigo, when she egts to versailles, all of the walls are a blue, almost b/w the robins egg of her dress and the indigo of the men, this colour, or this palette of colours, would continue to be a leit motif thru out the film

2) on the border, she is stripped, of clothing, a retinue, her favourite pug, she is no longer austrian, but french, its heartbreaking.

3) steve cogan, as advisor, attempting to keep everything in line, is an amazing performance, wise, amused, and the only one on the court who is not obsessed with excess. he also has the ugliest hair.

4) the cast can be divided in two, children of hollywood, indie hipster touchstones (ie steeve coogan, marriane faithful, molly shanon, rip torn, judy davis vs Jason Scharwtzman (Sofia's Cousin), asia argento (darios daughter), danny huston (johns son), mary nighy (bill's son), io bottoms (sam bottoms daughter)
exceptions: some of the french cast, kristen dunst (who has been in the hollywood scene for a decade, at 24)...this, i think, is the strongest evidence of the critical view that this is about coppala herself (that and its produced by her father adn her brother was teh 2nd unit director)

5) speaking of kristen dunst, i dont think that i have ever seen a performance this wise from her--i've also been intriuged by her blankness, and her gentleness, i cant describe why i think shes so good, but shes a delight to watch, and somewhere b/w grace kelly and one of hitchcocks blondes, and she has had a huge work history, 54 movies, she could hit 100 by the time shes 30, and a wide variety of modern pix, peroid peices, art films and commerical excesses, plus tv work...in seven years...and the best thing about this role, is her physciality, she comands a camera with her body, operatic, and much like elizabeth taylor in cat on a hot tin roof...

6) the best acting of her, is at the very end, where the mob comes to the palace, and they are waiting, have been waiting in terror for them. she goes to the window, and instead of adresses, pulls her hands across the ballsitrade, and places her head in the middle, soemwhere b/w a deep curtsty, a pilet, and acknowledging her upcoming death at the guillatine, it couldnt have lasted more than 5 seconds, but it was amazing.

7) the last scene, is a trashed bedroom, windows and mirrors smashed, chadilleres felled, walls smashed in, bed linens torn, its a still and it reminds me of the jeff wall photowork The Destroyed Room:


8) i am not sure that the jeff wall is delibrate, but the several qoutes of other art, of the time and place, are very delibrate, several qoutes of David, including a wry mention of his napeolon canvas, and a depeiction of elizabath vigee-bebrun painting, and there is a scene where this painting:
is seen full, and then seen in its present state (its called MA w. 4 children.) one of the things that i remember about the Frase bio, adn one o the things that i think is underwritten about, is LeBrun's presence in the court, the (most sympathetic, ebst painted, most delicate, etc) work, and the only propghanada in favour of our marie is these works, alluding to her presence, was wise. claiming that he politics of le brun and david were basically the same, however slight, was radical

9) speaking of the artifice, which ive sort of mentined thru out, there are two vital musical cues, one that begins the movie, and one that provides a pivot point, both by gang of four, the maoist poppunk group, that is now in fashion for aesthetic rather then poitical reasons, she restores the text from the music, the first contained the line The Problem of Leisure: What to Do for Pleasure and the second was natural not in it. AO Scott wrote about how this was not a superficial movie but a movie about sueprfiicialism, and the movie has two thesese, both contanined in these lyrics--the first is one thatall copola deals with, she makes us feel sorry for the idle rich, what do you do with cash, when you are not entertained (the songs come from an album called THats Entertainment!), or how does one keep oneself occupied when evberything is else is taken care of--it sounds like a ridicoulous problem, the philosophical impliations of at first the petit borgeious, and then (wht are the famous, the elite cultural workers and there hangers on in marxist discourse, when it comes to teh tricky mechanics of class in this new kind of world, ie lsot in translation) and then of course, Marie...and the second, is the question of artifice, and how to live authentically in a world that is (or seems) not to be real, the second question keeps trying to be answered, by shoes and deserts and masked balls and operas adn dancing, and drinking endless champers, and then, she says, i want to be more natural....so she cuts out the seeminly articial excess, she refuses to wear the wigs, starts with white cotton instead of silks/satin, and she has a little fake farm, all of the myths of her playing peasent--and this is the history of high camp, the beginning of slumming, and its easy to mock, but coppala makes it the beginning of decay, the fall of the empire,et al, and deeply tragic...

10) the formal dinners, are amazing, there are a dozen of them, and the best ones, are the ones where jason schartzman and kristen dunst eat alone, except for servants, and these dinners, are used to understand the dynamics b/w the two--the first ones feature dunst fucking up on protocal, (she reaches for a glass, she has been told earlier never to reach out for anything), also, the food, whole towers of asapargus, teacakes, cheese, whole fish on frames so they can stand up, taxideremed pheasents as a centerpeice for real pheasent dinners, et al...

11) food, of course, is nothing without ridicolous deserts, there is a whole section, set to the manic i want candy by bow wow wow where very nice shoes are interposed with very nice cakes, but there are other examples, from the beginning, where she eats bon bons, to her birthday party, waking up, amongst filthy plates, empty bottles, and enough cake to feed everyone, its about let them eat cake, of course, and also about hwo the film is a confection, and confections can be serious, and about how appearances matter more then "real food", and also are shot with such lush overwhelming

12)i wonder how critical the text is towards wealth and class, i assumed it was, but maybe it an apolgetica for the upper classes

13) the show is about the domestic, seems central to this. for a few reasons, the best acting, the best film making, of the movie, happens when the brother of the dauphin has a baby before marie, she flees, from the chattering classes, closes the door, and is aloen for the first time, the room is gilded, the highest in rocococ, and she collapses, weeping, laughing, breaking down, and the camera pans out, she is so small around all of that excess. there are several ebdrioom secens, but little fucking, adn there is discussion, consulation, letters, about her not having a child, and when she does have one it is a daughter, marie atoniette talks about how much she loves that child, and how she knows it is a disppointment for the court, and then when the infant is taken away to be nursed, she wants to nurse her herself, but such thnigs are not done, there are also dozens of people for the birth, and for the first unflowering, and for the rising...the crowds around things that are supposed to be personal, is haunting

14) she ends up having an affair, after she moves outside to her own house, where she lives a life of bohemia, away from the court--of drinking, game playing, sitting around and lsitening to guitar, dancing, etc etc, and it seems so happy, and not a forced spend till things collapse, mania, but genuine joy, and the fucking she does with louis is tennous, short, never really happens, it is an act of great delicate formality...she meets the swede at a masked ball she is not supposed to be at, and she later includes him in her (parodic, shadow, non-herichal, ?) court, and when they eventually have sex, it only happens once or twice, but it features stripping and rolling, and nakedness, and all of this unhibited fucking, wehre the penis in vagina is not an extension of the state, but for its own sake--and she ends up having a son, and its really ambigious who child this son is, she spends so little time in versailles, that it is basically assumed that the dauphin of a france is a bastard, but, like everything else in the movie, everything is half spoken, whispered, allueded to, etc

15) there are 6 long shots, lasting almsot 30 seconds each, throughout the movie, each of these shots are establishing of different moods, so if you cut these segments together, you would see the sun rise, at mid day, set, and then the dark, just as her power was doing all of this...

16) i think the movie is a masterpeice, difficult, beautiful, seductive, brilliantly acted, and smooth, working simletneously, adn without effort. i think she is the only director working today whos status is primalry visual. and i think you should see it