Movie Review: Marie-Antoinette

I saw this movie a day or so after it premiered. It wasn't on wide released which surprised me and told me something right away... the powers that be didn't have much faith inthe movie's success on these shores. It premiered in France in May and it got mixed reviews and a chilly reception at Cannes. So I guess they just wanted to release it, get as much money as possible and then quietly take it off the theaters. It has been a bit over a month and it has already been taken off the theaters that are near me. What a crying shame. I just hope that the DVD gives us (fan of the movie) a lot of extras.
I have even opened up a MySpace account (www.myspace.com/ marieantoinettereine). I have found another site on MySpace that is also dedicated to the movie so I hope that people who haven't heard of the movie will be interesting in finding out more... thus the main reason for this review.

I understand that it doesn't conform to the rules of biographies nor historical accuracies that the elite starchy people want to see. I agree that Ms. Coppola perhaps went a little overboard with her depiction of the Grande Dame, I agree that they should have tried to make the movie a bit more realistic, however I know that this is a movie that is going to be studied in the next ten years or so... why do I say that? simple because it is an exercise in cinema. It stretches the conventions of movie making. It was an experiment that in my opinion paid off perhaps not big but it might in the future.

In my opinion the historical innacuracies, even though perhaps annoying, really do not deter the most entrepreneurial and curious among people. People will know of the controversy or else they will know that perhaps not all of the story is there and search for the real story... so the movie becomes a catalyst for knowledge seeking. Not everyone is stupid and people give movie audiences not enough credit. People who want to know more, will pick up a book or go online to learn more. Sometimes it takes movies and entertainment and perhaps some controversy to get people interested in things... it happens.