Marie Antoinette
Columbia Pictures presents a film written and directed by: Sofia Cappola
Cast: Kirsten Dunst Louis XVI: Jason Schwartzman
Runtime: 123 min

Director Sophie Cappola has once again chosen loneliness as the theme of her film after her oscar winning script 'Lost in Translation'. Austrian duchess Marie Antoinette is married to Louis XIV of France and the marriage has political reasons. In letter after letter to Marie, her mother queen of Austria writes how important it is for Marie to get pregnant. She warns that unconsummation of marriage would lead to annulment and the subsequent harming of Austrian interests. Marie realizes that she is just a pawn in a bigger game but she is game to it. Only Louis has problems sleeping with his wife for reasons unknown to everyone.

Marie's life is lost in protocol fraught with rituals and manners. From what I see, the French royals must have been one of the laziest people on this earth. Someone to drop clothes over you after someone has just helped you out from, someone to tie your shoes, someone to make your hair, someone to help you with napkins at the table and someone in general for almost everything. There is a scene where we see the heights of protocol bordering on ludicrity. They first take off Marie's clothes after she gets up from sleep, she is standing naked there and it is cold, a fresh dress is given to the chief mistress who is to help Marie with wearing it and just when she is about to do it, someone of higher rank walks in, which means it is she who should dress up Marie now, but it doesn't end there 'cos another one of higher rank comes in, adding to the despair of Marie. What protocol! It must have been very stifling to be born into or to be living in Royal households. It was actually quite disconcerting when I saw people gathered around Louis's bed on their first night but luckily they all leave but not before the King saying"good luck and get to the work now!". Very funny. Kirstin Dunst is probably the best choice to play Marie Antoinette and this is a performance worthy of an oscar. You could sense her loneliness, her suppressed desperation at her husband's disinterest or inability to make love to her. This is probably the only movie where the audience are desperate for the leads to make love. And when they finally did, boy was it a relief! Which basically means that Sofia cappola did a great job of getting us into her world. Kirstin Dunst plays Sofia not with pride but with dignity. After an opera which she feels strongly for, she stands up and claps. One of her mistresses tells her that no one is allowed to clap. 'but it is wonderful, we have to clap', she says and then leads everyone into clapping and the whole auditorium gets up and into clapping. The whole scene is directed in such a way that when they clap, we know they were all waiting forever to really clap. And clap, they do! This is a beautifully directed film done with a lot of detail and love. I clap!

Click here for more articles by Hari Yelleti on IFFI 2006, Goa