I just watched the film and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I think what surprised me most about it was the general lack of plot. The film is almost entirely shots of Antoinette hanging around Versailles and throwing parties. That's not necessarily a bad thing but the film does seem to lag in certain points and, at times, lack direction. There are some sequences that were stunning, especially Antoinette's 18th birthday party, however the film goes up and down in terms of quality: some scenes are brilliant whereas others don't make any impact at all. It's certainly gorgeous to look at, Milena Canonero's costumes, the photography and production design are all breathtaking and I loved the use of modern music (one scene where Coppola uses The Strokes is particularly effective). The performances were good throughout even though the decision to use the actor's real accents was a little jarring at first: After all the King of France speaking in a thick American accent is anything but normal. The performances that I enjoyed the most were the smaller ones from Judy Davis, Molly Shannon and Shirley Henderson.
Overall, I enjoyed the film but I couldn't wholly embrace it. I found it hard to understand the point of it all: what's Coppola trying to say here: That the French nobility were like a bunch of high school kids? What's the point of making a film about it? That was my main peeve, other than that I did enjoy it. I'll probably need to think this over again before I really know how I feel about it but the more I do the more I like it...
No comments:
Post a Comment