Whenever I see a trailer or a summary of a biopic my eyes just seem to naturally glaze over. I think it's the worst 'genre' of movies out there and almost every movie I see that attempts to portray the life of a famous individual it succumbs to hero-worshiping, or worse, becoming a play by play of their greatest hits. But how wonderful is it that we have a movie that refuses to play by those rules? Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette is one of the most underrated movies since the turn of the century and I think it deserves a larger audience, especially here on reddit.
When I say Marie Antoinette is a modern biography I don’t mean it in the sense that the story is updated to modern times, I mean it in the sense that the movie is presented in a way that makes it easier for modern audiences to empathize with the characters and the situations at hand. I think the fact that this movie is called Marie Antoinette has very little bearing on what it achieves or even what it sets out to accomplish. Her story is famous; it’s probably one of the most well-known stories that would fit into the narrative framework that Coppola decided to tell. But this movie isn’t concerned with the pretenses of a historical biopic, and that’s made clear from the very first moments of Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not in It” playing over a credit sequence with bright pink font. It’s not going to play nicely within the confines of it’s trappings, it’s going to break free and carve its own path. It feels bold, personal, and very, very confident.
In terms of aesthetics alone, this demands your attention. The pastel colours, the portrait-like framing, the outlandish and bizarre costumes and hairstyles, and then, most of all, the soundtrack. The music selections are so great at creating the specific tone, but I think they’re perfect simply for pushing the story and the characters toward modernity and making everything more relatable. The stuffiness of historical movies is always a problem for me with regards to connecting with the characters; they all act and talk like no one I’ve ever encountered. Marie Antoinette on the other hand feels fresh and lively, the characters young and relatable. They party and dance, they gossip, they hook-up; basically whatever young people do who have free time and money on their hands.
While Coppola creates a world with relatable characters, it’s clear that she empathizes with Antoinette in a very personal way. Antoinette’s hopes and dreams, her fears and anxieties are palpable, and it brings her character into a whole new light. She’s easy to criticize, certainly, but easy to understand as well. She’s a living breathing person, and while I may not approve of her lifestyle or the choices she made along the way, I understand her. Isn’t that what every biopic should strive for?
When the movie ends with a sunrise reflected on the pools of Versailles, we don’t get any word titles explaining what happens next. The world outside Versailles may well not have existed at all, based on what we have seen. It may feel like an incomplete portrait on a first glance, but as I mentioned above, I understand the person. The details of a life that tend to linger and stay with me are not in the events that occurred, but in the moments behind the curtain that help to understand and explain.
Forget the 6.4 on IMDb. I feel like this is a movie that has aged extraordinarily well.
Submitted September 06, 2017 at 07:47AM by skbrown98 http://ift.tt/2gH9yym
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