Fraser's Re-telling

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If you want to read a well-written article that indirectly tells you what's profoundly unsatisfying about Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette (Columbia, 10.20), read this Vogue/Style.com piece by the respected writer and journalism professor Kennedy Fraser.

It's been edited down from a longer version that appears in the pages on the September issue of Vogue, and I can't imagine that Fraser would be very happy with it. It's 21 paragraphs long -- two introductory graphs about Coppola and her thoughts about what she focused in the film, and then, dropping all pretense of being any kind of behind-the-curtain piece, it turns into a mini-biography of the Austrian queen (Kirsten Dunst).

Here's the thing: graphs #3 through #15 cover the story told in the film, the fourteenth graph tells what most likely happened when an angry crowd stormed the Versailles palace in 1789 (Fraser and Coppola differ significantly in their respctive tellings), and the last five graphs cover Antoninette's life from late 1789 until her death by guillotine in October 1793.

Read the piece (or better yet, read this Wikipedia biography) and tell me the last four years of Marie-Antoinette's life weren't far more intriguing than the previous 33. Coppola's film ignores '89 to '93, of course. She brings her film to a close just as things are starting to get interesting.

The odd part is that Fraser's piece doesn't mention that Coppola's fillm focuses on the earlier, fluffier, less character-defining aspects of her life -- that she's made, as I put it last May, "arguably the shallowest and dullest historical biopic of all time."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 21, 2006 at 3:25 PM

comment #1

D.Z. says ...

"arguably the shallowest and dullest historical biopic of all time."

Even more shallow than Dick?

Posted by D.Z. at August 21, 2006 9:53 PM

comment #2

Sebastian Selig says ...

To critic something about what it`s not instead what`s it about is the lamest and by far most shallowed form of movie critisism.

Saw Marie-Antoinette a few months ago in France and can only highly recommend it. U can see and feel the love that went into it in nearly every frame. So far one of the richest works this year.

Posted by Sebastian Selig at August 21, 2006 11:31 PM

comment #3

MovieBob says ...

The story of Antoinette's life from 1789 to 1793 has been told thousands of times and filmed dozens, either on it's own or as part of the larger French Revolution. Everyone knows who was pissed at her, everyone knows they cut her head off.

That this film ISN'T going to tell the typical era of this story, and seems even to take an atypical view of Antoinette, makes me MUCH more interested to see it than I otherwise might've been.

Posted by MovieBob at August 22, 2006 12:37 AM

comment #4

mutinyco says ...

There's a video, if you press the video tab above the article, that shows the behind the scenes of the Vogue shoot. That should've been what was posted instead of the article.

Posted by mutinyco at August 22, 2006 12:43 AM

comment #5

Nate West says ...

REAL history is interesting, yes, but irrelevant here. My impression is that Sofia's films are all autobiographical. It's Sofia abandoned by her ditzy husband (Spike) in a chilly, cavernous Tokyo hotel. It's Sofia adrift in the party scene of the privileged while her guillotine (Godfather Part III) looms off-stage. Sofia doesn't cut Marie's head off because that would be like removing her own.

Posted by Nate West at August 22, 2006 2:50 AM

comment #6

sardine says ...

Jeffery, Jeffery, Jeffery. I agree with you on Bush. Sofia Coppola is the most interesting, talanted, supremely magical film person working today. One of the ways you know this to be true is because of the hatred directed her way.....from you and others. Jeffery, you are square, very, very, very, square. I suggest you watch nothing but Clint Eastwood movies from here on OUT. LOL.. Sofia Coppola is in the tradition of Goddard, Truffaut, Wells and above all Jean Renoir. She's not from the cookie-cutter...she is an authentic original. I do hope you ARE FELLING BETTER.

Posted by sardine at August 22, 2006 8:01 AM

comment #7

NYCBusybody says ...

"My impression is that Sofia's films are all autobiographical."

The problem with making autobiographically-infused art is that if a viewer isn't interested in that person, the art won't have much of value to that viewer.

I have no interest in Sofia Coppola as a person, so why see her movies, if they're only about her, in the end?

Posted by NYCBusybody at August 22, 2006 8:32 AM

comment #8

sardine says ...

it is very simple NYCBusy: You are suffering from a WRONG impression.

Posted by sardine at August 22, 2006 8:41 AM

comment #9

NYCBusybody says ...

Hey, that wasn't my quote, that was Nate West.

It may very well be a wrong impression, but I share it with Nate. I think Sofia tends to be a navel-gazer.

Posted by NYCBusybody at August 22, 2006 8:50 AM

comment #10

sardine says ...

Well, it takes one to know one. Hey, all artists are NG'S to a certain extent....sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo what? We all start from where we are........even the Buddha did. Sofia IS blessed having been born into a GREAT MOVIE-MAKING TRADITION. However, your argument, opinion has no there... THERE, as Gtde. Stein said of Oakland, CA. Your opinion is falsely light weight, ...you think you are using your head.....and to put it kindly, out of nothing comes nothing. LOL Cheers.

Posted by sardine at August 22, 2006 9:06 AM

comment #11

Edward says ...

I'm curious about the film and very impressed that it only cost $40 million. It may not be "Barry Lyndon", but looks beautiful.

Posted by Edward at August 22, 2006 9:52 AM

comment #12

sardine says ...

it is as Antonia Frasier says..."I think the most beautiful movie I have ever seen." Barry Lyndon is icy and cold....MA is not. BL had gorgeous costumes by MC and she is a shoo in for the oscar again.

Posted by sardine at August 22, 2006 10:37 AM

comment #13

VoiceOfReason says ...

The more I hear Jeff trash Marie-Antoinette I want to see it.

Posted by VoiceOfReason at August 22, 2006 4:16 PM

comment #14

Nate West says ...

"The problem with making autobiographically-infused art is that if a viewer isn't interested in that person, the art won't have much of value to that viewer."

True enough.

I like Sofia Coppola's work but she needs to get out more. Perhaps a jungle movie?

Posted by Nate West at August 23, 2006 1:26 AM

comment #15