Email it     Talk about it     Print it

by Flick Chick Vique

	I give Marie Antoinette 3 & 1/2 Red Vines for being a delicious cup cake.
	I give The Queen 4 &1/2 Red Vines for giving this peasant a royal treat.

I’m not exactly an anglophile but I confess a fondness for stories that involve royalty.  Maybe it’s part of my ‘Cinderella Complex’!  And while Marie Antoinette and The Queen deserve their own reviews, I feel compelled to review them in tandem because I saw them within a 24-hour period and couldn’t help but make comparisons with royalty then and now.

I confess I was a little hesitant to see Marie Antoinette.  Although I love Kirsten Dunst and admired Director Sofia Coppola’s first movie, The Virgin Suicides, I was less than impressed with her last outing, Lost in Translation.  Of that film, Sofia said, “...I wanted Lost in Translation to feel like you just spent a couple of hours in Tokyo....”.  I felt like I had been trapped in Tokyo for 2 weeks!  Geez that film seemed to go on and on.  Well, I’m happy to report that Ms. Coppola has been introduced to Mr. Editor and it is a wonderful union! 

Much ado has been made about Ms. Coppola’s ‘rock and roll’ take on the French Revolution.  But don’t be mislead.  While the screenplay is a fast and loose interpretation of this historic period and fatal heroine, expect to see plenty of powdered wigs, hoop skirts and harpsichord music along with Bow Wow Wow and Adam Ant-like fashions. In fact, the “I Want Candy” collage is worth the price of admission alone!  It is a wildly colorful homage to food, fops and frivolous fashions to excess.

As the girl who became one of history’s most infamous Queens, Kirsten Dunst seems perfectly cast.  Although I found some of her acting choices odd, I totally accepted her as the teen queen run amok with spending to compensate for her lonesomeness.  Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore) does a fine job as her bumbling, insecure, boy-king.  Wish there had been more for him to do.

Marie Antoinette quickly fell off of moviegoers’ radar but don’t let that stop you from indulging in this cupcake of a treat.

Your one complaint about Marie Antoinette might be the lack of real facts that are so freely omitted.  Of this Ms. Coppola said, “My biggest fear was making a ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ kind of movie.  I didn’t want to make a dry, historical period movie with the distant cold tableau of shots.”  Ms. Coppola, have you even seen Masterpiece Theatre lately?!  This fall’s version of Casanova out hipped even Marie Antoinette!  But more than that, The Queen struck me as very Masterpiece Theatre-ish and it was anything but cold-it is RIVETING!

Directed with precision, Stephen Frears’ The Queen, explores the dramatic unfolding of events between the Monarchy, newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair and the British populace following the death of Diana-the People’s Princess.

I’ll never forget the night Princess Di became-well- a Princess!  The wedding was at some wretched hour like 3am Phoenix time but I was up and watching.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a beautiful ceremony before or since.  It’s not often that a girl gets to watch Cinderella marry Prince Charming.  Yeah, right.

As you can imagine, the news of her death broke my heart as it did millions of others around the world.  “They killed Cinderella,” kept playing over and over in my head.

But while the world mourned, a bewildered monarchy could not be bothered.  Daily tabloids blasted the Royals for not displaying the appropriate amount of grief for such a national tragedy.

The movie intersperses real footage with re-created events to give one a total ‘fly on the wall’ feel.  While private conversations can only be imagined, their ‘imagining’ rings true and fascinating.  The entire cast is outstanding with Michael Sheen doing an impressive job as Tony Blair.  But make no mistake, this is Helen Mirren’s movie and even Meryl Streep won’t be able to yank the best actress Oscar away.

Mirren is mesmerizing and somehow manages to elicit sympathy for a character that seems cold, world-weary and totally out of touch with her ‘subjects’.  That she looks like Queen Elizabeth to a T is just icing on the cake.

Which brings me back to that wonton Queen whom historical biographers now say never said, “Let them eat cake.”

I could not help but think how similar Princess Di’s and Marie Antoinette’s paths seemed.  Both came to court as young, naive girls.  Both were eager to please, yet were basically mistrusted and disliked by their in-laws.  Both were caught up in centuries of royal custom and protocol that literally means nothing to anyone but the royals themselves.

Yet one ended up mourned by millions while the other had thousands clamoring for her head!  In The Queen, it is suggested that the Royals themselves gave in to public pressure for Diana’s memorial because they, too, feared for their lives.  Instead of asking others to eat cake they safely decided it would be best for all concerned if they ate crow.

Did you see it?
Tell us what you thought of it!