Louise Gold reviews Marie Antoinette
The true story of Marie Antoinette is one made up of malicious rumour, compelling plot and a tragic end — for her. The Sofia Coppola film version of her story, starring Kirsten Dunst, neglects historical context; it is less tragic and more fun. Dunst is Marie Antoinette as queen, as woman, as mother, as wife, as foreigner, as family member, as teenager, as symbol of monarchy...but not as the representative of an entire social system — as the French revolutionaries of 1789 identified her. The film is nostalgic, but not for the ancien regime: for youth and innocence and shagging boys in fields.