.the princess portal.

Oh My! This movie was amazing. I had heard so much about it, both good and bad that I decided to go in with no expectations whatsoever and make up my own mind. I also took the Historian’s advice to “Go along for the ride” and what a ride it was! I shall start with what I loved about the film, then its downfalls and a summary:sparkle:

The first thing that struck me about the movie was its rawness, although it is visually very beautiful there is a certain reality to it. The colours and textures and sounds sort of brought it down to earth. Every other film and anime I have seen about the subject has been dreamy and fairy-tale like, but this one was very bright and close and real. Although the acting was far from fantastic I like that they all acted very “modern” because it made it easy to identify with the characters, they all seemed like people we know. I also enjoyed the few little historic bits they did include, like Marie signing the marriage certificate with a hasty scrawl and an ink blot. The clothes and food and shoes were, of course, stunning. I really really want a full length rococo gown.. in pink crepe silk. And I want the silk and fur cape she wears out in the gardens on her birthday party. The music was nowhere near as bad as I expected, there was a lot of classical and opera in there with the 80’s pop. As for Marie Antoinette herself, the only thing I can say is that I liked how they portrayed her artistic temperament. Especially during the hamlet scenes. The best actor of the lot was Rose Byrne, who played the Duchesse du Polignac superbly! She was the most entertaining dazzling creature there and I think she upstaged Kirsten Dunst quite a bit. I want to find a book on Polignac now and learn more about her.

There were several things that irked me, though they didn’t stop me from enjoying the film. The first was, as I have already mentioned, the cruel treatment of Madame Du Barry who was not ugly, old, crude and wicked but rather a sweet young thing who was trained perfectly in court ettiquette and behaved far more like a princess than a lot of the other court ladies. I suppose they wanted to have a villian to make us sympathise with Marie.. but still, it was overdone. I also found the relationship with Count Fersen very poorly done, it was briefly skimmed over with no depth or respect for the Count’s noble character and all the good he did for the monarchy. I think it was just used as an excuse to put a sex scene in. Kirsten Dunst really was not the best actress for the role of Marie Antoinette, she played the queen in her late teens (party days) fairly well but did a dreadful job of representing the younger Marie and then failed to impress apon us the dignity of the elder. I think they could have at least had a second actress for 14 yr old Marie, there is no way Dunst can pass for a 14 year old.

I think I really need to watch the film again. The volume in the cinema was a bit low so I missed some of the whispered conversation and the audience insisted in laughing through the whole thing, which was a bit unneccesary so I think I shall buy the dvd when it is available. It was a truely stunning movie and a very unique treatment of the subject. I’m quite glad they ended it where they did, it was a perfect slice of the Queen’s life, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Four stars :star::star::star::star: