Marie Antoinette
Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
Admission: Free
Directed by Sofia Coppola, 2006. A fourteen-year-old girl leaves her home, her country and her puppy behind to marry a man she has never met. Twenty years later, she is the most despised woman in France. Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette explores the rigid social structure and wild excesses of Versailles on the eve of the French Revolution. The film’s setting, shot on location, is extravagant, immense and overwhelming. The characters often seem to be swallowed up by the very architecture and landscape over which they rule. Casting actors known for comedy—Steve Coogan, Rose Byrne, Jason Schwartzman—highlights the understated humor running through a film that is fully aware of aristocratic absurdity without ever quite making it a punchline. Part of the series Marie Antoinette and Friends, Three Films by Sofia Coppola. Director in person.