A historical film may be produced to entertain audiences, educate viewers about the past, evaluate the present through the lens of the past, or shed new light on the past as it is being recounted by dispelling misconceptions. Sofia Coppola’s intention in making Marie Antoinette was to depict France’s 18th-century period. Although Marie Antoinette is a brilliant and spectacular depiction of a long-gone era, it also has an informality, intimacy, and warmth that intrigues and seduces its audience. The storyline and reality of the film, as well as the movie’s warmth and human characteristics, fit within the framework of most French Revolution histories.
Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette embodies the second half of the 18th century and immerses the audience in that time by depicting the skillful use of costumes and imagery and exploring the realia of space and time, such as arranged marriages and the American Revolution’s reverberations.
Various visual components make the film embody the time in question by illustrating the time’s realia and the definitions of attractiveness and wealth expressed through appearances. Kirsten Dunst’s carefully designed and embellished costumes share nothing in common with today’s fashion trends for women, even those from royal families. The protagonist’s chemises and pannier skirts serve as an indicator of her social status and the absence of any necessity to engage in exhausting work that would make such garments absolutely impractical. The actress’s makeup also enables the embodiment of status and class division expressed with the help of looks.
In the eighteenth century, aside from any hygienic purposes, makeup, being accessible only to the rich and powerful, was used to exaggerate the skin’s already existing whiteness while also bringing more life and youthfulness to the face by means of bright blush. In stark contrast with the poor, Kirsten Dunst’s appearance follows all of these rules, embodying the clarity and unambiguousness of social status in the 1780s. In the semi-private world, Marie Antoinette creates for herself to escape the controlled, borderline totalitarian atmosphere of Versailles, fast-moving images of champagne intake, cake consumption, and Manolo Blahnik shoe purchases, all from the 1700 era.
The narratives and marriage-related realia of the time also permeate the director’s brilliant work in capturing and embodying the time period’s aspects. There are two lengthy scenes in which Louis and his counselors debate the American Revolution, which is a prime illustration of the period and the topics that bothered the generation most of all. Coppola takes her time with the film to give the audience a sense of the era and an accurate representation of relationships as understood by the royalty of the 18th century.
Specifically, the film’s first half revolves around the protagonist’s trip to France to get acquainted with her future husband – Louis XVI. Arranged marriages used as political instruments were inseparable from royalty’s life, and Coppola’s movie depicts the protagonist’s loveless union as the fate that Marie Antoinette accepts as it is.
In summary, through costume and makeup choices, as well as the demonstration of the time’s realia for the wealthy, the movie vividly depicts the late XVIII century during the French Revolution. Almost everything in the movie is historically accurate but can simplify the protagonist’s actual story in certain instances, such as downplaying her role in the revolution in France. Overall, the movie interprets historical and social dynamics in an accessible way and looks at 18th-century France history through the New Romantic viewpoint.