Where viewed: standard def DVD on the couch
Experience with Film(s): I remember rumblings about it a few years ago. My girlfriend once watched it four times in a loop as a panacea to not-happiness.
Writer: Sofia Coppola
Director: Sofia Coppola
Principal Actors: Kirsten Dunst
An aesthetic confection of a movie that revels in costuming, make-up-ing, set decorating, and culinary art. And anachronisms. And the total disregard of accent accuracy. And why not? It’s fun. Amidst all the incredibly rich and detailed design of the film, the most humanizing element is, oddly, the camera. Whereas everything else is impeccable and touched up, the camera often has little stumbling moves as it pans and tilts and zooms. And it often captures the characters stumbling or being a touch sloppy in their own movements. It was most striking at the beginning when Jason Schwartzman’s Louis XVI waits for his future bride to appear at the French-Austrian border. In a long shot, he and two of his buddies horsing around and walk through the woods. The camera trips along following them; Schwartzman trips on a root. It’s a funny moment with human characters. This doesn’t happen all of the time. And, when the camera is static, it’s often recording painterly compositions. In a movie drenched in almost unrelenting opulence, the little humanizing stumbles are welcome.
FADE OUT 