MARIE ANTOINETTE

Director Sofia Coppola's new film, "Marie Antoinette", stars alabaster-toned, saucy, many-faceted Kirsten Dunst in the title role. Jason Schwartzman plays her abashed confused fiance, the Dauphin, who would become her husband and, eventually King Louis XVI. Rip Torn is his grandfather - - a ribald Louis XV, who dies suddenly of small-pox, hence the grandson inherits the throne. After the crowning, Louis XVI, weighed down by a crown that appears too big for his head, looking morose rather than thrilled, murmurs, "God help us, for we are too young to reign." Coppola wrote the script from Antonia Fraser's 2001 biography, "Marie Antoinette: The Journey." (See a wonderful review of this book in the September 25, 2006 "New Yorker" in which critic Judith Thurman also talks about Sofia's film).

The film focuses on Marie Antoinette's life from just before her marraige to the Dauphin at the effervescent, energetic, glowing age of fourteen to her escape from Versailles to Varennes, where the film ends in a poignant scene of an older, subdued, weary Queen viewing Versailles from her carriage. There's also a shot of the wreckage wreaked on the palace by the revolutionaries. The film spares us Marie Antoinette's subsequent beheading on the guillotine when she was thirty-seven, taken from her fortress cell and trundled off in an open oxcart to the scaffold a mile away. Jeering crowds lined the road throwing filth at her. Most of us grew up thinking she had said, "Let them eat cake" when her subjects were crying for bread. But there is a scene where, when hints that a revolution is brewing, word gets back to her that she had coined that phrase, she laughs and says that she said no such thing. We also knew that her fame was based on her beheading on the guillotine by the revolutionaries, as was her husband's nine months earlier. The King at least got a padded, closed carriage to carry him to his death.

All this aside, Copolla's film is a delightful, sumptuous, eye-opening romp, replete with luscious costumes of sparkling gold, shimmering whites, and many-hued pastels, as well as such displays of food to make a gourmand believe s/he were in food heaven. Our eyes also feast on stunning exterior and interior views, especially at extravagant balls. It is a delight for the ears, too, because of the music of the era mixed with contemporary arrangements. Coppola was given unrestricted access to Versailles by the overseer. Seems he's a big fan of "Lost in Translation."

For centuries, marriages were decided between ruling familes throughout Europe in order to cement foreign relations and ensure sovereignty over vast lands. Marie Antoinette was an Austrian teenager. Her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, worked with Louis XV and his advisors to arrange the marriage between her and the Dauphin. There is an early scene in the film where she is taken to a tent straddling the border between France and Austria and literally stripped naked by handmaidens not only of her gown but also her pet pug dog. When she steps from the other side of the tent, she is wearing hoops, satins, and jewelry. Even her hair undergoes a major transformation. Bemoaning the loss of her pug, she is told that she will be supplied with French dogs. We see her later cuddling white toy poodles.

Coppola shows us that Marie Antoinette and her girlfriends (high-born daughters of royalty, court officials, and toadies) were little different from today's very, very rich teenage girls and young women: obsessed with gossip and fashion. MA and her friends sneak away from the palace to go party in Paris, tantamount to sneaking off to Vegas in a private jet, swearing the hired help to secrecy. Except that Marie Antoinette is almost a prisoner in the palace, surrounded by a heirarchy of servants. Her first morning there, and ever after, she wakes to a battery of handmaidens who stand at the foot of her four-poster. They are headed by a stern, easily-piqued, highly placed relative of King Louis XV, played by the always watchable Judy Davis. On several occasions, a handmaiden, attempting to slide a petticoat over MA's head, is usurped when a woman of higher rank enters. She must hand off the petticoat to her usurper. After a while, MA, exasperated, says, "This is nonsense!" grabs the garment and puts it on herelf, much to Ms. Davis' horror. Early on, we see that MA was not big on ceremony,

Once MA and the Dauphin are married in a surprisingly simple ceremony, the couple is escorted to their double bed. The King says, "Go to work!" But soon MA's position becomes precarious. Her duty is to provide the dynasty with an heir. Young Louis would rather get to sleep so he can rise early and ride with the hounds. Bed linens and night clothes are inspected for tell-tale signs. MA's mother writes to chastise her for not, in effect, being sexy enough to seduce her husband. MA tries, she really, really tries, but to no avail. MA's and Louis's scenes in bed are precious. Imagine sharing a bed with your lovable little brother and listening to him talk about his hobby. Louis's was locks. He even brings one from his extensive collection to bed to show his wife. Years pass without consummation of the marriage. Things get to the point that MA's commanding older brother, Emperor Joseph II, played by Danny Huston, comes to Versailles for a man-to-man talk. Louis finally gets it when the Emperor, knowing of Louis's hobby, describes the function of a key's relation to a lock. Eventually, MA produces a daughter and a few years later a son.

After years of gambling and clothes-buying sprees, MA wants to live simply and does, by moving to a "country house" with her closest friends, donning simple peasant garb of cotton; gardening and raising chickens. Still her debts have cost the monarchy. Also, Louis's advisors convince him to give money to the Americans to help win the revolution against Britain. In 18th Century France, the citizens are deprived because the royals' draining of the treasury. Reports come back to the palace of unrest, riots, people dying of starvation in the streets. But not until Versailles itself comes under attack do the rulers realize the enormity of the situation.

Coppola dares to be different. Not only in her choices for her films ("Virgin Suicides," in which Dunst also starred, and "Lost in Translation"), but also her handling of the content. Though she beautifully recreates 18th Centruy French court life, in "Marie Antoinette," she doesn't shy away from anachronisms. In one scene, Kirsten Dunst wears blue Converse tennis shoes, in another, a ball features the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Striking-looking, dark beauty, Asia Argento plays Madame DuBarry, the old King's mistress, with the curled lip disdain of one aware of her tenuous position as she flounces around on the King's arm. She is unceremoniously driven from the palace upon the King's imminent death. Seems the Catholic Bishop would not read him his last rites unless the King denounced his mistress.

A final note: For background, read Jim Shepard's short story, "Sans Farine" in the November 2006 issue of "Harper's Magazine." It is a gruesome, first person account told from the perspective of Marie Antoinette's executioner, a loving, family man called Sanson (a real person). Shepard also describes in gory detail through Sanson's voice, how executions had been pulled off prior to the guillotine. The story also gives the reader a look at the man who invented this method of chopping off people's heads, and why.