Beyond the Multiplex: Cannes

Off with her head! Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" gets booed! Plus: Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett take the screen.

By Andrew O'Hehir

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Kirsten Dunst in "Marie Antoinette"

May 24, 2006 | CANNES, France -- Sofia Coppola had me from the first 10 seconds of "Marie Antoinette," her attempt to remake the historical costume drama for a 21st century audience. Over the opening title credits, and then our first glimpse of Kirsten Dunst as the doomed girl-queen of France, languishing in an overdecorated chaise and sampling pastries, we hear the jagged opening chords of "Natural's Not in It," by late-'70s art-punk legends Gang of Four. So began a film that promised to deliver a confident blend of celebration and critique, a double shot of visual and aural excitement.

Or so it seemed. Unfortunately that first 10 seconds was followed by another and another and another, and after two hours of those little series of seconds, it felt as if the staccato energy and sporadic sensual delights of "Marie Antoinette" had dissipated. Then the final credits arrived. And then the booing started. Yes, really. No other film in competition at Cannes this year has been booed, not even Richard Kelly's thoroughly derided and incoherent "Southland Tales," which is much duller than "Marie Antoinette."

Sure, there was some applause mixed in there as well, and it wouldn't be fair to say the booing was especially loud or persistent. But still. Considering the anticipation surrounding Coppola's follow-up to "Lost in Translation," and the pre-premiere hype here (Coppola and Dunst are on the covers of several French film magazines), the reception at Wednesday morning's press screening was close to disastrous.

Maybe the celebrity-larded audience for Wednesday night's red-carpet premiere will be more forgiving, but it seems clear that "Marie Antoinette" is yet another of this year's Cannes problem pictures, and its commercial future is very much in doubt. Interest in this film was running so high here (thanks, I guess, to the subject matter) that Pathé, Coppola's French distributor, will open "Marie Antoinette" immediately, months ahead of its U.S. release. Sony has a significant chunk of change invested in this title, and marketing it in the fall after a belly-flop in France presumably isn't what it had in mind.

If you've seen the thrilling online trailer for "Marie Antoinette," you get Coppola's central gambit: This is a full-dress historical epic, with all the gowns and ruffles, not to mention cakes, hats, monkeys, elephants and authentic Versailles locations, that the form demands. But Coppola tries to translate the decadence and hedonism of Marie Antoinette's court into a language we can understand, and the key guidebook phrase in that language is "Don't You Want Me Baby?"

OK, that song doesn't literally appear, although it should. The soundtrack moves from Gang of Four to Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Cure, New Order and Bow Wow Wow, along with more recent club tracks from the likes of Aphex Twin. Add in the unexplained scenes of Marie and pals snorting fine powder off their wrists and smoking from long, exotic pipes, and the general feeling is very Danceteria 1988. (Yes, I know, the powder is presumably snuff and the pipes contain Virginia's finest native herb.) This impressionistic take on the 18th century Bourbon court is lots of fun as far as it goes. But you can only set one court minuet to Siouxsie's "Hong Kong Garden," and one all-night party to New Order's "Ceremony," before the intoxication starts to wear off. Coppola lacks the committed, demented genius Baz Luhrmann brought to "Moulin Rouge," and when "Marie Antoinette" isn't being crazy and decadent it becomes a bit too pretty, proper and trivial for my taste. (Anyway, "I Want Candy" for a montage of girls trying on shoes, scarfing pastries and guzzling Champagne? Please.)

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