Marie Antoinette

Like every other blogger, I have an obsession with Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. I know I'm not being original by posting about it, but it would be totally crazy not to mention it at all. It's my ultimate girly movie-- I love watching it every now and then when Jeremy has to work late; lying on my fainting couch in a vintage nightgown, eating cupcakes and drinking wine or champagne and generally being as ridiculous as possible.

First of all, the real Marie Antoinette is one of my historical figure obsessions. I hovered in the Tudor era for so long before becoming interested in pre-revolutionary France, and Marie Antoinette (and her hair) is what tipped my interest that way. I love reading about her (my favorite bio is Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser) and I anticipated the hell out of the movie for about a year prior to it coming out. When I first saw the film I wasn't into style the way I am now, but I remember being so blown away by the prettiness of it all. I wanted to dress like that so bad, although I had no idea how to go about it since I only wore jeans and converse!

If I made movies, this is exactly the kind of thing I would do. I love period films but they can be so stuffy, and I love the soundtrack to Marie Antoinette and how they dance to Siouxsie & the Banshees and New Order's "Age of Consent" plays at exactly the right time. 18th century France somehow meshes perfectly with the anachronistic bits that are thrown in, which I adore. I don't care that Kirsten Dunst doesn't speak French with an Austrian accent (or that she's Kirsten Dunst*) because I think the fascination with Marie Antoinette lies in the fact that she was such a young girl when she was thrust into Versailles, pressured from all sides to be perfect and have children and please everyone right away. That's what the film is trying to portray, and I think it does so perfectly.

She used fashion in a way that we all can appreciate-- introducing fun and extravagant trends into the banality of court life, while rebelling against the norm set by Louis XV. If interested, I highly recommend reading Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, which discusses how she used fashion to express herself both politically and individually.

I love pouf hairstyles so much. I've been trying to find a good wig, but they all seem to be such bad quality. If I had long hair I would so do it up that way sometimes (because I found a tutorial on youtube! WANT.) This is probably the basis for two of my other obsessions: Magenta from Rocky Horror and the Bride of Frankenstein. (Well, my Magenta love is deeper than that but you get the idea!)

* I can't decide if I love Kirsten Dunst or if she actually annoys me to death and I just keep paying attention to her because she was Claudia in Interview with the Vampire and Amy in Little Women and I grew up watching her. I think I do love her, though. I definitely love her in this movie.