Newspapers / Brevard College Student Newspaper / Oct. 27, 2006, edition 1 / Page 6
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Page 6 Alts & Life The Clarion {October 27, 2006 Marie Antoinette: Gorgeous Outside, Little Inside by Charlotte Shanewise Contributor Marie Antoinette Directed by Sophia Coppola Columbia Pictures /2006 ★ ★★ To play the Marie Antoinette drinking game, you can either a) take a drink when you see Kirsten Dunst’s snaggle-toothed smile and one-sided dimple, b) take a drink when you see anyone with cham pagne, or c) take a drink when the screen fills with flourishing colors and decadent imagery. Whichever you choose, you will certainly have drink after drink in your belly when the closing credits roll (par ticularly if you chose option c). The film’s very first shot is of Dunst as Marie Antoinette, queen of France and frivolity during the late 1S*** century. We see her loung ing on a couch, surrounded by ser vants and ornate layer cakes. She loosely reaches forward and drags icing off of the cake nearest to her, and pops her fmger in her mouth while giving the camera a cocky stare. This single short glimpse is what I consider the film’s most brilliant moment, for without it, we would have nothing to set the stage for the tasty bit of visual filmmaking to come, and the whole '■1 -VJ.l movie would end up taking itself too seriously. The movie then jumps back to the moment the 15-year old Arch duchess of Austria’s title and fer tility is sold off to France. She is ordered to immediately remove the garbs of her homeland and replace them with fashions befitting the high French court. They even take away her dog. To be quite franc (har har), be yond being a rich eyeful of cos tumes, desserts and landscapes from be ginning to end, Marie Antoinette has no real substance, and the result is that even the most sentimental of filmgoers (me) will have a hard time re sponding emotion ally. There is barely any plot beyond Marie’s struggle to deliver an heir to the throne, which is more of a sidebar to her reckless cavort ing and spendthrift habits for which his tory has made her no torious. There are no moral dilemmas or conflicts beyond what shoes the titu lar queen should wear, which, as I can imagine, is somewhat of a realistic taste into the insular world of pre-revolu- tionary French royalty. Director Sofia Coppola, known for her beautifully chaste and tragic heroines featured mLost in Trans lation and The Virgin Suicides, sought to capture the story of France’s most infamous matriarch from the point of view of Marie Antoinette herself She has some what succeeded in portraying the awkwardness the young queen must have felt having been thrust into a world of prestige and tight conventions—in which the royal court pays her so much heed that it makes the Pope look underappreciated. However, in lieu of true drama, the inner frus trations of the lead role are inef fectively manifested in short mon tages of Kirsten Dunst restlessly running down marble hallways with her lavish dress fluttering to anachronistic rock music. Perhaps within this film’s im potence and lack of a bottom line is a comment on how our modem day royalty, comprised of the most famous and photographed, spend much of their time and sta tus loudly worshipping all that is tawdry, fleeting and superficial. Granted, this behavior isn’t at the cost of the common people, who in Marie Antoinette’s time paid the price of their queen’s flighty spending. However, when I think of the way in which popular cul ture deifies figures such as Paris Hilton, and then imagine every young girl who models themselves after these figures purely for their looks, wealth, and the pissing away of each, I suddenly desire to see these “role models” carted to the guillotine just as Marie even tually was (which, by the way, this film never depicts). A Delicate Balance opens tonight in Porter Center By BJ Wanlund Staff Writer The definition of “psychologi cal thriller,” according to director Bob White, is “a play in which the audience cannot bear to leave the theatre for fear of missing something.” Edward Albee’s play A Delicate Balance is a psycho logical thriller that examines what friendship truly means. A Friday night tradition for Agnes and Tobias quickly turns into a hard time for all; their daugh ter Julia comes home after the fail ure of her fourth marriage, Agnes’s drunkard sister Claire continues to be a major thorn in Agnes’s side— The players are as follows: Agnes: Laura Griffith Tobias: Ryan Burleson Claire: Christine Caldemayer Julia: Evelyn Pearson Edna: Jessie Combest Harry: Jay McDavid A Delicate Balance will play on Friday night at 7:30 pm, Saturday night at 8 pm, and Sunday after noon at 3 pm. h Griffith and Pearson rehearse A Delicate Balance Photo courtesy of Jamie Michaels
Brevard College Student Newspaper
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Oct. 27, 2006, edition 1
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