Sofia Coppola's unique perspective of Marie Antoinette

 

Sofia Coppola is an accomplished filmmaker known for her unique style and perspective.  She is recognized by her particular use of visuals throughout her films to convey a story or emotion with a minimalist use of words.  She is known as auteur,a filmmaker whose individual style and complete control over the elements in the film showcases her personalized viewpoint.  Let's explore Sofia's unique style as an auteur in the movie, Marie Antoinette. 

Sofia is a feminist on a mission! She uses scenes in her movies to encourage viewers to see female characters through a different lens.  In Marie Antoinette, Sofia wants the viewer to consider a different perspective on Antoinette's life that in many contradicts the story that have been told through history.  Sofia portrays Marie Antoinette as not the hero nor the villain in the film and instead as the protagonist impacted by events happening to her.  As I watched the film, it was interesting to see how Sofia used the scene in the tent to show how Maria's life shifted in a moment making her a character that the viewer immediately could sympathize with.  She enters the tent as a young girl carrying her dog seemingly carefree wearing a more casual dress and  her hair is styled less formally.  As she moves through the tent, she is stripped of everything familiar and transitions into a more grown up looking version of herself.  Her hair is now tightly styled with a more formal dress and her dog is forcefully taken away from her. I found this scene to be very powerful even though Sofia used a limited dialogue to showcase the change in Marie's life.  This scene makes the viewers more empathetic to Antoinette's plight in life. 

In a paper from the University of Oregon, the author writes about Sofia's "trademark style composed of idiosyncratic sequences and camera techniques indicative of an ‘auteur."  In this film, Sofia uses window shots to show the passing of time but also a series of emotions.  Often we see Antoinette staring out the window during critical moments and we can feel her emotions through these images.  There is a moment in the film where she is staring out the window remembering her time with Count Fersen and it makes the viewer see how she is torn between duty and passion.  We also see her staring out the window of the carriage as she leaves her home portraying how she once again is leaving everything behind. It is impressive how Sofia can convey a story through an particular camera angle without words.  

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Sofia's style is also filled with purpose as she uses her films to give a voice to otherwise silenced female characters. In a paper from Grand Valley University, it shared "“the girls are without a voice in their environment,” and from this Coppola seeks both to derive conflict and explore the true nature of the female spirit in a world that so often works to undermine it." The film showed how Antoinette had no voice through this process and her decisions were not her own.  Her mother betrothed her the French Prince in an effort to allow their two countries.  Antoinette, at fourteen years old, was forced to leave her family and country to save a nation. The film continually uses camera shots of Antoinette silently accepting her fate.  She sits at the table each day while watching her husband eat and being watched herself and is unable to speak.  During one scene her mother tells her to be careful what she says as "everyone is watching."  This message that women must guard their words for fear of judgement is a clear message Sofia wants to convey as a current day issue for most females.  

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Sofia was a trailblazer before her time.  In 2006, this film was criticized as boring with no substance.  Ironically, by 2010 this viewpoint changed as the political climate changed and people became more in tune to the female voice.  Flicks reviewed the film's impact on culture noting "many critics at the time did not know what to make of Marie Antoinette at all." Sofia's determined focus to bring a voice to the female empowerment is seen throughout her film and is more widely recognized today than at the time the film was made.  This is certainly in part due to the awareness and sensitivity of today's climate. As Antoinette found her voice as shegrew older, from rolling her eyes and acting out what happiness could look like when she performed as a milkmaid in a one woman show to standing by her husband in the face of death by the end of the movie.  This message inspires women to see that regardless of age or gender, one can choose how they will impact the world around them through their actions. 

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