80's Meets 18th Century

In the lecture a few weeks back we looked at how music (and records) played an important part in the narrative of Sophia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. Her newest film, Marie Antoinette, also uses music as important narrative tool, of which it was both praised and criticised.

The film, set in the late 18^th century, chronicles the life of Marie Antoinette from her marriage to Louis XVI, to their eventual escape from Versailles – yet it features a soundtrack of 80’s punk and rock music. In Roger Ebert’s review he mentions the negative feedback of other critics, who felt the music made “Jarring intrusions of the Now upon the Then”. He praised the film, and criticised other historical films, “Many characters in historical films seem somehow aware that they are living in the past.” and states “Marie seems to think she is a teenager living in the present, which of course she is – and the contemporary pop references invite the audience to share her present with ours”

I completely agree with this statement. The use of 80’s music is one of the primary reasons why I enjoyed the movie. It causes the viewer to relate with the character, comparing the rock music to the music of their own adolescence. As Marie-Antoinette begins to indulge in clothes, food and alcohol, Bow Wow Wow’s “I Want Candy” plays on top of a montage of shots, much like that of an 80’s teen movie. It shows she is a typical teenager, who does typical teenager things, yet just happened to live 250 years ago. It fills in the distance between viewer and character typically imposed by historical films, by bridging the “old” of the film, with the “new” of the music. She may live in a palace, wearing a corseted dress and is surrounded by men wearing wigs, but the rock music makes her appear to be like any other teenager today. It also emphases how young she was she was married (14) and crowned queen (19). While the music chosen is from the 1980’s, I felt I could still relate to Marie-Antoinette because rock and punk music is obviously still present today.

The modern music eventually subsides towards the end of the film, as Marie concentrates of motherhood and is no longer a teen. It is replaced with a more classical score, symbolising this transition. While the modern music may place the historical accuracy of the film in jeopardy, it sums up what the entire movie is about. It is a glimpse into her years as a teenager and young adult, not about her eventual execution, and the rock music echoes this as it is something that a modern audience can relate to, and compare to our own lives.