Saw the new Sofia Coppola Marie Antoinette movie, which has fabulously lush visuals and a killer soundtrack. It’s light on plot, and will probably try the patience of most moviegoers, but I can’t stop thinking about it. It tells the story of Marie Antoinette using the vocabulary of a contemporary teen girl flick, a la Mean Girls, to make the point that Marie Antoinette was not a monster of self-indulgence and callousness, as history would have her, but basically just like your average American — focused on her own petty squabbles and personal problems, allaying her boredom and sadness through consumerism, ignorant and apathetic about politics. The political situation in France is almost totally ignored, but this is eerily effective at capturing the insular, out-of-touch nature of the French Court. I’d even see the movie again, but then I’m a sucker for historical dramas.
Another movie I just watched that I really got a kick out of was the documentary Frazetta: Painting with Fire. If you have any affection for Sword & Sorcery type stuff, it’s definitely worth checking out.
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