Let Them Eat Cake
Welcome to my first action project for Ollywood. Ollywood is an elective course with 3 units, Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. We just wrapped up the first unit, Pre-Production. In this unit, we learned about jobs that need to happen before shooting a film. Screenplay, storyboards, location scouting, and production design are all jobs that take place in Pre-production. We did a little activity where we were split up into assigned groups based on the genre of film we were given. With the genre of film we were assigned to, we had to find a location that would be appropriate to our genre and hypothetical film there. The genre I had was, action film: chase scene. I did a little research on where popular action films have filmed chase scene in Chicago and I came across Lower Wacker Drive. Films like Wanted, The Dark Night, The Blues Brothers, and many more has filmed at Lower Wacker Drive. I chose Lower Wacker Dr. as my appropriate location to film an action chase scene. Luckily, my pitch won and we went there for a Field Experience. For this action project, our guiding question is, "How can we critique the elements of film Pre-production?" We had a list of films that we could choose from to watch and criticize. I chose to watch Marie Antoinette. Below is my review of the film.
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| Screenshot of a scene from Marie Antoinette(2006) |
Review of Marie Antoinette:
Marie Antoinette is a 2006 romantic biographical drama directed and written by Sofia Coppola. This film takes place in France 1770s. This film is based on the life of France’s iconic last Queen, Marie Antoinette. As a viewer who lacks knowledge on Marie Antoinette, this film is intended for all audiences over the age of 14. In the beginning of the film, Marie Antoinette is a 14 year old Austrian princess who is being married off by her mother to a French prince, Louis XVI. Louis XVI is actually Marie Antoinette’s second cousin. On their wedding night, they were asked to produce an heir to the throne. The next day the King, Louis XV, was told that “nothing happened.” Most of the film goes on about how Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI fail to have sex and produce an heir to the throne. Her mother married her off the a French prince with the intentions of sealing an alliance between France and Austria. On their wedding night, they were asked to produce an heir to the throne. The next day the King, Louis XV, was told that “nothing happened.” Marie Antoinette was blamed for not conceiving a child although it takes two people to make one. Louis XV dies of the smallpox. Louis XVI is crowned King of France and Marie Antoinette as Queen of France at the age of 19. Marie Antoinette’s brother comes and visits her and advises her to stop gambling and partying. He also talks to the King, Louis XVI, about thinking of sex as “mechanics” like “key-making.” The king takes his advise and has sexual intercourse with Marie Antoinette for the first time. They later then have their first child, which happened to be a girl. A couple of years later, she begins to have an affair with Ferson. France’s financial crisis worsens and so does Marie Antoinette’s image. At this point riots start to break out at Versailles. The last scene of this film is the royal family moving to Paris due to the angry rioters.
Marie Antoinette is a 2006 romantic biographical drama directed and written by Sofia Coppola. This film takes place in France 1770s. This film is based on the life of France’s iconic last Queen, Marie Antoinette. As a viewer who lacks knowledge on Marie Antoinette, this film is intended for all audiences over the age of 14. In the beginning of the film, Marie Antoinette is a 14 year old Austrian princess who is being married off by her mother to a French prince, Louis XVI. Louis XVI is actually Marie Antoinette’s second cousin. On their wedding night, they were asked to produce an heir to the throne. The next day the King, Louis XV, was told that “nothing happened.” Most of the film goes on about how Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI fail to have sex and produce an heir to the throne. Her mother married her off the a French prince with the intentions of sealing an alliance between France and Austria. On their wedding night, they were asked to produce an heir to the throne. The next day the King, Louis XV, was told that “nothing happened.” Marie Antoinette was blamed for not conceiving a child although it takes two people to make one. Louis XV dies of the smallpox. Louis XVI is crowned King of France and Marie Antoinette as Queen of France at the age of 19. Marie Antoinette’s brother comes and visits her and advises her to stop gambling and partying. He also talks to the King, Louis XVI, about thinking of sex as “mechanics” like “key-making.” The king takes his advise and has sexual intercourse with Marie Antoinette for the first time. They later then have their first child, which happened to be a girl. A couple of years later, she begins to have an affair with Ferson. France’s financial crisis worsens and so does Marie Antoinette’s image. At this point riots start to break out at Versailles. The last scene of this film is the royal family moving to Paris due to the angry rioters.
It is very clear that the protagonist of this film is Marie Antoinette. The title of the movie already gives me a hint to who the protagonist is. A protagonist of a film is a person who moves the story along or is the person who the story revolves around. A way that director can make it clear to their audience who the protagonist is, is by them making the audience empathize for the protagonist. A quote from the film that best summarizes Marie Antoinette’s personality is, “Shall we have more champagne?”
It was not very clear to me who or what the antagonist of this film was. An antagonist does not always have to be a person. The antagonist could be a force that destroys a city. The antagonist is a character or thing that is against the protagonist. As I was watching the film, I was looking for the antagonist and I thought It could have been Marie Antoinette herself, or the people of France who participated in the riot against Marie Antoinette. I thought that It could of been Marie Antoinette because she was seen as a selfish woman who spent a lot of money due to gambling. But It is now obvious to me that the antagonists are the riots of France. A direct quote from the film that best represents the antagonists is, “
behead her”
The production design of this film was absolutely phenomenal. The production design was a really important role in this movie because it was filmed in 2006 but it was trying to portrait a different time period. A lot of research had to go into the production design because this time period is completely different from 2006. Especially since this movie takes place in France, the production designer had to learn France’s culture in the 1770s. The production design probably had a large budget because they had to make everything look really expensive and rich. There was a lot of work that the production designer had to do.
The costume designer of this film was Milena Canonero. She won an Academy Award for best costume design for Marie Antoinette. I see why she won this award. This movie has incredible costume designs. The purpose of a costume designer is to design costumes that are appropriate to the screenplay and especially to the time period in which the screenplay takes place in. Milena Canonero did just that. It was very believable that, Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette) was someone with royalty due to her costume design. This job was very significant to this film because everything that the characters wore had to be extravagant and very elegant. Since this film is a historical biographical drama, Canonero had research fashion that was worn in this historical time period. If Canonero had not done a great job with the costume design then the movie would be as effective. It wouldn’t be historically correct if Canonero decided to dress the characters in distressed jeans instead of elegant royal dresses.
Overall, I give this movie a posist
behead her”
The production design of this film was absolutely phenomenal. The production design was a really important role in this movie because it was filmed in 2006 but it was trying to portrait a different time period. A lot of research had to go into the production design because this time period is completely different from 2006. Especially since this movie takes place in France, the production designer had to learn France’s culture in the 1770s. The production design probably had a large budget because they had to make everything look really expensive and rich. There was a lot of work that the production designer had to do.
The costume designer of this film was Milena Canonero. She won an Academy Award for best costume design for Marie Antoinette. I see why she won this award. This movie has incredible costume designs. The purpose of a costume designer is to design costumes that are appropriate to the screenplay and especially to the time period in which the screenplay takes place in. Milena Canonero did just that. It was very believable that, Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette) was someone with royalty due to her costume design. This job was very significant to this film because everything that the characters wore had to be extravagant and very elegant. Since this film is a historical biographical drama, Canonero had research fashion that was worn in this historical time period. If Canonero had not done a great job with the costume design then the movie would be as effective. It wouldn’t be historically correct if Canonero decided to dress the characters in distressed jeans instead of elegant royal dresses.
Overall, I give this movie a posist
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