Marie Antoinette

Sofia Coppola’s sly, delectable biopic (2006) of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) before the events of the French Revolution and the fall of Versailles. Replete with songs by New Order, the Radio Dept, and the Strokes, this much-maligned film has now been recognized as “an elegy to frustration, where every color and sound evokes the longing and rapture of a girl who didn’t understand her adult responsibility” (Ed Gonzalez, Slant). A delirious study of what happens when politics become aesthetics because there is no other option for a girl whose growth has been stunted, who is expected to carry an entire nation on her shoulders—and the consequences thereof. Films at the Whitney is proud to present Marie Antoinette on the Yale Film Archive’s own 35mm print. 123 minutes.