118 - Marie Antoinette review

"Let them eat cake," Marie Antoinette supposedly said in response to a bread shortage in Paris. This tidbit of royal callousness constitutes the majority of knowledge the average American has concerning the long dead French queen. Never mind that no evidence actually exists that supports her ever uttering the phrase, or anything even resembling it for that matter.

Of course, we live in a world where even most college students can’t name more than one American vice-president or correctly identify the Soviet Union as an Allied or Axis power. Perhaps this sad thought ensured I would thoroughly enjoy "Marie Antoinette", Sofia Coppola’s latest film to examine a female protagonist emotionally isolated by her surroundings. Kirsten Dunst plays the teen queen, a ridiculously spoiled yet seemingly benign monarch who ultimately fills her preordained position as well as could have been asked, in addition to never actually uttering the infamous phrase.

"Marie Antoinette" begins before Marie was even French. At age 14, the Austrian princess who finds herself married off to Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), the heir to the French throne, a to bolster an alliance between the two nations. As Marie nears the border, she is stripped of all of her possessions, from her clothes to her dog and even her friends before being ferried to France to marry a boy she has never met. A soundtrack of 1980’s rock decorates the soundtrack, strangely resonating more effectively than any classical music that springs to mind.

Marie’s life is one of luxury, but at a heavy price. Marie patiently must follow custom after custom, such as allowing ladies-in-waiting to slowly dress her in the cold from the moment she wakes up. Meals with her husband are held in public, and everyone impatiently waits for her to produce children, a difficult task as Louis XVI finds himself more concerned with key-making than love-making. People of lower rank can’t even address her unless addressed first.

Here is one of the many ways in which "Marie Antoinette" illuminates; we can see that despite her lofty position in society, Marie is a prisoner to her environment. It may be much more comfortable than seemingly endless hard labor in the fields, but it comes with its own torment. If having the treasury of an entire nation at your disposal can’t buy you happiness, no amount of money can.

The film pays very little attention to the politics of 18th century France, but so did Marie. A brief scene has Louis XVI deciding to support the American Revolution, but that sequence seems to exist mostly to give domestic audiences something to connect to. While it may be easy to dote on Marie’s extravagant spending and dissociation towards the workings of her country when analyzing her as a queen, the truth is more complicated. She spent exorbitant amounts of money on personal conveniences, but so did other members of the monarchy (in fact, she spent progressively less as she aged). If most people have little to no understanding of how money works, why should a girl who has never had to even touch currency in her entire life? Towards the end, Coppola creates an especially effective and tense atmosphere as Marie gazes out of Versailles at a furious revolutionary mob; it’s the first time the audience has seen commoners who were not servants, and implies the same for her.

As far as politics are concerned, Marie and her husband were drafted into their roles by luck of being the ancestors of men who proclaimed themselves to be mouthpieces of God, with choice or merit having nothing to do with their selection. Despite her title, Marie is treated as a useful tool by the powers behind the scenes, to be used or disposed of as needed.

The greatest strength of the film is that it breathes a vivid life into this long dead figure. Watching her play with friends, cope with her surroundings, fall in love, and fear for her children reminds us that the inhabitants of years past were not merely words on a textbook, but as alive as any of us. This realization makes every moment of the film bittersweet, as we know that the ultimate destiny of this girl was to have her head sliced off in front of a rapturous crowd.

4.5 out of 5

117

Three reasons I find politics insufferable these days: Michael J. Fox, Rush Limbaugh, and John Kerry.

First, the Fox ad. All of this outrage over Limbaugh's comment reeks of phoniness, enough so that a child could spot it. I have a hard time believing that the left side of the American political spectrum, which thought it was fine for George Clooney to ridicule Charlton Heston's Alzheimer's Disease, is just really bent out of shape that Limbaugh would ridicule Fox.

Of course, they completely ignore Limbaugh's original question, which is whether or not Fox faked the symptoms of manipulated his medicine to produce them, a perfectly valid spectulation, although certainly not politically correct. As for all of these Facebook groups demanding Limbaugh be executed for his remarks, so much for liberal support of free speech and opposition to the death penalty.

On the other side of things, we have Sen. Kerry's recent gaffe where he effectively said that people who don't study hard will wind up in the military, fighting in Iraq. Looking past all of the outrage for this one (infinitely more genuine than the Limbaugh outrage), I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and say he likely doesn't believe that the army consists of nothing but uneducated bumpkins. This guy volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam and won a Silver Star, no small task.

That hasn't stopped people from hysterically overreacting. Democrats ranging from Hilary Clinton to local candidate Bruce Braley have instantly tried to distance themselves from Kerry. The gall of this is astonishing, as this man was the Democratic nominee for president just two years ago, and now they're going to turn him into a pariah because of some stupid remark.

How can anyone seriously enjoy this bullshit?

116 - The Prestige review

Near the beginning of "The Prestige", late 19th century stage magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) hands his girlfriend a pistol. "Shoot me," he commands, though she aims away from his body when she squeezes the trigger. Borden’s hand darts out, seemingly catching the bullet in mid-air. However, he reveals that he had simply slipped the bullet out of the gun before handing it to her. "It’s so simple when you think about it," the bewildered girlfriend remarks.

Until watching "The Prestige", I had never considered what an appropriate topic magicians are for film. The entire medium is based on illusion and trickery of one form or another; the actors, lighting, editing, special effects, and screenplay all combine in an attempt to temporarily trick us into thinking we’re watching truth unfold on screen. Borden’s career may be based on live performances, but the array of dazzling tricks he employs would be right at home on a movie set.

Borden’s chief rival is Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman), an former colleague who holds a very justifiable grudge. Although it would be difficult to assign total responsibility for the beginning of their obsessive hatred for one another, it quickly spirals out of control. Not content with merely having the better tricks, they directly and violently interfere with each other’s stage acts, spy and steal, manipulate subordinates, and shrewdly manipulate death itself in a game of one-upmanship to settle an ever escalating score.

I can’t say much more about the labyrinthine plot without taking away from the impact of the story, so I won’t. It enters areas of deception and oddity that benefit immeasurably from knowing little, as I did. Just like a magic trick, the anticipation and aura of mystery are key to the experience; as Borden points out, the audience will admire you for the secret, and could care less if they knew the truth.

Christopher Nolan, who wrote and directed, has gotten back to proving good on the immensely promising talent displayed in "Following" (1998) and "Memento" (2001) after his disappointing foray into Hollywood formula with "Insomnia" (2002) and "Batman Begins" (2005). Like his earlier efforts, the chronology unfolds brilliantly out of order, devoid of the gimmicky nonsense that haunts many these days. Despite consistently jumping in and out of the past perspectives of several characters, we’re rarely confused, as the sharp filmmaking never gets dizzying, instead keeping us exactly where we need to be, seeing what we need, or think we need, to see.

Going in, we know in advance that the film intends to trick us, and indeed it will often fool the vast majority of the audience, but not with the obvious methods. It would be easy to simply write in a few deceptions here and there and then have a big one at the finale, but Nolan doesn’t settle for that. Whereas so many thrillers these days telegraph their endings far in advance, this film contains a number of clues that serve not so much as to help us guess, but to reward the attentive viewer. As complex as it becomes, the beauty lies within the ultimate simplicity of the secrets; in a deliciously odd way, one would find a child better equipped to decipher the film’s code than an adult.

At various points, Borden asks "Are you watching closely?" Don’t think about watching this marvelously rewarding film without placing every iota of focus on the screen. Very rarely does a mainstream release display so much respect for the audience’s intelligence without taking it for granted. And as a burgeoning film critic, I can testify that the secret of making a movie this good is a feat of movie magic that more than a few people would kill for.

5 out of 5