Marie Antoinette: Status & Self

(Ten Minute Version) (Substack’s Version) (From The Vault) – luckily, substack doesn’t have a six minute speaking time limit, so you all get the goodies

a quick note:

This was an outline for a video essay / presentation that I’m doing for my film class. My 27 pages of notes in pink ink had to amount to something so I thought I’d share it with you guys !! I’m sorry for the fact that I have to Big Girl cite in APA. If I could, you know I would’ve done it in Chicago/Turabian </3 Anyway, enjoy! This sucked out every ounce of my life force!

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How does one go from an Austrian princess to France’s most hated monarch? Marie Antoinette (2006), directed by Sofia Coppola, answers this question. The film follows Antoinette from when she was a young girl used as a buttress for international relations, to a queen accused of treason. Coppola’s style has always been distinctly soft and feminine; Marie Antoinette is far from a departure of that consistency. In Marie Antoinette, the audience sees the title character’s unbridled lifestyle choices reflected in the mise-en-scène, more specifically, the costuming and usage of screen space in the composition. Mise-en-scène is directly translated to “the act of putting on stage,” and it includes many elements that contribute to one’s understanding of a scene. Costuming refers to anything that a performer would wear, not limited to just clothing; it encompasses hair, makeup, and even accessories. On the other hand, composition relates to how elements on screen are portrayed within the frame. The costuming and composition in Marie Antoinette showcase how Antoinette views herself and is perceived by using color symbolism to distinguish her as well as the screen’s space.

Marie Antoinette’s costuming uses soft and feminine colors to clue the audience into Antoinette’s status and self. Antoinette is first introduced at her mother’s court in Vienna, wearing a simply structured, pale blue dress. The blue is extremely youthful and, at the time, traditionally feminine. The color alone highlights how she will not veer away from her femininity, even when she gains more power, as well as the fact that she is too young for this position. Her next outfit is a white dress of a similar cut. Just from these two looks, viewers can tell that Antoinette is not the type to voluntarily change and go against her sheltered and innocent girlhood. The dresses both bear the same “girlish” colors, and the cut is indicative of her wealth. The color white further pushes her character as young and innocent. As Antoinette makes her way into the Palace of Versailles, the people are crowded around her wearing an assortment of warm and muted colors. Peony pinks, baby blues, soft sage greens – almost like the sweet French delicacy known as the macaron. However, this is contrasted by the bright red uniforms of the soldiers guarding the entrance. It is jarring, and signifies how war and revolution will interrupt this idyllic lifestyle associated with people of Antoinette’s status: the aristocracy. This juxtaposition highlights Antoinette’s innocence. 

The audience can tell that Antoinette’s view of herself is pure and simple. Before going out to enjoy the garden, she says, “I want something more… simple, natural to wear,” and opts for a clean and classic white dress. Not only does the color contradict with Antoinette’s desire to have her daughter live a more normal, “pauper” life, as white gets dirty incredibly quickly, it also furthers her need to glamorize the world and her disillusionment towards what the lower classes actually do. Antoinette even has her daughter find pre-cleaned eggs rather than the fresher – albeit slightly dirtier – eggs. In one of her very last outfits, Antoinette is in white again as she still feels like an innocent young girl. By now, her role in the aristocracy is one the public finds reprehensible; it is too late to get out of her position now. Antoinette is extremely vulnerable, in her sleep clothes with a mob outside of the palace. The usage of white dresses in Marie Antoinette furthers Antoinette’s view of herself as an innocent entity, above needing to be aware.

To indicate Antoinette’s role in society and how people will react to it, the film repeatedly draws parallels with color between her and the king’s mistress, Madame Du Barry. The first time Antoinette directly interacts with Du Barry, Du Barry is in deep pink, while Antoinette is in a far lighter pink. The colors foreshadow how people will similarly talk about Antoinette’s private matters as they do with Du Barry, her life will become publicized. Their second interaction affirms this, with Du Barry is in navy blue with deep gold, while Antoinette is in light blue and beige. By using the same colors in different shades, the audience can see they are similar yet still at odds. Despite how they begin on rocky relations, they eventually find a common ground as scorned noblewomen in their society. 

Marie Antoinette also uses hair and accessories in its costuming to convey both keen awareness of position, but also obliviousness. During a scene of pure indulgence and shopping, Antoinette’s hair makes a transition from typical to a literal bird’s nest. This is a call back to earlier in the film, where a caged bird can be seen behind the king. Antoinette is embracing her role as the caged bird, allowing herself to forget about the woes of the world. One of the most significant scenes is when it is confirmed that “Taxes will only be raised slightly,” it cuts to Antoinette at the piano, blissfully unaware and wearing a choker. This foreshadows how her status and relation to the aristocracy will contribute to her eventual beheading, and how she is unaware of the fact. Hair and accessories let the audience know about Antoinette’s perceptions.

The costuming does not just signify what Marie Antoinette is, but it also signifies what she is not. In a scene portraying the infamous, yet wrongly attributed quote, “Let them eat cake,” her lipstick is uncharacteristically dark, and her necklace is heavy, made of a dark silver we have yet to ever see her in. This usage of costuming shows that, while she was dismissive of the public’s plight, she was never as forward or unforgiving as the quote deems her to be. It is not who she is. ¹

To similarly paint a picture of Antoinette’s life and identity, the opening scene in Marie Antoinette does so by using the screen’s space perfectly. Antoinette is on the left side of the screen, and she is getting pampered by a servant positioned on the right side. Already, the audience can see the divide between them. Antoinette is laying down while the servant is crouching, an excessive amount of cake and sweets separating them. This signifies that Antoinette’s intense and indulgent life choices are pushing her away from the common people. 

In addition, space also gets used when Antoinette receives limited eye room. Eye room is defined by the amount of space given in front of someone’s face, typically for their gaze. At the moment², she’s feeling overwhelmed. The lack of eye room, which takes up less than half the screen and is obstructed by plants, exemplifies how she feels constrained and cannot see far into her future. The audience similarly feels stifled, providing a sense of empathy for Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette uses the rule of thirds to its advantage. The rule of thirds is a technique in filmmaking that can be used to maintain balance within a shot where one splits the screen into thirds both horizontally and vertically. However, Marie Antoinette takes that balance and subverts it by creating compositional stress. A different scene with Antoinette at the balcony has her positioned perfectly on the first horizontal line, keeping the audience’s eyes on her, yet, she hastily is enveloped by the structure around her as the camera moves out and the audience loses her. This conveys how Antoinette will just end up being a tool to create the next king, the next part of the aristocracy. The rule of thirds shows what Versailles represents. 

Marie Antoinette, through many modes of mise-en-scène, portrays the life of Marie Antoinette. The film sets up a mood of opulence and femininity in its costuming by following the standards of the time and emphasizing them for dramatic effect. In its composition, it leads the audience to better understand the film through balance and subversion of balance. While Wes Anderson films are rightfully seen as gorgeous and artsy, many criticisms of Marie Antoinette, and Sofia Coppola’s work as a whole, often fall under the popular belief that deems beauty as baseless and femininity as substanceless. They forget how much “substanceless femininity” can convey. Critics fail to acknowledge that, even now, this is all Antoinette is seen as; her frivolousness is seen before her personhood. There must be a space in filmmaking where simply being a girl is allowed. 

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Coppola, S. (Director). (2006). Marie Antoinette [Film]. Colombia Pictures.

Meares, H. (2019, November 4). How the Palace of Versailles Became a Symbol of Magnificence—and Scorn. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from https://www.history.com/news/versailles-palace-opulence

Plackett, B. (2021, April 11). Did Marie Antoinette really say 'Let them eat cake'? Live Science. Retrieved March 5, 2023, from https://www.livescience.com/let-the-eat-cake.html

Wigandt, H. (2020, April 24). Here's How Marie Antoinette Was Historically Accurate... And How It Wasn't. TheThings. Retrieved March 10, 2023, from https://www.thethings.com/heres-how-the-marie-antoinette-film-was-historically-accurate-and-how-it-wasnt/

1. this wasn’t included in the original project for time’s sake but i really wanted to talk about it so !!

2. whoopsies i got too lazy to describe when the scene is at lol, 1:37:32 btw