How different is Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, from a ‘Desperate Housewife’? Not verymuch. After all, they are both seeking intimacy from their spouses and turning to retail therapy to make up for the lack of it.

Jokes apart, the mention of Marie Antoinette brings to mind flak associated with her, the biggest boo being that she was self-indulgent and cared not for the needs of commoners.

But if you look carefully you’ll find enough depicting this iconic character in a positive light–that she was a woman strong in spirit, devoted to her role of Queen/wife/mother and unfortunately misunderstood, and Sofia Coppola’s biopic, based on Antonia Fraser’s book ‘Marie Antoinette:

The Journey,’ ascribes to that theory. Marie Antoinette’s marriage to Louis Auguste is nothing but a move to cement the friendship between Austria and France.

This Archduchess of Austria leaves behind all things Austrian to embrace her new life as the “Dauphine of France”, but she can’t expect as much as a passionate kiss from the man she is wedded to.

Marie has to wade through the rigmarole of her opulent life, with orders from her mother to “inspire” her man into consummating the marriage so that it’s saved from annulment, apart from the constant demands for an heir.

Gradually, we see her turn into a hedonist as she immerses herself in haute couture, gambling and gourmet.
The people of France label her “Queen of debt”, accusing her of spending France into ruin.

We witness the first signs of the French revolution and Marie Antoinette refusing to leave her husband’s side and escape to the Swiss border, but the film opts to wrap up before they meet a tragic end.

All the famous quotes come rolling out one by one, including the “cake” line except that the film endorses that that Marie Antoinette might never have said it. The film remains true to all the favourable information that you can come across about Marie Antoinette, but you can’t deny the element of ‘modern’ in it.

That is one way to explain the Baz Luhrmannesque touch with the rock music in the original soundtrack of the film that humanises the legendary queen and celebrates her.