Marie Antoinette

As media’s recent fascination with Empress Elisabeth slowly draws to a close (Sisi & I is set to premiere at the 2023 Berlinale), it’s the next imperial-royal Austrian’s turn to be reviewed and reimagined through a 21^st century lens.

Clearly inspired by Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (albeit lacking the director’s artistic vision), the BBC show, too, tackles the archduchess’s move to France, the crushing pressure weighing on her shoulders to produce an heir to the throne, and the myth-enshrouded problems in the marital bedroom. 

Both Marie Antoinette and her husband Louis XVI are portrayed in a rather childlike manner (she naive and somewhat erratic, he terrified of her girl cooties) – a nod to their actual ages of 14 and 15 at the time of their union, even as this is not fully addressed and the actors are in their mid to late twenties. In a particularly prominent scene that could join the archives alongside American Pie, Louis’s grandfather attempts to explain the facts of life via the analogy of a knife slicing into an oxheart tomato.

No cliché about the French is left untouched, be it their sense of hygiene or their table manners.

Historical accuracy is debatable. The all-round spoken language is a crisp, clear British English – Antoinette’s mother with her barking Austrian accent being the notable exception. There are no more German words than anyone who ever listened to a Rammstein song wouldn’t be able to understand, and basic French expressions, such as food items, are continually mispronounced.

Despite being written by Deborah Davis, who won a BAFTA for The Favourite, the script features some stilted dialogue, some of which feels like foreign bodies in the actors’s mouths.

This is German actress Emilia Schüle’s first international leading role and she puts on a good show, considering some of the disconcerting material she is given to work with, but overall the Last Queen of France doesn’t become any more tangible in these eight episodes than through the paintings that grace the palace of Versailles. Her counterpart is played by Louis Cunningham, a real-life royal from Luxembourg, who also appeared in Bridgerton and whose screen presence still falters.

Marie Antoinette is at its most entertaining exploiting the schemes between the king’s daughters and his mistress, Madame du Barry, which makes it less a show for the classical period drama aficionado than a fun costume edition for fans of EastEnders.

Selina Sondermann

Marie Antoinette is released on 29^th December 2022.

Watch the trailer for Marie Antoinette here:

https://youtu.be/bK4D5qC_EW8