MovieChat Forums > Marie Antoinette (2006) Discussion > Another film butchered by the music.

Another film butchered by the music.

posted 14 years ago by FrauMachina
60 replies | jump to latest

Apart from drawn out dull scenes without substance, what truly destroyed this movie for me was the music; it could NOT have been more wrong. I expect a period piece to contain the music of that particular period to set the mood for the story. Not some pop/rock nonsense from modern times. Is it so difficult to understand that it just doesn't fit? It is embarrassing.

I have not been this annoyed since 'A Knight's Tale' (which, by the way, was a much better movie than Marie Antoinette), where the setting is 14th or 15th century England, but throughout we are hearing rock tunes such as Queen's 'We Will Rock You' and AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long'.

In addition to this horrendously ill-fitted soundtrack, there are medley scenes of Marie Antoinette and her girlfriends shopping for clothing and food, the likes of which you can see in just about any run of the mill teenage bubblegum comedy/drama. And that is exactly where I felt this movie fell at that point.

Next, are we going to see a film of Queen Victoria set to Beyonce bloody Knowles?
Please, if there are more of this sort out there, please warn me first and spare me the pain. lol

[–] ragusa11 7 years ago

They were trying so hard to be a Knight's Tale. The problem is when you are telling an actually historical story over a fictional piece it didn't work.

I give her credit for trying. This is a perfect example of missing on the soundtrack and hurting a movie badly.

[–] gulag 7 years ago

I tend to agree that the music didn't work. Especially if this is seen as a period piece. Yet if I think of what Sofia was trying to do. I feel slightly different about it. To me it is a girl's imagining herself in the past. And Sofia has used 80s music for a couple of good reasons. First the New Romantic music she chooses has a bit of the same artificiality of the Ancienne Regime. And secondly it is the music that affected her when she was young. And one of her main concerns is with the special and sheltered girl, which she must have been being the child of a famous director. So on that level it works. But ultimately it's a mistake. And the reason why is that she doesn't push her vision quite far enough. She gives us enough historical realism to make the New Wave music jarring rather than do what Baz Luhrman did in Moulin Rouge, to make sure we understand completely that this was in no way a historical recreation. Had she pushed the anachronistic details further it would have worked better. Having said that, any film that pretends towards historical authenticity then adds pop sounds irks the hell out of me.