A Movie About Clothes

[selenite0]

I saw Marie Antoinette last weekend. It's a good illustration of how corrosive it can be to not give people useful work to do. Not to mention never giving them a clue. A lot of Marie's troubles (I have call her by name, "heroine" and "protagonist" don't apply) would have been avoided if she'd gotten some practical advice of the sort in Cosmopolitan and the like. It reminded me of Iselle's complaint in Curse of Chalion:

"The world demands I make good choices on no information, and then blames my maidenhood for my mistakes, as if my maidenhood were responsible for my ignorance. Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be."

Though Iselle dealt with the constraints on her far better than Marie Antoinette does. The movie ended with the royal family being taken to Paris by the mob. I guess they couldn't stand the thought of showing any scenes where she was dressed in rags.

Comments

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Honestly, she was no more clueless than any other young girl of her station would have been; her chief problem was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Both time and place were spoiling for a fight; she'd have been scapegoated even if she'd been an ideal mother who made charitable contributions to the poor.

Which, actually, she was, and she did. *sigh*

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Glad to have read both of your comments before seeing the movie. Although it'll be a while before it hits Blkbster.

[dolmena.livejournal.com]

Actually, she was a little more clueless than her sisters... But one of the things I regretted about the movie is that the actress does not look 15 in the first part of the movie, which she should have been. Making it clear visually that she was expected to be Dauphin at 15 would have helped the audience's perspective on the whole thing.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Yes, Dauphine at 15, Queen at 19...what kind of sane society expects that kind of responsibility from children?

[dolmena.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I think that... and sometimes I think that society now unnecessarily prolongs childhood, except in the most marginal of situations.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

Well, you can make a case for both. 15 is definitely too young to be considered an adult. 25 is probably too old to wait for it. It's drawing that arbitrary line and making it apply to everyone that's tricky.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I figure you need to make it a gradual transition. At five, responsible for putting dirty dishes in the sink. At fifteen, responsible for babysitting kids and tracking allowance. At 25, having apartment/car/job of own. 35, parenting your own and having subordinates at work. 45, be in charge of an organization.

Practice with the small responsibilities is good training for the big ones. I'll let you know how the training program works out in another 40 years. ;)

yeah, but ...

[btripp.livejournal.com]

Was the sountrack as cool as I heard it was going to be???


(http://www.btripp.com)

Re: yeah, but ...

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Didn't do much for me but I'm not the target market. As a one-time reenactor I was expecting proper music of the period. The pop music worked, certainly helped drive home the "ordinary teenage girl wanting to party" theme.