Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette: A Bush Yankee in King Louis’ court
Marie Antoinette, queen of zeitgeist - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune In cloaking 21st-century American arrogance in the pastel-colored finery of the 18th-century French court, Coppola inadvertently exposes the tarnish on America’s gilded age.
With no interest in thorny policy issues, no care for the consequences of her actions, and no doubts about her own entitlement, this Marie Antoinette is today’s ugly American par excellence: a Bush Yankee in King Louis’ court.
And like the movie’s royal shopaholic, whose girls-just-want-to-have-fun outlook cannot process any unpleasantness outside the palace walls, we Americans single-mindedly pursue our pleasures, even as a wider and scarier world clamors for our attention.
But why worry? Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, ensconced in her unapologetically decadent bubble, acts as though she rules the world even as she ruins it. Why shouldn’t we, following her all-too American lead, expect to have our cake and eat it, too?
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