Besides the fabulous clanging guitar sounds of "Ceremony," original instrumental by Manchester post-punk band Joy Division (later morphed into New Order after Ian Curtis suicide), during Marie's birthday party, for me the most memorable moment of Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette, was the sneakers. In the best tradition of post-modern literature, the author (director) enters the book (film), and manipulates the action, rearranges the deck chairs, if you will. This is exploited to its maximum effect in Martin Amis' novel London Fields, in which the narrator (author?) enters the story at the last minute and is accessory to a murder. Sofia plays the same omnipotent role by inserting a pair of purple Converse sneakers amongst Marie's shoe wardrobe, clearly visible while she is deciding on her best footwear for the Masquerade Ball. We can only guess that Marie Antoinette caught a peripheral glimpse of those sneakers through some kind of post-modern wormhole !
Sofia Coppola set out to debunk a prevailing propaganda that fed on rumors of MA's attitudes toward the peasants. Whether the film was successful in that regard is unclear. What is true is that just like today's celebrities, the media and PR tend to make these individuals larger than life forcing them to adapt to their fame in a very post-modern sort of way. This highly stylistic film (weak on substance, disregards that MA had a 2nd daughter) has a post-modern flavor (reminiscent of Miloš Forman's Amadeus) throughout with the music, hyper materialism, disregard of accents, and vernacular phraseology. At one point the duchesse de Polignac (Rose Byrne) says to a wigged fellow at the 18th Birthday Party, "I love your hair...what's going on there ?" This is just so not circa-1773-speak ! "Ceremony" plays in the background (more like the foreground). This song is all over YouTube (search "Ceremony Marie Antoinette"). Comments on YouTube reveal that many played the song at their weddings - lyrics below.
"Ceremony"
This is why events unnerve me,
They find it all, a different story,
Notice whom for wheels are turning,
Turn again and turn towards this time,
All she ask's the strength to hold me,
Then again the same old story,
World will travel, oh so quickly,
Travel first and lean towards this time.
Oh, I'll break them down, no mercy shown,
Heaven knows, it's got to be this time,
Watching her, these things she said,
The times she cried,
Too frail to wake this time.
Oh I'll break them down, no mercy shown
Heaven knows, it's got to be this time,
Avenues all lined with trees,
Picture me and then you start watching,
Watching forever, forever,
Watching love grow, forever,
Letting me know, forever.
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