Patricia Pisters talks about a shifting emphasis towards sound.
…the sound track is no longer strictly contained by the image track. Sound (not only the voice) gains prominence and even independence at some points… 192
Music definitely gains prominence in Marie Antoinette. This is clear even in the opening credits as Gang of Four’s Natural’s Not In It plays as names printed in bright pink font are flashed onto the screen.
The lyrics..
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
…are played over a black screen presupposing the following image of Kirsten Dunst playing MA lounged on a chair reaching lazily for a dip of cream before looking directly at the camera. This is so self-conscious and playful and it presupposes the rest of the film.
In cinema, when sound takes over from the image, this opening is created, an opening to something beyond the image, a connection with the earth or even the cosmos. 190
Hmmm…so why does Sofia Coppola choose post-punk music as the deterritorializing force? Is there perhaps some connection to be made between the character of MA and the post-punk movement/genre? Perhaps this is the “opening” emphasized by Deleuze and Guattari.
Post-punk began in the late 1970s as a follow on from the original punk movement which was early-mid 70s. Post-punk retained punk characteristics such as anti-authoritarian, free thought, individualism etc… But in terms of music post-punk was more introverted, experimental and complex.
Paralells between post-punk and Marie Antoinette are pretty apparent.
Take this quote from a music website for example:
post-punk “turned inward, creating gloomy, atmospheric soundscapes that bristled with tension and claustrophobic angst.”
“Claustrophobic angst” is a perfect way of describing Marie Antoinette. She is trapped by circumstance, alienated and constantly surveyed and criticized.
At the forefront of post-punk are, of course Gang of Four whoose album Entertainment! has been described as “an album born of frustration, of being boxed in, trapped, imprisoned and socially rejected.” Sound familiar?
Great interview with Gang of Four here.
So we can see here how the music takes us away and opens up to something beyond the image. Creating this parallel, being able to transcend the restrictions of the image perhaps brings us closer to the character of Marie Antoinette. The music perhaps helps us to understand her in a better way. Maybe Sofia Coppola feels that the audience of 2006 can understand the sentiments of the post-punk movement and will therefore understand those of MA?
Jon Savage in his “blank regeneration” article, talks about Elastica taking their melody for Waking Up from the Stranglers’ No More Heroes and questions of plagiarism. He says that they used a song popular when Elastica were in pre-school to make something new and contemporary. I find this similar to the way Coppola has been something new and contemporary out of an event that happened over 200 years ago. The tale of Marie Antoinette has been told over and over again yet the film brings a new perspective, with an entirely new aesthetic. The article asks “can the present escape the shadow of the past?”. But I suppose in the same rhetorical way we can ask (and Coppola does I think) “can the past escape the interpretation of the present?”
