Marie Antoinette (1938) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch

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  Marie Antoinette (1938) Review: The Good, The Bad & How to Watch  American Film, Drama, History Venice Film Festival, 1938- Winner: Best Actress Academy Awards, 1939- 4 nominations including: Best Actress in a Leading Role When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer poured an astronomical budget into bringing the doomed French queen to the silver screen in nineteen thirty-eight, Hollywood was not merely making a movie; it was constructing an entire vanished world. Directed primarily by W. S. Van Dyke, Marie Antoinette stands today as one of the ultimate monuments to the golden age of American cinema, a sprawling historical epic that blends lavish romance with the looming terror of the French Revolution.  More on Wikipedia or Mubi  Cinematic Splendor and Tragedy in Hollywood's 1938 Marie Antoinette  At the heart of the production is Norma Shearer, reigning royalty of the studio lot and widow of legendary producer Irving Thalberg, who had passionately championed the pr...
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What we saw at Cannes Film Festival, 2024- Part 3

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From Kinds of Kindness to The Balconettes, via Wild Diamond, Motel Destino, The Substance and Anora, there was a lot of nudity on screen this year, making this edition one of the most sexually charged in recent memory. 

However, while there is a common kneejerk reaction to morally inspect films – especially when it comes to assessing nudity, the “male gaze” and with the ongoing conversation regarding the (vital) work of intimacy coordinators on set, these depictions of nudity and sex never felt gratuitous. They fully served the narratives and themes regarding aging, sex work, influencer culture, cautionary fetishization, beauty worship and love.

So, are audiences and critics getting more prudish?

A common theme this year is that no matter the highlight or lowlight, the films could have all done with a bit of a trim. 

10 minutes here, 20 minutes there... Even the shorter ones needed an edit. 

Whether you loved Furiosa or not, it’s baggy. Rumours was hilarious but would have functioned better as an 80-minute satire. And even the excellent The Substance felt like it could have been tighter with 10 minutes off. 

Less is definitely more.


 

 

 

 

 

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