Director Watch Podcast Ep. 41 – ‘Marie Antoinette’ (Sofia Coppola, 2006)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 41 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by AwardsWatch Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello to discuss the next film in their Sofia Coppola series, Marie Antoinette (2006).

Three years after Sofia Coppola was riding high off her Oscar winning, smash hit Lost in Translation, she cashed in her black check to create a stylized, personal account of the life of one of history’s most recognizable figures. With Marie Antoinette, she took a forty-million-dollar budget and made it feel like a hundred-million-dollar epic about a young women force into a social, political world she is not ready for, and must find a way to blend in before she is devoured from the inside out. Led by a magnificent ensemble, as well as luscious costumes, production design and a modern soundtrack, Marie Antoinette may have been criticized by audiences at the time of release for not being the movie they wanted after Coppola’s era defining masterpiece, but over time, it has become an essential piece of filmmaking within her celebrated career. Ryan, Jay and Sophia break down Dunst’s brilliant performance, the non-existing French accent work by the casts, Coppola’s confident scope and vision for the film, the idea of a ‘birds in a cage’ that the director loves to explore, the career of Jason Schwartzman, and what their favorite type of pie is (they aren’t that big on cake).

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 2h13m. The guys will be back next week to begin their new series covering the films of Sofia Coppola with a review of her next film, Somewhere. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).