Synopsis for
Marie Antoinette (2006) More at IMDbPro »

Based on the award-winning biography "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" by British author, Lady Antonia Fraser, "Marie Antoinette" is a sympathetic account of the private life of the last queen of France before the Revolution.

Sent from her native Austria at the age of fourteen as part of an arranged marriage which will hopefully bring peace between France and Austria, Marie-Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) must adapt to the rigid and unfamiliar etiquette of the decadent court of Versailles and fulfil her duty to provide France with the next heir to the throne. Initially, she has to overcome the awkward indifference of her young husband Louis (Jason Schwartzman) and survive a feud with the king's mistress (Asia Argento.) Frustrated by the failure of her marriage, Marie Antoinette seeks comfort in a reckless series of parties, balls, banquets and spends a fortune on shoes, jewellery and her beauty regime. She is spurred on in her pursuit of pleasure by the decadent society beauty, the duchesse de Polignac (Rose Byrne) and her more serious and prudish companion, the princesse de Lamballe (Mary Nighy.) There is also the issue of her infatuation with a handsome Swedish soldier, count Fersen (Jamie Dornan.)

When the old king dies and Marie Antoinette's husband becomes King Louis the Sixteenth, the new queen's marriage improves and it is suggested that she and her husband eventually fall in love, producing several children. The queen then retreats into a pleasant existence at her small weekend mansion and faux country village, surrounded by her favourites, much to the chagrin of her husband's subjects and the more serious members of the aristocracy, who feel she is flouting their beloved etiquette. Wounded by public hostility and unable to understand her fall in popularity, Marie Antoinette sinks into a melancholia, spurred on by the death of one of her children, from which she is only lifted by the necessity of being courageous in the face of violence - when an angry mob storm the palace. Facing the crowd from her balcony, the queen bows to them and impresses them with courage; the final scene shows the Royal Family being taken away under house arrest with suggestions that the queen will deal with her new unhappy fate with the unexpected courage she has just shown.