Many of the week's top shows are featured in our new On The Couch weekly podcast, which looks at what we've watched and all that's best in the coming seven days.
"Let them eat cake" was all that was left of France's famous queen after she became the most celebrated victim of the revolutionary guillotine. Did she really say those words? Was she just a spoiled starlet? Or rather, the casualty of a court obsessed by luxury and celebrity?
Sofia Coppola, who drew such a glowing performance from her leading lady in Lost In Translation, gives full rein to Kirsten Dunst, as the 15-year-old Austrian who is essentially sold into marriage to produce an heir for the hapless Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). Closeted and confined by the rigidly hierarchical French court - when getting dressed, Marie is only allowed to accept clothes from the highest ranked maid - she finds an outlet in the frippery and fun of Versailles.
This is enterprising film-making. Coppola is undaunted by bold choices across production design (the film won the Oscar for costume design, while Manolo Blahnik designed dozens of shoes especially), casting (Asia Argento, Marianne Faithfull), or the soundtrack, which features The Strokes, The Cure, Aphex Twin, Adam and the Ants and New Order. This is a champagne fairy tale with plenty of pop.
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Drama, Historical, Biographical, Biography, Movie, Film, Movies, Films
Film
Many of the week's top shows are featured in our new On The Couch weekly podcast, which looks at what we've watched and all that's best in the coming seven days.
(2006) (Sofia Coppola) 
(3 Star)
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