Marie Antoinette Is Not Dead

A pregnant woman in labour: Maria Theresia, the empress of Austria. A baby girl, Marie Antoinette, is born in a princely bed, behind a thin drape with a group of watch i ng women - as if on a stage. A scene, incidentally, not unlike the opening of Peter Greenaway's The Baby of Macon. In both cases it is a prelude to a fantastic film drama with the most remarkable complications ... Not surprisingly, it is the Greenaway-producer Kees Kasander who, together with Denis Wigman, is behind the Dutch director Irma Achten's second film, Marie Antoinette Is Not Dead. The Greenaway tone from the opening is maintained throughout the film, both thanks to Nicholas Len's music and to the mixture of raw and sensitive, grotesque and beautiful. Ultimately it is all about power and powerlessness. It is certainly no treat to be born a woman, as Marie Antoinette's father declares. The film appears at the outset to suggest that the balance of power between the sexes is absolute. Even for a princess, her sex can only mean submission - no man would willingly change places with her. But Marie Antoinette still does what she can to take her destiny into her own hands. The narrative moves freely between different periods: from castle-settings with a feel of the eighteenth century to the present day, from old fashioned ball creations to contemporary designer clothes. The omnipresence of the tabloid newspapers and diverse comments about how skillfully the princess manipulates those around her inevitably brings to mind a more topical context. Marie Antoinette suddenly appears to be a second Lady Di, where every detail of her private life is exhibited and enlarged for the greedy viewing pleasure of the assembled world press. Parricide, self-mutilation, jealous murder, incest - this is no easily digested story by Irma Achten. But it has unexpected twists and turns. Or what do you say to a Marie Antoinette that suddenly duplicates, who divides herself into four? And who moreover has one or more disguised lookalikes? The woman who is more than one, who is in disguise - she ought to perhaps be seen in the light of the feministic idea of womanhood as a fancy-dress ball, as a multi-dimensional identity to dress oneself in. For who is the real Marie Antoinette? It is a question the film never answers. It is clear though that the fourfold identity works as a way out for her, and perhaps as an answer to the hopeless powerlessness which is established at the beginning of the film. A way to save yourself, to escape, to be free. ASW