Marie-Antoinette – Fourteen-year-old Maria Antonia, the youngest daughter of Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, is a beautiful, charming and naïve archduchess. In 1770, she is sent by her mother to marry Louis-Auguste, the Dauphin of France, to seal an alliance between the two rival countries.
Maria, her name now changed to Marie Antoinette, travels to France, relinquishing all connections with her home country, and meets King Louis XV of France and her future husband, the Dauphin. The betrothed young couple arrive at the Palace of Versailles and are married at once. They are encouraged to produce an heir to the throne as soon as possible, but the next day it is reported to the king that “nothing happened” on the wedding night.
As time passes, Marie-Antoinette finds life at the court of Versailles stifling. Her husband’s courtiers disdain her as a foreigner and blame her for not producing an heir, although the fault really lies with her husband, for the marriage remains unconsummated for an inordinate amount of time. The French court is rife with gossip, and Marie-Antoinette consistently ruffles feathers by defying its ritualistic formality. She instead spends much of her time with the few friends she has in Versailles, including the conservative Princesse de Lamballe and the flamboyant Duchess of Polignac.
Marie-Antoinette also refuses to meet or speak with Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV. Over the years, Maria-Theresa continues to write to her daughter, giving advice on how to impress and seduce the Dauphin. Marie’s attempts to consummate her marriage with her husband fail and they remain childless. Marie spends most of her time buying extravagant clothes and gambling.
After a masquerade ball, Marie and Louis return to find the king dying of smallpox; he orders du Barry to leave Versailles. After the king’s death, Marie-Antoinette’s husband succeeds him as Louis XVI at the age of 19, and Marie-Antoinette becomes queen consort at age 18.
Marie-Antoinette’s brother, Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, comes to visit, counseling her against her constant parties, advice that she finds easy to ignore. Joseph meets Louis XVI at the Royal Zoo and explains to him the “mechanics” of sexual intercourse in terms of “key-making”, as one of the king’s favorite hobbies is locksmithing. Thereafter, Louis and Marie Antoinette have sex for the first time, and in 1778, Marie Antoinette gives birth to a daughter, Marie Thérèse.
As the child matures, Marie-Antoinette spends much of her time at the Petit Trianon, a small chateau in the park of Versailles. It is also at this time that she begins an affair with Axel Fersen. As France’s financial crisis worsens, food shortages and riots increase, her public image deteriorates and her luxurious lifestyle and seeming indifference to the struggles of the French people earned her the name “Madame Deficit”.
As the queen matures, Marie Antoinette focuses less on her social life and more on her family and makes what she considers to be significant financial adjustments. Her mother dies in 1780, and the following year she gives birth to a son, Louis-Joseph, Dauphin of France. She gives birth to another son, Louis-Charles, in 1785, and another daughter, Sophie, in 1786, who dies a month before her first birthday.
As the French Revolution erupts with the storming of the Bastille, the royal family resolves to stay in France, unlike most of the court. Rioting Parisians force them to leave Versailles for Paris. The film ends with the royal family’s transfer to the Tuileries. The last image is Marie-Antoinette’s bedroom at Versailles, destroyed by angry rioters.
The School Nurse Files Songs List
Marie-Antoinette Free Songs List Soundtrack
1. Générique début (0:56)
2. Quatuor de l’adolescence (2:29)
3. Complots (3:11)
4. Famille d’Autriche (1:24)
5. Famille de France (1:46)
6. Marie-Antoinette au clavecin (1:46)
7. Union sacrée (3:32)
8. Prête pour Paris (2:24)
9. Friends and Family (2:08)
10. La signature du divorce (5:29)
11. Papa Roi et la Tomate (2:40)
12. Music Room Ariette (1:36)
13. Dernier essai (3:07)
14. Le baptême (1:54)
15. Folie Française (5:19)
16. Le Roi est mort (6:34)
17. L’impératrice n’est plus (5:49)
18. Opéra l’Ernestine (2:35)
