"Let them eat cake" : Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) as a musical vehicle of eighteenth-century gender and colonial identity

With its mixture of period-specific and anachronistic sounds to immerse audiences in Antoinette's world, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006) is a distinctive period biopic. Although criticized for its historical inaccuracy, this unique soundscape offers a vantage point from which to consider music's effect in historical film. Using Marie Antoinette as a case study, this thesis examines the narrative implications of using pre-existing music in film. Through this examination, important historiographical considerations surrounding eighteenth-century French musical culture, colonialism, and gender begin to materialize. I adopt an intersectional approach to continue building upon eighteenth-century France's historiographical narrative by paying close attention to voices often marginalized in historical narratives. By exploring Marie Antoinette through this lens, this thesis contributes to the growing body of literature examining the role of music in shaping historical narrative around identity politics in eighteenth-century France. Ultimately, I argue that Marie Antoinette invites us to see and hear how sound, operatic staging, and portraits of musicking simultaneously obscure and challenge colonial and gendered structures.