Director Sofia Coppola’s new film, Marie-Antoinette, has the look of a Merchant-Ivory period drama, with enough gorgeous costumes, jewelry, and gastronomic porn to rival the splendor of the Baroque château of Versailles, where most of the action takes place. (Coppola paid the relatively low fee of $20,000 each day that she shot at Versailles, according to news reports.)

Its soul, however, remains in the late 20th century, showing the young Austrian princess, who becomes Queen of France, as a party girl with a shoe fetish and a personal soundtrack of 80s/90s punk. In all her films, Coppola has hooked viewers with a unique voice, that of a stifled or self-stifling young woman. It was probably inevitable that Coppola would take on the story of one of the more infamous party girls in history, but by doing so she has made her first failure, though there is still some to enjoy in Marie-Antoinette.