The film itself is very uneven, but he was miscast.
He is awfully wooden throught out the entire movie.
Didn't Sophia learn about wooden actors from her own experience in front of the camera?
Worse actor in the movie by far. Cut the camera to a shadow or tree or the cute pug nibbling on cake. He pulled any part of me that could have liked the film as far as a dramatic piece way down.
shareHe wasn't awful in anything else he has done.
I believe you are mixing up Louis XVI with Schwartzman.
Louis was shy, awkward and not a talkative person. He wasn't unintelligent and was well read but he lacked the confidence to use the knowledge he had. Unfortunately he doesn't make for a very cinematic character.
And it showed in this film.
Exactly what I was going to say. He was actually very spot on, as Louis was the very dry "character". He is universally known in the historical scholarly community as being dull, boring, and very much awkward.
shareThat is very much so because King Louis XVI didn't like confrontation with people and was very much withdrawn, he was dealing with all these financial problems that became burden to the French Monarch.
shareI agree that he's not the most interesting character, but that doesn't mean the acting needs to be awkward in an I'm-just-reading-these-words-off-the-page-and-am-putting-no-emotion-into-my-acting sort of way. That's what it came off as to me. I feel like a shy person wouldn't be so.. upfront and wooden. The things he says strike me as rude and Schwartzman's demeanor came off as haughty and too good to talk to anyone (especially Marie Antoinette). It wasn't even the script, as the things he said would have felt shy and awkward rather than wooden and haughty had it not been Schwartzman playing him. Just my humble opinion.
Well, we can name one Nemo, but I'd like most of them to be Marlin Jr.
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I loved his Louis Xvi, I sympathized with him and grasped that he was an overall good guy who was just in over his head. What others perceived as rude was just him being socially awkward and not knowing how to act.
Clark Kent + Lois Lane 4ever
DC Can Suck It
I loved his Louis XVI also. All the actors and actresses were excellent! JMHO
"oooooh....someone needs a RAID enema to kill that bug up their ass!"
The only problem I had with how he played the role is how ~rude~ he was to Marie.
If anyone here has seen the original Marie Antoinette movie (old B/W) and from reading books, Louis is very shy but kind to her...
This one is kind of cruel to Marie.
"I hear you like to make keys as a hobby..." "Yes" "And you enjoy making keys? "... OBViously!"
When she is trying to seduce him... in bed... " Brr!! Those your feet? They're like icicles!!"
There are a few others...
"Oh Thank you God! Thank you so BLOODY much!" Basil Fawlty
This particular film was trying to show how at odds the characters of Marie and Louis were at the time. Marie was raised in a rather liberated court atmosphere while Louis was raised in a very conservative and religious court (despite the King's philandering).
It is very much a cultural thing. The French royal court was used to being on display 24/7 and being used as icons. Remember when the scene you described occurred both Louis and Marie were on display to the court visitors. Of course he didn't want to discuss his private hobbies in front of an audience. Not to mention the fact that her beauty intimidated him as well.
Louis is also understood to have had a generally unhappy childhood. He was first neglected in favor of his older brother, but then his brother died when he was seven - and then his father four years later, suddenly putting the burden of being the Dauphin of France on him at the age of 11. (And then, to top it off, his mother died two years later.)
I thought it was pretty obvious that the character he played was supposed to be socially awkward, and played the character very well.
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