Marie Antoinette: Scapegoat Queen

Something of an unofficial, nonfiction companion piece to Sofia Coppola's much-ballyhooed feature on the same subject, Marie Antoinette: The Scapegoat Queen recounts the same story in historical documentary form. It tells how the Austrian princess Antoinette's parents married her into the French ruling aristocracy at a tender age. She later came to emblematize the nation's perceived decadence and reckless extravagance, and became a symbol of all that the French revolution sought to oppose - which, in turn, led to her execution by guillotine. The program overlays colorful, vivid narration atop historical paintings and illustrations to bring Antoinette's story to startling life.