SOUNDTRACK: Marie Antoinette - Opus 23 by Dustin O'Halloran

‘Marie Antoinette’, by Sofia Coppola, a film misunderstood upon it’s initial release that has only gained stature with time, has some of the most daring and strangely inspired music picks of the last few years. For us, the key piece in a soundtrack plagued with interesting and in some cases brilliant decisions, is 'Opus 23' by Dustin O’Halloran. If it might be certainly true that on initial thought the first thing we remember might be a pair of Converse shoes subtly placed in the foreground during a mythical musical montage dictated by the rhythm of Bow Wow Wow’s ‘I Want Candy’, once the ribbon of beautiful imagery is undone what remains is the melancholy oppression which gives the film it’s subtle but still potent emotional tenor. When we think of ‘Marie Antoinette’ beyond it’s facade, we see the loneliness of the homonym character walking around the halls and gardens of her opulent prison, or waking up after one of her epic parties only to realize the illusion of meaning melted away with the appearance of the sun. ‘Opus 23’ works as a musical representation of the alienation and longing that shape the deeper core of the film.