Marie Antoinette

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One of the areas of Versailles that Coppola and her team got to know most intimately was the Petit Trianon. The château was a gift from Louis XVI to his wife, who would go there to escape the stuffy formalities of the palace. No one was permitted to enter the property without permission from the queen, whose greatest joy was lounging in the gardens with her children and members of her inner circle. Coppola: I always love working with Sarah. We find our tone in the editing room as we go. She has a great sense of humor and subtlety that helps so much in knowing how to capture performances the way I like. While shooting the “Morning Dressing Ceremony” scenes, I wanted to capture that idea of it feeling like showtime first thing in the morning. I was thinking of Roy Schneider’s morning ritual scenes from All That Jazz.

Dunst: Getting to work with Molly was such a huge deal to me because I was the biggest SNL fan in the world. Sofia is so good at casting people who work well off of each other. The cast was her reimagining of what the court would look and feel like at that time—there’s the funny one, that one’s the gossip, she’s the mean girl. It was like high school at Versailles.

“The Film is Still Debated Within the Walls of Versailles”

The phrase was attributed to Marie Antoinette by Alphonse Karr in Les Guêpes of March 1843. [11] [Note a] Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal. She is found guilty of high treason and is sentenced to death. Coppola: I definitely wanted the casting to have a pop aspect, hence having people like Marianne Faithfull and Molly Shannon. I think you can pretty much put powder and make-up on anybody to fit a certain aesthetic. It was fun because I got to cast people I really admire. Rousseau does not name the "great princess", and he may have invented the anecdote altogether, as the Confessions is not considered entirely factual. [6] Attribution to Marie Antoinette [ edit ] Tian Chi, quoted in Joshua A. Fogel, Peter Gue Zarrow, Imagining the People: Chinese Intellectuals and the Concept of Citizenship, 1890–1920, 1997, ISBN 0765600986, p. 173

Coppola: Usually when you have a successful film, you get one free pass to make something you’re passionate about. After Lost in Translation, I thought I could use that pass on Marie Antoinette because it was gonna be such an expensive film.

“You Wanna Shoot in France? Go For It!”

lively and imaginative examination of the public personae of the French Queen."— London Review of Books Coppola was mesmerized by this pair of 25-carat diamond earrings, featured in several keys scenes. Photo: Courtesy of Sony Katz: A lot of studios were interested, but all of them wanted us to shoot in Bulgaria or somewhere other than Paris because it would be much cheaper. But Sofia stood her ground and said this wasn’t the type of film where Toronto could substitute for Versailles. Sony said, “You wanna shoot in France? Go for it!” She had optioned the film rights to the esteemed British historian’s best-selling biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Of all the books Coppola read about the doomed teen queen, she considered Lady Antonia’s to be “the best one… full of life, not a dry historical drama.” Unlike other portraits, which drew her as an overindulgent harpy who deserved to lose her head, Marie Antoinette: The Journey approached its subject with a radical sense of empathy. “The elegiac should have its place as well as the tragic, flowers and music as well as revolution,” Lady Antonia wrote in her author’s note. “Above all, I have attempted to tell Marie Antoinette’s dramatic story without anticipating its terrible ending.” Upon her arrival in Versailles, Marie Antoinette lived in the Queen’s State Apartment and was bound by the official rituals of her royal position: the waking-up ceremony, the elaborate preparations, royal audiences, public meals, etc. Having grown up with the less elaborate ceremonial routine of Austria’s royal palaces, she had a hard time adapting to Versailles’ complex etiquette and tried to seek out a more private life. Surrounded by a circle of friends whom she had chosen herself (although not always wisely), she preferred to remain in her Private Chambers, located behind her State Apartments and which she hoped to extend into the floor above, and in the Petit Trianon, built by Louis XV and given to her as a gift by Louis XVI on his accession.

Dornan: Marie Antoinette was not only my acting debut, but also my first audition. I signed with my agent in London on a Friday and had a meeting with the film’s casting director the following Tuesday. Two days later they flew me to Paris to audition with a different casting director, and if it went well I was supposed to stay in town and meet Sofia in the Hemingway Bar at the Ritz. It went well, so Sofia and I had a couple drinks and she casually told me that I got the part. It was all very fast and very surreal. I thought, “Wow, this is gonna be an easy career!” And then I barely worked for eight years. But it was certainly a nice way to start. “There Was Plenty of Movie Magic Involved” The Declaration of Pillnitz is issued by Austria and Prussia, threatening war against France should any harm befall the French royal family. Queen Marie Antoinette of France begins an affair with Count Axel von Fersen, the origin of many rumors and gossip accusing her of sexual depravity. Schwartzman: It’s not like anyone was hung out to dry. We all felt like we supported Sofia’s vision and worked hard to make it come true. I just didn’t anticipate those reactions. On the one hand it doesn’t feel good to hear someone say something you made isn’t good, but you also can't really argue with them. We made the movie we wanted to make and all we could do was stand by it. Caraco: Don’t forget that the pug who played Mops took home the Palmes Dog. Everyone talks about the booing, but not the fact that we also won an award!Dunst: Hair took a very long time. Each morning was an event because Sofia liked my hairline and didn’t want me to wear a wig. Odile would put these spongy rings in my hair to form a base, and then apply pieces on top. She used full cans of this dry shampoo called Klorane so my hair wouldn’t break. Makeup, thankfully, was very fast because it was just rosy cheeks and pale skin. I didn’t even wear mascara. Thierry Boutemy, Marie Antoinette florist: I was quite anxious. Filming took place in winter so even the simplest flowers became exotic. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to meet the demands of the production. At the end of the first day of shooting Sofia asked for me: “Who is Thierry? Who made the flowers?” She told me she liked them a lot, and that gave me a lot of courage to continue. It was difficult, but I knew that I was participating in a project that would remain in time. Flowers are ephemeral and on film they become eternal.

Coppola: I thought it’d be weird if everyone spoke with some Ye Olde Mid-Atlantic tone. I thought as long as nobody was speaking French, everyone might as well just speak with their preferred accent. It’s kind of a mish-mosh, and was maybe a weird decision at the time, but that was my thinking. Another problem with the dates surrounding the attribution is that when the phrase first appeared, Marie Antoinette was not only too young to have said it, but living outside France as well. Although published in 1782, Rousseau's Confessions were finished thirteen years prior in 1769. Marie Antoinette, only fourteen years old at the time, would not arrive at Versailles from Austria until 1770. Since she was completely unknown to him at the time of writing, she could not have possibly been the "great princess" he mentioned. [14] Other attributions [ edit ] Argento: So the Austrians are British and the French are American—who cares? I’m Italian and everyone is speaking English! This is a film by an auteur with a point of view, not a documentary. Notes [ edit ] a. Having gotten her start as a child model at the age of three, Dunst was an industry veteran before she could legally drive. Shot between two Spider-Man sequels, Marie Antoinette signaled the type of auteur-driven material the then-23 year-old was interested in pursuing more.Dornan: It takes a lot of shots for me to start dancing, and I remember dancing quite a lot, if that tells you anything. Despite all this, Marie Antoinette was indeed popular during her first few years in France. Young, beautiful, and charming, her first official visit to Paris in 1773 was a grand success. Her practiced gracefulness endeared her to the ladies of the court, particularly the dauphin's aunts, and she made efforts to connect with her husband as well, accompanying him on his beloved hunts. But she still had rivals, most notably Madame Du Barry, Louis XV's chief royal mistress, whose influence over the aging king made her regent of France in all but name. Queen Marie Antoinette of France gives birth to her first child, daughter Marie-Thérèse, eight years after she married Louis XVI of France.