Marie Antoinette

Product Information

Coppola made it clear from the beginning that she didn’t want her cast to adopt French accents. If no one in the film was speaking the language, she argued there was no point in attempting an imitation. Coppola struggled to condense the queen’s short but eventful life into a film that felt accessible. She enjoyed working her way through Marie Antoinette’s teendom—the parties, the fashion—but was less engaged by her tragic final years. Coppola often alternated between writing Marie Antoinette and the script that became her second feature, a story about a young American woman and a fading movie star in Tokyo. Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times (in 2006 ): Hard as it is to believe in the U.S., a country whose citizens have a hard time getting upset about what happened last week, much less centuries ago, the French take their history very seriously. And the film’s undeniably sympathetic look at Marie Antoinette goes contrary to a fierce cultural bias against the queen that made her the most hated woman in France. Schwartzman: It was an experience I’ll never forget. I met my wife because of that movie in a way, because I had met her a few days before the premiere in Los Angeles. I asked her if she’d come as my date and that was pretty much the night I decided I was in love with her. So that movie kinda propelled me into the next phase of my life. Coppola: I thought that young girls would be into it, but I just don’t think it ever found its way and the marketing didn’t find that audience. But it wasn’t disappointing because I have such good memories of the whole experience. I was also having a baby in Paris so by the time it came out, I had other things on my mind. “It’s Like a Piece of Art You Can Watch”

We wanted an environment that reflected the feeling of Marie being changed and manipulated,” Barrett says of the tent he designed for the film’s opening sequence. Photo: Leigh Johnson With production over, some of the film’s more high-end contributions were returned to their owners, such as Blahnik’s eye-popping footwear. Sony and a private collector bought a bulk of the costumes while Canonero kept “a few.” Otherwise, the art department assembled a “fire sale” to sell off all the other luxury items used in Marie Antoinette. 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. Faithfull: I always thought Sofia’s film was a masterpiece. People are not always understood as the geniuses they are at the time—I don’t think I have been! But with time one gets proper recognition. People will only come to understand Sofia’s vision more as time goes by. I haven’t had much of an acting career so Marie Antoinette is something I’m very proud of.

Near the start of 2001, Sofia Coppola wrote to Lady Antonia Fraser on a piece of personalized, pale-blue stationery. Campion-Vincent, Véronique & Shojaei Kawan, Christine, "Marie-Antoinette et son célèbre dire: deux scénographies et deux siècles de désordres, trois niveaux de communication et trois modes accusatoires", Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 2002, full text

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 ] With the sets constructed and the keys to Versailles handed over, Marie Antoinette began filming on March 7, 2005. While the palace has hosted 225 different productions since 1896, Coppola was granted unprecedented access. a b Fraser, Antonia (2002). Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Anchor. pp. xviii, 160. ISBN 978-0385489492. Shannon: There was a very “work hard, play hard” mentality. The studio got my family an apartment in the 15th arrondissement and I only had to work a couple scattered days over a month, so it kinda felt like having my maternity leave in Paris. Everybody lived in different neighborhoods so we’d compare notes on the best restaurants and supermarkets.

Katz: I was pissed off. I told our publicist, “You’ve gotta get a hold on this, nothing happened the way it’s being reported.” We had people jump to their feet and give us a standing ovation at the premiere, so I was upset that it got lost because of something so petty as a few boos at a press screening. Nighy: Some of the dialogue was scripted, but Sofia left quite a lot of space in the script for improvisation. There were lots of descriptions that said “In X conversation, Y is said.” Sofia would just throw us into environments like the masked ball and start filming. Lance and his camera seemed incredibly discreet and very fluid throughout filming, which really allowed the actors to feel un-self-conscious.