Marie Antoinette

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Kate Mulleavy, Rodarte co-founder: Sofia has always made such personal films, and Marie Antoinette is one of our favourites. I remember seeing the film in a Paris theatre and just being captivated by [Dunst’s] performance and the whole world Sofia created. I knew I had seen something completely iconic. Johnson, Paul (1990). Intellectuals. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 17–18. ISBN 9780060916572. The 'facts' he so frankly admits often emerge, in the light of modern scholarship, to be inaccurate, distorted or non-existent. 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. 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.

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. 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 Selva: We didn’t wanna limit ourselves to only jewelry that was produced between 1780 and 1794. There’re very few 18th-century jewels and they tend to be heavier, so I selected mostly 19th-century jewels that communicate the youth and hope of the young queen. Sofia wanted the magic of jewelry to help bring the richness of that world to life. “It Was Like Hosting the Ultimate Party”Lever, Évelyne; Temerson, Catherine (2000). Marie-Antoinette: The Last Queen of France. St. Martin's Griffin. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-0312283339. Fraser: I was of course furious to hear about the booing, but as an Englishwoman who had written about Marie Antoinette, I wasn’t surprised. I would visit exhibitions at Versailles and see a French teacher point at a photo of Marie Antoinette and tell young children, “ Voila, le reine maschent.” [“Here, the evil queen.”] 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. Coppola: Marie’s real bedroom was decorated with bright gold and turquoise fabric, so it wasn’t complete artistic license on my part. You never see those pops of color in period films, but I wanted to depict her world the way she saw it. Asia Argento, Madame du Barry: I was surprised when Sofia asked me to be du Barry without even meeting me. I was shooting in France at the time and we were all talking about the big Marie Antoinette movie coming to town. Everyone in the business was curious about it, so I was very flattered when she thought of me for a role.

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. It’d be irresponsible to claim Coppola’s film single-handedly redefined the legacy of Marie Antoinette; today, many Bastille Day celebrations still include playful recreations of the queen’s beheading. No film was going to course-correct over 250 years of villainization, but Coppola provided a new perspective on the monarch that still resonates today.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. Coppola: Marie’s real bedroom was decorated with bright gold and turquoise fabric, so it wasn’t complete artistic license on my part. You never see those pops of colour in period films, but I wanted to depict her world the way she saw it. 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 the 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. Kate Mulleavy, Rodarte co-founder: Sofia has always made such personal films, and Marie Antoinette is one of our favorites. I remember seeing the film in a Paris theater and just being captivated by [Dunst’s] performance and the whole world Sofia created. I knew I had seen something completely iconic. 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

One of the many floral arrangements in the film incorporating pink peony buttercups. Photo: Leigh Johnson Coppola: I asked the Phoenix guys to do a really small cameo and they ended up in fittings for six hours. They were such a small part, but she still wanted to make sure they looked perfect. Desmarest: Anyone who did anything on that film was there that night. I tried to stay responsible, but it was difficult because I drank copious amounts of alcohol. Everyone was so relaxed that we ended up having a proper party with lots of drinking and dancing. It was very informal and there was no hierarchy. We all took photos of each other on the steps of Versailles. I think I finally left around six in the morning. Dornan: You’re making an erratic life choice when you decide you wanna get paid for dressing up, so I’m really proud of the fact that Marie Antoinette was my first job. I’ll be excited to show it to my girls in a few years so they can laugh at how young their dad used to look. 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.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 Byrne: I arrived mid-shoot and on the weekends everyone would go dancing at this one place in Paris I can’t remember the name of – I bet Kirsten would. We were all around our early twenties, so it was a perfect time to be young and dumb in Paris. 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. Notes [ edit ] a.