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 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. Blahnik: Working on this film meant I got to fulfill my boyhood dream of making shoes for Marie Antoinette—even if it was three centuries later and for a film. It’s one of the great masterpieces of the last 20 years. And I’m not just saying that because I was involved. One of the many floral arrangements in the film incorporating pink peony buttercups. Photo: Leigh Johnson

Fraser: There’s a historian who said “We should always be aware that what now lies in the past once lay in the future.” Marie never anticipated what sorrows lay ahead, and how could she? She was sad about leaving [her pug] Mops behind [in Vienna] but she was going to be the Queen of France. She expected to have a good time, and she certainly had one. 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. The phrase was attributed to Marie Antoinette by Alphonse Karr in Les Guêpes of March 1843. [11] [Note a] Schwartzman: I knew Kirsten from over the years but it was a dream to actually work together. We would do these scenes in bed where we’re not connecting, but you’ve gotta be so connected to do that. It felt like we could just be together and laugh a lot. Those are some of my most vivid memories from set.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.

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. 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. Booth, Trudie Maria (2005). French Verbs and Idioms. University Press of America. p.127. ISBN 978-0-7618-3194-5.Lanser, Susan S. (2003). "Eating Cake: The (Ab)uses of Marie-Antoinette". In Goodman, Dena; Kaiser, Thomas E. (eds.). Marie Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen. Routledge. pp.273–290. ISBN 978-0415933957. 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. Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase " Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", [1] said to have been spoken in the 18th century by "a great princess" upon being told that the peasants had no bread. The French phrase mentions brioche, a bread enriched with butter and eggs, considered a luxury food. The quote is taken to reflect either the princess's frivolous disregard for the starving peasants or her poor understanding of their plight. Barrett: The bedroom was the most historically accurate set. The fabrics we used for her bed and the walls were incredibly detailed reprints of the real thing. We built a lot of the furniture since it wasn’t like we could rent all those different antiques. We had to be honest not only to history but also to the craftsmanship of the period.

Coppola: Lance understood that I wanted those scenes at the Trianon to have a really intimate, youthful feeling. Lance’s style doesn’t have that typical formality you expect from a period piece, there’s a certain looseness to it. I wanted to have a more intimate connection with how you see and connect to the character of Marie Antoinette. 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. To commemorate its anniversary, Vogue talked to the cast, crew, and more about how Marie Antoinette came together. “I Was Less Interested in the Political Side of History’” 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 ] Near the start of 2001, Sofia Coppola wrote to Lady Antonia Fraser on a piece of personalised, pale-blue stationery.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. Coppola: Amy was totally behind me. She pursued the project so adamantly and was willing to give me the budget to make it the way I wanted. She totally got it, whereas some straight guy at another studio maybe wouldn’t have. “I’d Do Anything for Sofia” 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