Marie Antoinette

[Gamblour.]

and pete...shhh!

or as the french say, "chut!"

even if LiT was massively overrated, it was still a good movie and i hav no reason to expect otherwise from sofia.

Mostly, that movie was very true about "the moment" between two people and all the little things involving that. That's what I'm looking forward to most...stripping away the artifice and mystique of a legend and humanizing Marie, which is apparent from the trailer, but the spirit of the 80s direction is the most exciting of all.

[modage]

In Marie-Antoinette's head
Source: Les Inrockuptibles

JML/ When did you first think about doing a film on Marie-Antoinette?
SC/ After Virgin Suicides, I was looking for ideas, and one of my father's friend told me he was working on a period film that had to do with the pre French Revolution period, with Marie-Antoinette at the core of it. He told me that she was 14 when she first arrived in France, that her husband hadn1t touched her for about seven years. I didn1t imagine that she could have been that young. The idea that a 14 year's old girl could become, rather brutally, the Queen of France was a fascinating one to me. I then heard that Antonia Fraser had written a book devoted to Marie-Antoinette and I read it very quickly. I had been interested also by this period myself, the XVIIIth century in France, for quite a while, the atmosphere at Versailles, a place that functionned autarkically. I liked the idea of reconstituting that period, of doing a costume drama : to do that became then some sort of challenge for me.

JML/ Did you first try to do that film before shooting Lost in Translation?
SC/ I was working on MA's screenplay much before LIT. In fact LIT was at first nothing but a distraction from MA, a means for me to get away from a project that I knew was going to be rather Pharaonic. After LIT I decided to concentrate myself entirely to MA, it then became a sort of obsession for me. I really put myself to work on the screenplay of MA on the very day that followed the end of LIT's shooting.

JML/ Was it difficult to gather the sufficient budget to shoot MA?
SC/ The success of LIT helped me a great deal for that. But I was also very cautious for it not to become to heavy, I didn't want it to jeopardize (weigh) my creativity. Compared to many other Hollywood films MA is a rather low-budget film. Indeed, shooting in France, having a lot of walk-on actors, all that cost a lot of money, but I was very carefull that the film doesn't become a bottomless well (?). What was sure was that after shooting two films with modest (low) budget, MA was for me a «big-budget» film.

JML/ Could you say «Marie-Antoinette, that's me»? (a reference to Flaubert's «Madame Bovary, that's me», my note).
SC/ No, but I found it fascinating that there should be so many different «perceptions» of this character. When you look closely at the facts, she was a person who was sometimes hated, sometimes adulated. She never was ecumenical. And I must confess there truly are things with her that have «interpellated» me on a very personal level at times : the side of her that is the rebel teenager, her relationships with her family. But I honestly think these are all things any girl can identify herself with. That being said, between Versailles, the French Revolution and my personal life, there is evidently not that much in common. (laughs)

JML/ MA may resemble the girl characters we've already seen in your previous films, rather melancholic young girls in the end. And who live as a band, always together, at the same time. How (to what extent) this kind of character may resemble you?
SC/ Melancholy is more a topic I'm interested into than something I deeply feel. There's inded some form of melancholy in me, but I'm not the kind of girl who spends her all afternoon looking by the window with a sad gaze at all. As for the band of girlfriends, there again, that's something I want to film but that isn't in keeping with my life. I am more solitary a person than MA.

JML/ Do you think we can conceive MA as the third and last instalment of a trilogy that started with Virgin Suicides and was carried on with LIT?
SC/ I have never consciously thought about that. But with some distance, I think we can indeed conceive it this way. There are some similitudes between the three films, but also a certain evolution. Every time I try to push the reflection a bit further.I also know that each one of my films tells the story of a girl who tries to grow up a bit more. In Virgin Suicides, it's the story of a girl who tries to emancipate herself from her family backgrond. LIT, tells the story of a girl who lives her «first» life experiences, far away from her home. And in MA in the end, we follow the path of a teen girl who becomes a woman progressively : that could indeed be some form of conclusion.

JML/ The common denominators with these three films is also the idea of a young girl who is stuck in a specific social environment. Have you already felt that kind of pressure yourself?
SC/ I don't think I've ever been stuck that way. I have felt some difficulties to achieve my goals at times, to be the one I really wanted to be. But never to the extreme (extent) of the heroines in my films , this feeling was more measured with me.

JML/ Why did you choose not to show MA's death?
SC/ I didn't want to show the evasion, the arrest, the guillotine, I didn't want to ÇreconstituteÈ the whole story, that wasn't the goal of the film. I wanted to concentrate myself on the personal evolution of the character, up until the point where I could show how she eventually ends up accepting her ineluctable death, way before being confronted to it. I didn't picture myself shooting in a jail either, and even less so reconstituting it. And above all, I didn't want to show a decapitated head on the ground in a mix of mud and blood.

JML/ Why did you choose Kirsten Dunst?
SC/ When I read the first descriptions of MA, I instantaneously thought about her. MA was said to be spirited (sparkling wit) and have a great sense of humor, and that at the same time one could feel that she had a certain frailty. For me Kirsten incarnates (personifies) all that wonderfully. And then there's her German origins : she also had the perfect complexion (Sofia laughs). She was 17 when we were doing Virgin Suicides. She's now a woman, her acting has progressed immensely. We talked about the character, I gave her books, but she quickly identified which feeling, which idea of MA she was to personify. I really love working with her. She is always very quick at understanding what I want and on the set we don't have to talk that much.

JML/ Before the shooting started did you watch a lot of period films, Barry Lyndon for example?
SC/ I had watched lots of them even before considering doing MA. Like Barry Lyndon for instance which is indeed a tremendous film. But I didn't make the effort to watch them again prior to the shooting. I wanted to shoot my own period film, my own version of it, more influenced by contemporary things such as photography or music.

JML/ The typography you use in the credits (title and all) reminds us a bit of the one we could see at the time of Punk or New-Wave.
SC/ That is a way for me to say, from the start of the film, that is my own interpretation of a period film. At some point in the film one can even see briefly a pair of Converse shoes next to a series of period shoes. That kind of shot allows us to say that we're not going to follow 100% the rules of the genre, to «cut» with the sometimes burdensome aspect some period films may have. Similarly I didn't try to imitate the XVIIIth century picturality at all. On the contrary, I did a collage book for the different teams that were in charge of the costumes, with contemporary photographs almost strictly. There were a lot of photographs from Helmut Newton for instance.
To go back to the topic of typography, it also evokes the one used by all the bands that were influencing me while I was writing, bands like Bow Wow Wow which curiously had a neoromantic quality and are also pretty much into XVIIIth century France. As for «Ceremony», the last song written by Ian Curtis from Joy Division, that became the first single of New Order, it seemed perfect to me for the party scene. The song is very hard and dazzling at the same time.

JML/ How do you work for the musical illustration in your films? Do you choose your music a posteriori or does it happen to you to conceive a specific scene for a scepicic song (music)?
SC/ When I write a screenplay, there's always music around me. It has already happened to me that a particular song generates a very precise idea. But generally speaking, the music is there more to create an atmosphere, to give an emotional color to the film. I work with someone in particular, Brian Reitzell, who does mountains of compilations for me. We then sit down together and think about the very songs (pieces) that will be the best.

JML/ Do you listen to music everyday?
SC/ Yes I do a lot, particularly when I am driving. But I am not addicted to it, I can live without music.

JML/ What song do you listen to the most lately?
SC/ I don't know. I came to Paris without my iPod. But anyway, let"s say that the LP I listen to the most at the moment is Phoenix's. (She laughs).

JML/ Marianne Faithfull plays MA's mother. Why this choice?
SC/ Because what one remembers of Marianne Faithfull in the first place is her voice, with such a particular tone. The character of MA's mother is very rare on screen, but on the other hand the reading (voice-over) of the letters she sends to her daughter is one of the film's key narrative drive. Hence my choice of an actress with a clearly identifiable voice.

JML/ Did you work a lot on the costumes?
SC/ Yes. I had the chance to have Milena Canonero on the film, who worked a lot with Kubrick, on Barry Lyndon for instance, or with my father on Tucker or Cotton Club. She really understood where I wanted to go : not to transform the set into a museum. I didn't want the costumes to «slow down» the film's rhythm, and I believe I've succeeded to do so thanks to her.

JML/ Your last two films take place in foreign countries - Japan and France - and Virgin Suicides, took place in an American suburb but was shot in Canada. Like your heroines who land in worlds whose codes they don't master, you put yourself, as a director, into the foreigner's situation.
SC/ Virgin Suicides took place in a small American town because it was the case in the original book by Jeffrey Eugenides. But due to financial reasons, we chose to shoot in Canada. After, it's the topic that determines the shooting location. The Japan for LIT, Versailles for MA. The location imposes itself logically according to the story. I think that I could shoot anywhere and I am not particularly attached to the idea of shooting in America, which is something I haven't done yet. This position of the «foreigner» in which I put myself when I shoot and of which you1re talking about, comes from my childhood for sure. I used to spend a lot time with my father on his shootings in places that were not familiar to me. Shooting abroad is surely a way for me to recreate that. But most of all it is something that is beyond cinema for me. I love to lose my reflexes, to discover new places.

JML/ What is the place you call «home»?
SC/ My flat in NY. But I really love travelling, changing places and trying to feel myself at home the as quickly as possible.

JML/ What do you do when you don't work on a film?
SC/ It's rather hard for me not to do anything. Doing a film takes a lot of time, a lot of energy. I devote a great part of my life to my cinema. Betwen two films, I like to devote my time to lighter projects, like doing a videoclip for the White Stripes (I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself, with Kate Moss.)

JML/ In your film, MA has a place to herself that she calls her «Trianon». Do you have one as well?
SC/ No, my own private «Trianon» would be Nature.

JML/ Which directors do you find yourself close today?
SC/ I am very good friend with Wes Anderson, I really love his work passionately. I adore Terrence Malick, and we had a joke with the crew on MA when we called the scenes where she finds shelter in her little farm at the Trianon, the «Terrence Malick sequences». I also love the films of Pedro Almodovar and Gus Van Sanr, even if I was slightly perplexed with Last Days.

JML/ Is your father's judgement on your films more important than any others?
SC/ It's important for me, but is it the most important of all? I don't think so. There are many other judgements that count a lot for me. But my father is a big support for me generally speaking, I was very much influenced by his way of working : he's always worked in «family» in all the senses of the word. My brother Roman worked with me on MA. There were moments when I was shooting in some parts of Versailles' castle and he was shooting in others at the same time. I knew that he knew exactly what I wanted. And it is fantastic to be able to work like that. I know how precious this is.

JML/ Do you have a project for your next film?
SC/ No, not for the moment.

ps - Manalo Blahnik made the shoes.
Also, some French reviewers have seen pre-showings and adored it - French Premiere gave it 4/4 - which is great because the French press is always very harsh, especially when Sofia and Kirsten both said the French probably won't like it. French press is definitely more stuck up than American press....so this is a good sign.

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/6749567.html

[cron]

this movie to me sounds very very interesting. especially because it pays recognition to barry lyndon, the best film of all time, and also because it looks like the ending of the story won't be in the guillotine, so it's gonna be about ma's taste and lowbrow extravaganza. even if this period of history sucked, i like the 'her vision' thing, sofia's already proven that her aesthetics and shit are very rich, her only strong quality as a director prolly. and i still want to be her husband very much.

edit: and i just saw it has steve coogan!!! by the way, he's getting a new series this year.

[Pozer]

and i still want to be his husband very much.

Did you mean to put this line after the Steve Coogan line?

[cron]

i've had this awkward problem before, but it's because in spanish we use a neutral adverb for these kind of situations instead of gender.  lost in translation blah blah blah.

[elpablo]

This looks like a movie John Hughes would have written if he'd minored in world history. My girlfriend will probably love it.

[MacGuffin]

Royal lineage
With 'Marie Antoinette,' Sofia Coppola notes it's good to be queen.
By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times



WHEN you are the third generation of a celebrated Hollywood family, when your father's an eminent director, people tend to underestimate you. It's been happening to Sofia Coppola all her life, and, frankly, it's fine by her.

"I think it's an advantage," she says, smiling. "If people don't expect much, even though you have to work harder to prove you're not a spoiled brat, if you just do OK it's considered good. I like being under the radar. I'd rather be the kid who got into the grown-up section at Cannes than one of the big, expected films. It's better to be an underdog and hope."

At first glance, it's easy to see why people might underestimate Coppola, whose Kirsten Dunst-starring historical drama, "Marie Antoinette," premieres here tonight. Dressed simply in jeans, white shirt and flip-flops, she looks younger than someone who celebrated her 35th birthday the Sunday before Cannes opened.

And unlike many of her hyped-up directing peers, Coppola projects an air of casual, unruffled calm and, refreshingly, is not stuck on herself. But the consideration that causes her to uncap a bottle of water for a visitor and allow a room service waiter to go on and on about his relatives in America doesn't prevent her from being determined as well as intelligent and thoughtful.

"You don't have to be a yeller to direct; you can still be strong and get what you need done as long as you're clear about what you want," she says, yes, quietly. "I guess I have a bossy side, but I'm polite about it."

Ready or not, Coppola's days of being underestimated are over. First she won a screenwriting Oscar and became the first American woman to be nominated for best director, for "Lost in Translation." Now, with the quietly exuberant "Marie Antoinette," costarring the wild mixture of Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Marianne Faithfull and Asia Argento, she has even bent history to her will, disarmingly blending her exquisitely modern sensibility with a potent re-creation of the salad days of the last queen of France. This is accomplished, impressive filmmaking on both an epic and an intimate scale.

Kind of like "The O.C." set in Versailles, "Marie Antoinette," which is based on Antonia Fraser's authoritative biography, reminds us that Marie and her husband, Louis XVI, were real people, ages 18 and 20, when he became king and they entered history's stage.

"I liked the idea that she was a real girl, someone who didn't like to do schoolwork, that there were all these teenagers running around in Versailles being in charge," Coppola says. "Now, looking back, I see my films [starting with "The Virgin Suicides"] as a trilogy about characters who are all trying to grow up and find their identity."

Coppola first thought of doing a film about Marie Antoinette when production designer and family friend Dean Tavoularis talked to her about Fraser's book, about the life of someone who went from Austria to Versailles when she was 14 and had a marriage that was not consummated for years. Coppola optioned the book, began a screenplay, took a break to write what became "Lost in Translation," then returned to this story that "kept nagging at me."

"I liked the idea just as a challenge to myself; I liked that it was so different for me," the director explains. "I'm not excited by huge crowds; I like more intimate stories. This was so big [a $40-million budget], with a couple of hundred extras where I'd never worked with any before, it was sort of daunting."

Also, Coppola says, she liked that "Marie Antoinette" was different in another way.

"This was something I hadn't seen a lot of in the movies of my contemporaries, who are shooting super-realistic scenes in 7-Elevens. This was kind of a reaction to that."

Coppola was also determined to do a historical movie "in my style, to make it my own film, something I wanted to see. That was the most important thing, not to fall into the habits of generic period movies, not to get pushed into 'this is how you should do it.' "

So the director settled on a seductive pastel palette inspired by the "sherberty colors" of the celebrated macarons of Paris confectioner Ladurée. And she "never thought twice" about her decision to use pop music on the soundtrack.

"Brian Reitzell, the music supervisor, would make me what we called 'Versailles mix' CDs," she says of the prep for a soundtrack that eventually included Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" and songs by New Order, the Strokes and the Cure. "I wanted atmospheric, dreamy contemporary music, that kind of teenage girl spirit." And by playing a rousing Gang of Four anthem over the opening credits, the film effectively announces that this is going to be a historical drama unlike those we've seen before.

Coppola was also determined to shoot at Versailles, and she got unprecedented use of the palace, including being able to film at the Petit Trianon and its fragile theater, where the queen put on plays.

"I had more access, it was easier to shoot there than at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo," the director says, comparing it with the setting for "Lost in Translation."

Just as she had persevered in getting Bill Murray to star in that film, Coppola did not stop until she got what this film needed.

"I'm really determined; I won't take no," she says. "If people say it, I ask again in a different way. I can't imagine setting out to make a movie and not being clear about what you want; that's the point of doing it. That's why I want to make movies. I made 'Lost in Translation' to see Bill Murray in it. In life, there are compromises. In making movies, you get to have it exactly how you imagined."

Though their personal and moviemaking styles are poles apart, this passionate determination seems to be a legacy from Francis Ford Coppola, the director's father.

"Even if it seemed impossible, he'd find some way to do it," the younger Coppola remembers. "He seemed very heroic out in the Philippines, getting his movie made."

Now, looking back at all the time spent on her father's sets, including the Philippine staging ground for "Apocalypse Now," it seems to Sofia Coppola that "we were always, like, in training for film. I remember him talking to me about screenwriting when I was a little kid, telling me what made a good second act. Who talks to a 12-year-old girl like that?"

One father did, and one daughter remembered.

[MacGuffin]

Sofia Coppola had a ball with "Marie-Antoinette"

Sofia Coppola is back in the Cannes limelight after debuting her first film, "The Virgin Suicides" at the Directors' Fortnight sidebar in 1999.

With the worldwide accolades for 2003's "Lost in Translation," Coppola clearly has stepped out of the shadow of her father, Francis Ford Coppola. Her follow-up, the $40 million period piece "Marie-Antoinette," marks her first contender for the coveted Palme d'Or prize.

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER: WERE YOU ALWAYS INTERESTED IN MARIE ANTOINETTE?

Sofia Coppola: Not really. I was always interested in 18th century France and Versailles. It seemed so foreign, that people lived like that. I've never been a big history buff or studied much about that period. I was talking to my dad's friend Dean Tavoularis, who was reading about Marie Antoinette, who was only 14 when she was sent to Versailles. And her husband (King Louis XVI) didn't consummate the marriage for seven years. To compensate for that, she would go out partying and shopping. It was interesting to hear the personal side of a mythic figure. I had heard that Antonia Fraser was coming out with this book. Nan Talese, a friend of my mom's, helped me to contact the publisher and get an advance copy. After "Virgin Suicides," I optioned it and started working on the script. I was also working on "Lost in Translation."

THR: DID YOU FIND THE ADAPTATION DIFFICULT?

Coppola: It was a daunting task, adapting a huge book about a long, whole life. As I worked on it, I concentrated on the section at Versailles. It starts with her arrival at 14 and ends with the revolution, when she was in her early 30s. I took a few passes. There was so much editing to figure out what to include. I didn't want to do a standard biopic. I wanted to feel the vitality and freshness of these young people, so we feel like we're there with them for a few hours as opposed to looking back at history through varnish.

THR: WERE YOU FAMILIAR WITH OTHER HOLLYWOOD MOVIES ABOUT MARIE ANTOINETTE?

Coppola: I watched Norma Shearer (in W.S. Van Dyke's 1938 "Marie Antoinette"), then I turned it off because I didn't want to be influenced. There are similarities to (Josef von Sternberg's 1934) "Scarlet Empress," which becomes decadent, and (Zhang Yimou's 1991) "Raise the Red Lantern."

THR: HOW DID YOU CONVINCE A STUDIO TO FUND A $40 MILLION PERIOD DRAMA AND STILL LET YOU KEEP YOUR FREEDOM?

Coppola: When I finished the script and was ready to make the movie, I met with Columbia's Amy Pascal. She was very enthusiastic about the project. I approached it like a low-budget movie; I kept it as small as possible to keep creative control. We had Japanese (Tohokashinsha Film Co.) and French (Pathe) financing from the two companies on "Lost in Translation."

THR: YOU HAD WORKED WITH KIRSTEN DUNST ON "VIRGIN SUICIDES." WHY WAS SHE RIGHT FOR MARIE ANTOINETTE?

Coppola: As I read the book, I could picture Kirsten Dunst in the part. Her father was German, so she has a pale complexion. She can be bubbly, light and silly and have a serious deeper side. It's not common to be able to express both.

THR: YOUR OTHER CASTING, FROM YOUR COUSIN JASON SCHWARTZMAN TO COMEDIANS MOLLY SHANNON AND STEVE COOGAN, LENDS THE FILM A HUMOROUS TONE.

Coppola: I did not set out to make a comedy, but I like doing things that I find amusing and fun to watch. There are comedic elements in it. In this role, Jason is held back; he shows his sensitive side. People know his more comedic side. He was up for gaining weight, like 40 pounds. King Louis was known for being into food. We had an amazing staff of 18th century food experts who'd build these elaborate concoctions to re-create this over-the-top lifestyle.

THR: WHY DID AUSTRIAN EMPEROR JOSEPH II (DANNY HUSTON) HAVE TO GIVE HIS SISTER ADVICE ON HOW TO GET PREGNANT?

Coppola: This is a real story. His mother, the Empress of Austria, after learning that Louis hadn't wanted to consummate the marriage, sent Joseph to speak to Marie Antoinette and Louis about what was going on. They do consummate eventually, and she has his child.

THR: HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO HANDLE THIS HODGEPODGE OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN ACCENTS FOR A STORY SET IN FRANCE?

Coppola: I decided to let everyone have their own accent and not worry about it. I like the style of the European movies of the '60s and '70s with international casts. I didn't want a mid-Atlantic accent for the American actors. I wanted the least distractions, so you don't notice it, like "Amadeus," real people talking in a way you can relate to. The actors all toned it down a bit. I didn't want Dunst to be too Californian. There's nothing Texan about Rip Torn (as Louis XV). I wanted to try to make it feel contemporary and 18th century.

THR: DID THEY LISTEN TO BOW WOW WOW AT KING LOUIS' PALACE?

Coppola: I picked a mix of music from the period and related contemporary music with a teenage feeling. Bow Wow Wow has a girly playfulness and spirit. We use "I Want Candy" in a sequence when she's shopping for cakes and silk. It was a song for that indulgence, a young girl who has everyone waiting on her.

THR: WHAT FASCINATED YOU ABOUT THIS STORY?

Coppola: The fact that they were so young; they became king and queen at 18 and 19. These kids were in a crazy situation. I liked the idea of teenagers with Versailles as their playground.

THR: AND HOW FUN WAS IT FOR YOU TO USE VERSAILLES AS YOUR FILM PLAYGROUND?

Coppola: It was a spectacular, unique place to be able to film. I can't imagine trying to re-create that. We were able to shoot in the real places, to walk into Marie Antoinette's real bedroom, to go to the hall of mirrors. I met with the director of Versailles; he had liked "Lost in Translation." He heard my approach and liked that I was trying to get into the head of Marie Antoinette, to show what it was like being her at that time. We were so lucky to see the private apartment behind the public bedroom. When you see the private areas, you see the real people backstage.

THR: HOW LONG WERE YOU THERE?

Coppola: Our shoot was 12 weeks. We only shot in Versailles on Mondays, when it was closed to the public. On other days we'd shoot on the grounds, in the garden, we'd have to section off areas and work around the tourists. We'd redress other chateaux. We didn't build sets. It feels more authentic to use the real architecture, the real gardens of a real place.

THR: HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT TACKLING AN AMBITIOUS PERIOD MOVIE COMPLETE WITH SCENES WITH HUNDREDS OF EXTRAS?

Coppola: I'd never done anything on this scale: Big wedding ball scenes in the hall of mirrors with tons of extras, and a masquerade ball with big crowds all in hair, makeup and wardrobe, were overwhelming. It was exciting, but it was not my strong point. I had a strong team, and an AD (assistant director) coordinating all the extras. It was challenging and time consuming, I never worked so hard before -- to keep focus on the characters and performances and not get lost in all the other stuff. It's exciting to walk through a sea of people dressed by Milena Canonero in 18th century costumes. You feel like you're in that world.

THR: YOU HAVE A BACKGROUND IN COSTUME DESIGN; DID YOU WORK CLOSELY WITH CANONERO?

Coppola: It was incredibly fun to work with a master like that; I could express what I wanted. It's amazing what she can do. The costumes were all historically based on that period, but we took artistic license. We're not renting some costumes from museums. Everything is fresh and new, based on the colors I saw in Marie Antoinette's private room, the turquoise and pink fabrics she chose. I wanted it to be her girly fresh young world.

THR: DO YOU RELATE MARIE ANTOINETTE TO HER MODERN COUNTERPART, PRINCESS DIANA?

Coppola: There are definitely things relative to life today. I have no fascination with Princess Diana, but there are similarities to a girl in this situation.

THR: ARE YOU SEEKING TO REVISE THE LONG-HELD "LET THEM EAT CAKE" PORTRAIT OF MARIE ANTOINETTE?

Coppola: Because of the politics of the time, things were exaggerated and she was made into a scapegoat. I think she's a flawed character, but I also hope my film shows another point of view.

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Cool French reaction to Sofia Coppola's "Antoinette"

Sofia Coppola has brought Marie Antoinette to the big screen, using rock music in a visually sumptuous portrayal of a misunderstood young queen, but viewers at the Cannes film festival were less than impressed.

Kirsten Dunst plays the title role as an amiable and naive teenager who is lost in the constraints of the French court, having been brought there from Austria at the age of 14 to marry the heir to the throne.

The reaction to the film in Cannes, where "Marie Antoinette" is one of 20 films in the main competition, was largely negative at a press screening on Wednesday ahead of the official world premiere in the evening.

Several viewers booed and hardly any clapped, although such a reaction is not unusual for the notoriously fussy Cannes press corps.

"I didn't know about the boos at the screening," Coppola said, when asked about the early reaction. "That's news to me ... that's disappointing to hear."

The compere at the press conference dismissed it as the actions of the "petit bourgeois." Coppola put on a brave face.

"I think it's better to get a reaction. Either people really like or really don't like -- I think is better than a mediocre response, so hopefully some people will enjoy it and it's not for everybody."

MISUNDERSTOOD QUEEN

The film is based on Antonia Fraser's 2002 biography, which challenges the once popular interpretation of Antoinette as callous and extravagant as the population of France went hungry.

"Let them eat cake," the infamous phrase that has been attributed to her in reference to an impoverished populace, is portrayed as a malicious invention in the film, which some historians believe was actually the case.

"To me, before I worked on this story she was a symbol of decadence and frivolity," Coppola, watched by her director father Francis Ford Coppola, told a news conference.

"It was very interesting to read and research more about Marie Antoinette and find out more about the human experience of this young girl who went to Versailles when she was 14, and how she developed in the court of Versailles."

Coppola's is a costume drama made with a modern eye, with striking bright pinks and yellows lighting up the screen and, most notably, New Romantic tracks interspersed with opera and chamber music from the 18th century.

When Antoinette and her entourage sneak out of Versailles to attend a masked ball in Paris, people dance to a pop soundtrack as if at a modern day disco. One of the songs featured is Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy."

Coppola focuses almost exclusively on the queen's life at court rather than the social upheaval going on around her. The only point when the two worlds meet is a scene where Antoinette appears on the Versailles balcony before an angry mob.

The 35-year-old director mercilessly mocks the conventions of the French court, with a crowd of noblewomen there to greet the queen from the moment she wakes up and looking on as she undresses.

She also takes a sympathetic view of Antoinette's passionless marriage, which the French blame on her and not the king, played in the film by Coppola's cousin Jason Schwartzman. The movie ends before her imprisonment and execution in 1793.

"Marie Antoinette" is Coppola's third feature film and her biggest to date with a budget estimated at $40 million. Her first two movies, "The Virgin Suicides" -- which also starred Dunst -- and "Lost in Translation" were critically acclaimed.

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'Barbie' Antoinette booed at Cannes

CANNES, France (AFP) - "Marie Antoinette", the long-awaited movie from Oscar-winning US director Sofia Coppola, was booed, dismissed as a kind of Barbie meets "Desperate Housewives" romp.

Despite being beautifully filmed in the Versailles palace, and backed by a rollicking sound track with the likes of 80s bands The Cure and Bow Wow Wow, the film largely failed to live up to expectations.

More than two centuries after France's last queen was beheaded in 1793, Marie Antoinette still raises opposing passions here. And although many critics enjoyed the luscious feast for the eyes, they said the tale failed to convince.

The 40-million-dollar movie starring Kirsten Dunst is light years from the beautifully understated "Lost in Translation" which won Coppola an Oscar in 2004 for best original screenplay.

"I feel in my three films, there's a kind of a connection, a theme of young women trying to find their way and their identity, and to me it just feels like the last chapter of these three films," Coppola told journalists.

Marie Antoinette arrives aged 14 at Versailles for her marriage to the dauphin who becomes Louis XVI on the death of his father.

But she is quickly lost and stifled by the court's rigid etiquette. The couple's ignorance of sex means the marriage is not consummated for seven years, causing concern in both the French and Austrian courts desperate for an heir to secure the alliance.

To relieve the boredom, the teenager gives vent to her natural, youthful exuberance, seduced by fabulous clothes, opulent balls and mountains of cream cakes.

The film is as fluffy and light as the many macaroons consumed by the courtiers, with sumptuous costumes, and delightful shoes provided by the shoemaker to the well-heeled Manolo Blahnik.

But as eye-pleasing as it is, it never manages to overcome its MTV video clip feel, as attempts to redeem Marie Antoinette as she matures and becomes a mother, including having her read French philosopher Rousseau, come over as shallow.

Coppola's cousin Jason Schwartzman, who plays Louis XVI, is also like a nervous rabbit caught in the glare of the camera.

At the end, as Marie Antoinette and Louis are seen leaving Versailles after the storming of the palace, the film received some applause but that was drowned out by the boos.

"It's a bit of a Barbie Antoinette," said Sophie Torlotin from the French radio RFI, who said overall she had liked the film. "It's a beautiful object, but I was not touched."

Jean Luc Wachthausen, heading up the team from the French daily Figaro, said: "We would have liked a more polished script, it lacks a bit of depth. It's a beautiful film, but not statisfying."

Asked if her film was a bit like "Desperate Housewives," Coppola said she had never seen the prime time soap about the secret lives of housewives.

"But yeah, I thought there's this lonely wife whose husband is not paying any attention to her so she's staying out partying and going shopping," she said.

"We've all heard that story before. I thought it was interesting to see what this search for all this frivolity was really coming from."

Told about the hostile reaction, Coppola admitted that it was disappointing but said: "I think it's better to get a reaction that people either really like it or don't like it, than a mediocre response."

"For the first half an hour, I really enjoyed it, and then I found it that it wasn't uninteresting, but it wasn't very interesting either. But I was surprised that half, or a third of the theatre, booed," said Lisa Nesselson, a critic from Variety.

It is only the third feature length movie by the 35-year-old Coppola, whose famous director father Francis Ford Coppola took a back seat at the press conference.

"For me the biggest challenge was making something on this scale, with a much bigger crew than I've ever worked with, extras and so many costumes," she said.

But with several strong movies among the 20 in competition already touted as possible contenders for the Palme d'Or, it would seem unlikely that Coppola's offering will knock Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" off the critics' top spot.

[©brad]

that's a shame.

[hedwig]

We use "I Want Candy" in a sequence when she's shopping for cakes and silk.

that sounds a bit cringe-worthy.

[Gamblour.]

"I think it's better to get a reaction that people either really like it or don't like it, than a mediocre response."

Oh good, so she got what she wanted? That's a weird response. This sounds very disappointing. But I guess I will have to see it.

[MacGuffin]

Coppola, Dunst Find Life After 'Suicides'



Sofia Coppola sees far beyond the perky persona Kirsten Dunst shows on the surface. Dunst feels more like herself on screen when Coppola directs her.

The two, who previously collaborated on Coppola's first film "The Virgin Suicides" reunited for "Marie Antoinette," a costume drama with modern trappings that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

It was an unusual choice for both, who had been grounded firmly in today's world.

After "The Virgin Suicides," a nostalgic tale of lost innocence set in the 1970s, Coppola won an Academy Award for the screenplay of "Lost in Translation," a quirky tale of kindred souls connecting in a foreign land.

Dunst scored a hit with the peppy cheerleading comedy "Bring It On" before joining the blockbuster ensemble as girl-next-door Mary Jane Watson in the "Spider-Man" movies.

Yet Coppola, 35, and Dunst, 24, brought an inventive contemporary air to "Marie Antoinette," in which Dunst's animated American voice mixes with British and French accents and pop tunes by Bow Wow Wow blend with authentic 18th century music.

Dunst plays the young French queen as a woman in late 1700s aristocratic gowns, but with an up-to-date party-girl attitude.

"I would do anything with Sofia," Dunst told The Associated Press. "She really gets me as a woman and an actress, and she captures who I am more than anybody else I've worked with."

"Marie Antoinette" is competing for the Palme d'Or, the top honor at Cannes, a prize the director's father, Francis Ford Coppola, won in 1979 with "Apocalypse Now." A win for "Marie Antoinette" Sunday would mark the first time in the festival's 59 years that a child of a past recipient won the Palme d'Or.

Coppola wrote the screenplay from Antonia Fraser's biography "Marie Antoinette: The Journey." She said she had Dunst in mind from the start, seeing similarities between the superficial way Marie Antoinette has been perceived and the open-book personality that Dunst can project.

"She has this bubbly, young-girl, outgoing personality, but then she also has kind of a more serious side, substantial depth to her. There's more going on than she shows sometimes," Coppola told the AP. "That worked for the character, because people didn't take Marie Antoinette seriously. It's the blonde, the bubbly blonde. But she had this substantial dignity that in the end really comes through, and I think it's hard to find both of those in the same person."

The film centers on Antoinette's years at the French palace at Versailles, where she was dispatched at age 14 from her native Austria to wed Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), heir to France's throne.

"Marie Antoinette" co-stars Rip Torn as King Louis XV, Judy Davis and Steve Coogan as key figures in Antoinette's personal staff, Danny Huston as her brother, Marianne Faithfull as her mother and Asia Argento as Louis XV's brazen lover.

The modern pop tunes underscore the dying gasp of decadent palace life that preceded the French Revolution and eventually led to Antoinette's beheading. The title character is presented not as a villain or a martyr, but a flawed young woman whose profligate ways arise from boredom with the royal court's stifling ways and her pleasant but inattentive husband.

In Coppola's movies, Dunst is not so much playing a character as playing a piece of herself, the actress said.

"I've noticed in roles, why I hate watching myself certain times is because I know that I'm not being honest. It's not me, and somebody is putting their views on how they think a woman should be, how they view me as a person. Maybe they don't always get you, so it doesn't feel honest when I'm watching it, so it's uncomfortable for me," Dunst said.

"When I watch myself in Sofia's movies, it's scarier, because I feel more vulnerable, but it's closer to who I am. It's more than closer to who I am. It is me."

At its first press screening, "Marie Antoinette" drew wildly mixed reactions, earning solid applause from admirers and sharp boos from many French critics.

Coppola and her cast shrugged it off, saying "Marie Antoinette" was not a film for all tastes.

"It's better to have that than to have a sort of bland, uniform response to something. It shows that Sofia is being true to her voice," co-star Coogan said. "People who love Sofia Coppola films will love this one, and the people who don't, won't."

[MacGuffin]

Coppola Defends 'Marie-Antoinette'

Director Sofia Coppola has hit back at critics who mauled her new movie Marie-Antoinette as an attempt to Americanize French history. Coppola's film chronicles the life of the tragic French queen during the revolution in the 1790s. It has been criticized for its American pop video feel, but Coppola insists she wanted to accentuate the youthful slant to the story. She says, "I wasn't making a political movie about the French revolution, I was making a portrait of Marie-Antoinette and my opinions are in the film. We modernized certain things that were relate-able to me and a modern audience. The story is about teenagers in Versailles, so I wanted it to have that energy of youth and teenage feeling to it."

French Star Said American Should Not Direct Film About Marie Antoinette

Director Sofia Coppola had originally hoped to cast legendary French movie star Alain Delon to portray Louis XV in Marie Antoinette, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival this week. "I had a meeting with him and he told me he didn't want to be in the movie," Coppola told the newspaper Metro. "He thought it was not a good idea for an American to make a movie about a French story. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I was not going to let him stop me from making the movie."

[Pozer]

Still my most anticipated.

[Gamblour.]

"He thought it was not a good idea for an American to make a movie about a French story. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I was not going to let him stop me from making the movie."

I think it's obvious that this is why the audience booed, even though I have no idea about the makeup of the audience's nationalities (just assuming that a Cannes audience has a lot of French people). I don't disagree with Delon, I think proprietary relationships of nationalism and cinema stories are valid reasons for not liking the way a film is made (eg von Trier and Manderlay (still haven't seen Dogville)). But I'm sure this flick is still good.