Whiskey Wednesday

Marie-Antoinette

Sophia Coppola started working on the screenplay for her movie Marie-Antoinette, based on Antonia Fraser’s novel Marie-Antoinette: The Journey, after she finished making Virgin Suicides. She reportedly took a break from the script, which was rather tedious work, and started work on Lost in Translation. The latter took on a life of its own and she really didn’t return to Marie-Antoinette until it was finished. After wrapping up principal photography on Marie-Antoinette over the summer a rather lengthy trailer has already been released. Sophia is known for working quickly.

For whatever reason (probably the tragic excess), I’m fascinated by this historical period. So I’m glad the movie looks stunning and makes up for some of the misgivings I had about casting. I mean really, Kirsten Dunst as Marie-Antoinette and Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI.

Fraser’s book depicts “let them eat cake” Marie in a pretty sympathetic light. After all, the girl was only 14 years old when she was married off to little Louis and probably wasn’t prepared to be queen any more than Louis XVI was to be king. Dunst can play the naïve waif pretty well, but she also has enough ability to play the more mature Marie-Antoinette as she meets the guillotine. Schwartzman is a classic offbeat goofball and, apparently, so was Louis XVI. So knowing all that, it seems this film might actually work pretty well. Let’s just hope they don’t butcher the accents. We don’t know yet though since the trailer has no dialogue – it’s set to New Order’s Age of Consent. No doubt a witty nod from Sophia Coppola.

posted by ThomG @ 4:55:00 PM