Movies - Marie-Antoinette

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	Movies - Marie-Antoinette

Marie-Antoinette is a 2006 film written and directed by Sofia Coppola about the life of Marie Antoinette, the Austrian archduchess who married into the French royal family in 1770, only to be imprisoned and beheaded when the monarchy was overthrown by a revolution twenty years later. The film is expected to focus solely on the queen's younger life, principally her first five years of marriage to France's last absolute monarch, Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzmann).

It is currently at the post-production stage and is (as of September 2005) scheduled to be released in Autumn 2006 though this may change. It is based upon the historical biography by Lady Antonia Fraser, which is a best-selling British book first published in 2001. It is the first full-length biopic of Queen Marie-Antoinette to be made in the English language since the 1938 Oscar-winner starring Hollywood superstars Norma Shearer and Tyrone Power.

The production crew were given unprecedented filming access to the Palace of Versailles, where the real Marie-Antoinette lived from the time of her marriage in 1770 until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. The movie is expected to take the same sympathetic view of Marie-Antoinette's life as was presented in Fraser's biography, Marie Antoinette: The Journey. An earlier biography of the French queen, written by the Austrian-Jewish author Stefan Zweig in 1933, was rejected by Coppola for inspiration because she believed it was too hostile and unsympathetic to Marie-Antoinette's youth and inexperience.

Although eyebrows were raised at the casting of young American actress Kirsten Dunst in the title role, Dunst has won praise for difficult roles before - including her appearance in Coppola's earlier film The Virgin Suicides and, at an early age, she did perform in a period drama - Little Women, opposite Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder. In a recent interview, Dunst revealed that she felt a powerful sense of empathy with Marie-Antoinette - who was exploited by the ambitious courtiers, who sought to use her position for their own advantage.

Cast & Crew

Directed by Sofia Coppola
Written by Sofia Coppola

Kirsten Dunst
- Marie Antoinette
Jason Schwartzmann - Louis XVI
Asia Argento
- Madame du Barry
Rip Torn
- Louis XV
Marianne Faithfull
- Empress Maria Theresa
Judy Davis
- The Comtesse de Noailles
James Dornan - Count Axel von Fersen
Molly Shannon
- Princess Sophie
Shirley Henderson
- Princess Adelaide
Guillaume Gallienne - Count Vergennes
Steve Coogan
- Count Mercy d'Argenteau
Mary Nighy - The Princesse de Lamballe
Benjamin Lemaire
- Un page
Christina Ritter -Young Girl at Court
Rose Byrne
- Gabrielle de Polastron, comtesse de Polignac

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