In the afterglow of her Oscar win for Lost In Translation, writer/director Sofia Coppola shifted focus to Marie Antoinette. The film "artfully seduces us" with a hip portrayal of life at Versailles, which for Kirsten Dunst meant stuffing her face with cake and squeezing into corsets. It wasn't the nourishment some history buffs hoped for, but others loved the John Hughes approach to period drama.

French Twist

A half-hour trip to the location shoot in France opens with Dunst getting her hair pouffed and powdered before delivering that famous line: 'Let them eat cake.' Everyone including Sofia's dad Francis Ford Coppola, assures us that Marie Antoinette never actually uttered these words, segueing neatly into a discussion of how Coppola (the other one) seeks to revise and reinvigorate the period drama.

She calls it "an impressionist" portrait and the cinematographer expands on the ideas behind her "cookies and cake" visual brief. We even get an up-close look at the ornamental pastries and jellies, but most impressive of all are the baroque surroundings at the actual (!) Palace of Versailles. Cameras rove around over a series of days capturing behind-the-scenes action, which includes earwigging on Coppola's conversations with the actors before a scene. Despite the grandeur, it's a relaxed atmosphere on the set. Steve Coogan (Ambassador Mercy) even takes a moment to teach the young director some ye olde British slang.

Maison Scene

In keeping with the teen vibe of the film, Jason Schwartzman (aka The King) hosts Cribs With Louis XVI - an MTV spin on Through The Keyhole. He leads us through the acres of grand hallways and ballrooms at Versailles and stops to linger at the hall of mirrors. This, he says, is so "I can check myself before I wreck myself." He then proceeds to call the servants "dawg" and assures us that the ottoman at the foot of Louis' bed is fitted with a TV that rises up and even has a PS2 gaming option. (Because croquet is for suckas y'all.)

Two deleted scenes come complete with introductions by Coppola explaining where the scenes fit and why they were cut. She describes a sequence at the opera (in which Marie Antoinette laps up the alleged adulation of the crowd) as just "one opera scene too many". More interesting is a moody montage that comes just after Antoinette's ill-fated dalliance with Count Fersen (Jamie Dornan). It gets across her feelings of isolation in the aristocratic crowd, but Coppola is also right to say that it feels "too self-pitying".

It's a shame that Coppola doesn't give commentary for the film, but this DVD does offer a refreshingly unguarded insight into the day-to-day business of being the hippest new director on the block. How apt that she should make it look like a piece of cake...

EXTRA FEATURES

Marie Antoinette DVD is released on Monday 5th March 2007.