Movie fans, get ready to be transported back to the Palace of Versailles.
Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette is getting a photography book to mark its 20th anniversary, Vogue reports.
Coppola’s film, released in 2006, was an adaptation of Antonia Fraser’s 2001 biography Marie Antoinette: The Journey. It starred Kirsten Dunst in the title role; other cast members included Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Rose Byrne, and Molly Shannon.
The commemorative book Making Marie Antoinette features photographs of the creation of the film taken by Andrew Durham.
“It brought me back to how fun this era was,” Coppola told Vogue. “We were living in Saint-Germain in Paris and getting to work in Versailles. Everyone had their guard down. Some of Andrew’s photos have floated around for years—they’re online, they’re on counterfeit T-shirts. It’s special to bring them together in one place.”
And Durham said, “Sofia made such an effort to put all the artistry of her collaborators on the screen: the sets, the costumes, even the flowers. You don’t see that a lot anymore. Big-budget studio films seem to be made up of computer-generated images and the smaller indie films have more of a mumblecore approach, less cinematic. Looking back at these photographs reminded me how special and rare this was—and is.”
Making Marie Antoinette will be published by Important Flowers, Coppola’s imprint at the London-based press Mack. It is scheduled for publication in September.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
