ANTOINETTE IN WONDERLAND COPPOLA LETS THEM EAT PASTRIES IN VIBRANTLY HUED STORY OF FRANCE'S TEEN QUEEN.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

You make a movie about Marie Antoinette -- one that indulgently concentrates on the ``fun years'' at Versailles before the French Revolution put an end to all of that -- and some critics are bound to call for your heads.

Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst have heard those rabble outcries. But the screenwriter/director and star of the new, candy-colored historical party picture ``Marie Antoinette,'' opening Friday, aren't about to feel down over claims that they've made a trivial fashion show out of the notorious monarch's much-maligned reign.

``Big elements of their lives were frivolity and superficiality, so those are elements of the story; we're doing `Marie Antoinette,' after all,'' Coppola says about her follow-up to her widely acclaimed second feature, ``Lost in Translation.'' ``That was most of her job at the time; it's not just for fun.''

Indelible images

``Each image evokes so much emotion,'' adds Dunst, 24, who as a teenager starred in Coppola's first feature-directing effort, ``The Virgin Suicides.'' ``And, personally, I'm always super-critical of movies with, like, `cool-looking' shots, shots that don't feel motivated by emotions.

``Even if this movie is just beautiful to you and doesn't connect on any other level, it's not a frivolous film to me at all,'' Dunst adds. ``I think it's very pure; maybe that's what some people are objecting to.

``Y'know, this movie's not for everybody, I don't have a problem with people not liking it. I'm really happy that people have strong opinions about it. It's a really unignorable film.''

Adapted from Antonia Fraser's biography ``Marie Antoinette: The Journey,'' the movie casts a sympathetic eye on the 14-year-old Austrian princess who was married off to the equally naive future Louis XVI (played by Coppola's cousin, Jason Schwartzman) for political and heir- producing purposes.

The film doesn't skimp on exposing the teenage queen's lavish lifestyle. Double Oscar winner Milena Canonero made the outlandish costumes, Manolo Blahnik supplied the 18th-century footwear (and, for fun, one sneaky pair of sneakers), and the pastries alone could have fed every hungry person in 1789 Paris (although the movie insists that Marie never really said, ``Let them eat cake''). But it also tries to view the pampered, pompous, intrigue-filled world of the Versailles Court from the disoriented young Austrian's point of view.

``I was trying to make sense of who she was, and not judge her and hate her for the way she was brought up,'' Dunst says. ``I could understand where this woman was coming from. I really have never looked at a historical figure in that way before. I was compassionate toward her -- I had to be. She was such an innocent, lost little girl to me. Even her parties, it was like ADD: Doggies! Babies! On to the next thing! What can please me?''

A palace coup

Oddly enough, it was that ditzy, endearing and very modern take on one of France's most despised rulers that helped Coppola and company pull off one of history's great filmmaking coups: the use of the actual, sprawling palace and its grounds for location shooting.

``Sofia and I sat down with the director general of Versailles,'' producer Ross Katz recalls. ``He was quite wonderful, but it was a nerve-racking meeting. But Sofia just talked about the film she wanted to make, and it was incredible.

``He, in essence, said, `I'm going to open up the gates of the palace to this film unlike ever before in history.' This film is shot more than any other at Versailles, and substantially more. And he said the reason he was doing that is because she intended to tell the interior life of Marie Antoinette. He said, `I don't want a museum movie -- this place is alive.' ''

Oui? Non?

Great. But what if monsieur had said ``non''?

``I never have a Plan B,'' explains Coppola, who reckons that some of her all-or-nothing filmmaking philosophy was inherited from father Francis Ford Coppola. ``I always have something in mind, then just stay fiercely determined to convince people to let you do it. I mean, we weren't able to shoot at Versailles every day because it's open as a museum, so on the days we couldn't, we got chateaux of that same period and dressed them. So we faked it a little bit, but in places of the real time.''

Still, working in the massive home of France's last kings was awe-inspiring. And not a little unnerving.

``There's a moment when you're making a movie when you say, `Don't worry, we've got an insurance certificate,' '' producer Katz explains. ``And one of the people from Versailles said, `And what will we do with that?' If you break something or something goes missing, it is literally not replaceable.

``It went amazingly, though. Everyone was pretty respectful of where they were. We were all kind of in awe. At 6 in the morning, breakfast burrito in hand, walking into the Gallerie des Glaces is humbling.''

What she saw in the ornate palace further informed the style Coppola wanted.

``The color palette came from creating the world of this young girl,'' the director explains. ``When I saw her real apartments, I was struck by the visuals she had apparently chosen, of turquoise, fabric and flowers. What would a 14-year-old girl pick? And all of those elaborate pastries; just create the world from that.''

Coppola's decision to use a lot of 1980s New Romantic music -- Gang of Four, Bow Wow Wow -- on the film's soundtrack has also stirred some controversy.

``We take artistic license in altering things to convey more what it would feel like at that time,'' she says. ``Using music that gives the emotional quality that I wanted the scene to have, as opposed to what actually might be the song of the time.''

Dunst says that, rather than distracting from her performance, all of the attention to design elements only enhanced the feeling that the film revolved around her character.

The need for beauty

``For me, Marie Antoinette was such an aesthetic person,'' the actress says. ``All of her senses -- the tastes, the fabrics, the clothes, her style, all of that -- it has to be in a beautiful film because that's who she was.

``I never felt lost in that, because I felt those were the only pleasures in her life in the time that we showed. I always felt like the focus, Sofia made it her journey. Yes, it was beautiful, but I never felt like it wasn't about what Marie was going through personally.''

The ridiculously complicated costumes and hair-pieces also helped Dunst get into Marie's frame of mind. Some of the film's funniest scenes involve her morning grooming and dressing rituals, which, like most royal functions, were attended by casts of dozens. Sometimes hundreds.

``Any discomfort I was feeling I just felt she might have felt,'' Dunst says. ``All the hours of getting ready, people around you and holding your dresses. And not being from France but being queen there ... all those things, I think, were appropriate to how she might have felt.''

Adds Coppola: ``In the same way I wanted `Lost in Translation' to make you feel like you were in Tokyo for a few hours, I wanted this to make you feel like you were back in this time.

``But for it also to have a vitality of youth, the sense that they're teenagers -- not make it stuffy.''

Bob Strauss, [phone]

[e-mail]

Palace of Versailles, by the numbers

Location, location, location took on new meaning when Sofia Coppola filmed the $40 million production of ``Marie Antoinette'' at the Palace of Versailles, where France's doomed, 18th-century queen actually lived.

The company was permitted to film inside the sprawling structure for 12 consecutive Mondays (the one day of the week the facility, now a museum, is closed to the public), and for another nine days on its 1,800-acre grounds.

Of course, a two-hour movie can't capture everything there is to see at Versailles. So here's a quick tour by the numbers.

1682 -- Europe's largest royal residence is completed during the legendary reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV.

1770 -- Teenagers Marie Antoinette and Louis Auguste (the future King Louis XVI) are married in a lavish ceremony at Versailles.

20,000 -- Number of people the compound could house.

700 -- Rooms.

2,000 -- Windows.

1,250 -- Fireplaces.

357 -- Mirrors in Gallerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors).

67 -- Staircases.

1789 -- The French Revolution begins; King Louis XVI and Queen Antoinette are forced to leave Versailles and move to Paris.

-- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Portrait of a Lady

France's infamous queen reimagined in `Marie Antoinette'

(2) no caption (scene from ``Marie Antoinette'')

(3) Kirsten Dunst stars in ``Marie Antoinette.'' On Mondays, filming took place at France's Palace of Versailles.

Box:

Palace of Versailles, by the numbers (see text)