THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

My attitude was, “How would Marie want a movie about her life to look?”  I’ve always loved that period, and she’s such a mythic figure.  I grew up in the ‘80s so my first exposure to that era was through bands like Adam and the Ants.  I thought it’d be interesting to approach 18th-century France through the New Romantic lens.

Sofia Coppola in Bell/Antoinette

Coppola depicts Antoinette dripping in jewels, wearing dark lipstick as she reclines in a bathtub before flippantly uttering the words “Let them eat cake.” Antoinette herself, hearing the rumour while having a manicure, scoffs: “That’s such nonsense, I would never say that.”

Strong/i-d