Sofia Coppola & Kirsten Dunst on Marie Antoinette

"There were about five people who booed, but otherwise it got a good response," says Sofia Coppola, hinting at media exaggeration of Marie Antoinette's reception at its Cannes Film Festival premiere in the summer of 2006. "We had standing ovations, too. When you do anything creative and different, there are going to be people that come to it with a negative point of view."

Her 'different' take on Marie Antoinette's story is immediately apparent from the film's poster design which takes its lead from graphic artist Jamie Reid's cover for the Sex Pistols' 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. While not exactly the punk period drama of Derek Jarman's Jubilee, the film does have attitude; successfully fusing eighteenth century period pomp with a contemporary soundtrack that includes New Romantic 1980s standards by Adam And The Ants and Bow Wow Wow.

At one stage in the film, eagle-eyed viewers will also spot the appearance of a Converse trainer in a tracking shot of grandiose period shoes. It's a knowing wink from Coppola that her film - informed by Antonia Fraser's revisionist biography - is no stuffy period piece. "I didn't want it to be a history lesson, I wanted it to be more impressionist," says the director.

Her chief concern was to cut through the "clichés and myths of her decadent iconic side," to the human story of a 14-year-old Austrian girl who came to Versailles, and her unconventional relationship with Louis XVI before she lost her head to the French Revolution in 1793.

"I didn't have time to tell her whole life and I didn't want to make a biopic," explains Coppola, who took John Schlesinger's Darling as an influence. "I wanted to focus on the period at Versailles, starting with her arrival and ending with her departure. What happens to her after is really a whole other film, which someone else can make - it's more depressing."

Next page • "Marie Antoinette was a scapegoat from the beginning"