Sofia Coppola, in her film “Marie-Antoinette” friends in the spotlight Versailles, we tell you some anecdotes from filming.

A special authorization

High historical place and site of great beauty, the castle of the Sun King and its French gardens no longer count the film shoots hosted, But recently, it is above all the iconoclastic Marie-Antoinette by Sofia Coppola who has brought Versailles to light. In addition to having obtained from the French government a special authorization to be able to shoot in Versailles, Sofia Coppola was very privileged. The director indeed had the right to film a ball scene in the Hall of Mirrors, at the time closed for renovation. This famous sequence where we see the wedding between Marie-Antoinette, played by Kirsten Dunst, and Louis XVI, is one of the most grandiose in the film. The director was also able to use the small private theater of the queen, closed to the public and only shown once in the cinema by Jean Dréville, in 1961, in his film La Fayette.

15,000 euros per day

The young filmmaker and her producer, her father Francis Ford Coppola, had to pay €15,000 a day to be able to occupy the entire Palace of Versailles. It is the same amount as a day in the heart of the Louvre museum, against 10,000 euros “only” for a day of filming at the Eiffel Tower.

A fake Versailles

Over the centuries, the old medieval hotel of Clisson became the Hôtel de Soubise. The Salon de la Princesse at the Hôtel de Soubise, adorned with woodwork accented with gold and embellished with pastel blue paintings, served as a backdrop for Sofia Coppola to simulate a Versailles larger than life. This building, which today houses “The National Archives Museum, in which the precious Declaration of human rights is kept, also served as the setting for one of the scenes in Mission Impossible: Fallout.