A Fresh, Feminist Take on Marie Antoinette

(dramatic music) - You really think you're something, don't you?

- I'm an Austrian archduchess.

I'm the Dauphine of France.

Who are you?

(dramatic music) - It's certainly not a dusty period drama.

You won't hear the line, "Let them eat cake," cause she never said it.

We're gonna show an entirely new Marie Antoinette.

- What was interesting, what was the challenge was to delve deeper into the characters behind these stories.

Really find personalities within them.

- Marie Antoinette is a very interesting character, very complex.

We wanted to show how she faced the dangers that were lurking everywhere.

- Whichever way I turn, there's a trap.

- Welcome to Versailles.

- Season one is really about Marie Antoinette and Louis's slowly evolving relationship.

They were living in a very hostile environment where there were forces working against Marie Antoinette.

- They were just two children who were lost who didn't know what they were doing.

They didn't want to be married.

Their sex became a political act and sort of an intimate one.

The pressure that was put on these two children was enormous.

- Is this my life now?

Trapped.

Who I can trust, no one?

Not even you.

- [Older Man] Your position is hanging by a thread.

- [Claude] We fabricated all the costume that you see on Marie Antoinette.

- [Emilia] Dior made two dresses.

They were beautiful.

These were the days actually where I really felt like I'm the queen of France.

- [Man] Paris worships you.

Fight for it.

- She was the early feminist.

She wanted to build her own life and decide her own destiny and not listen to people, and especially not men.

- It's a show about a woman who's struggling to find her place in life as a rebel, as queen, as a mother, as an icon and as a human being.

(pensive music)