Marie Antoinette

Details of some historical characters and events have been changed to fit the dramatic narrative.

When the royal family leave the palace for the final time Marie Antoinette is looking out of the carriage window as it passes the center of the gardens.

However, after she delivers her final line to Louis XVI the camera cuts back to the view out of the carriage window and it passes the center a second time.

'Kirsten Dunst' (qv)'s contact lenses can be seen multiple times during close-ups.

After Marie Antoinette asks to be excused, she runs along a hallway topped with chandeliers composed of light bulbs and not candles.

In fact, in several scenes, the candle lights do not flicker, an obvious sign that bulbs were used instead.

In two "sunrise" scenes, the sun is seen "rising" at the bottom of the palace gardens, which in fact lie to the west (WNW) of the palace.

When Marie is playing outside in a meadow with her daughter, a low-angle shot clearly shows an aircraft contrail amongst the clouds in the sky.

In the first dressing scene when Marie Antoinette's sister-in-law enters the room, she begins to take her gloves off then the camera changes angles and she begins to take her gloves off again.

When Marie Antoinette's brother Emperor Joseph II arrives and before they sit down for tea he tastes a cookie.

He is beside the table and starts to walk toward the camera after putting the cookie down.

The next shot of him, he is behind the table.

When Marie Antoinette is pouring tea for her brother Emperor Joseph II, his tea cup is on the table in front of him.

The next shot of the tea set, his cup is sitting on the tray.

Throughout the movie, numerous characters are seen sipping champagne from wide champagne saucers.

In the 18th century, champagne would be served in tall, conical flute glasses, as the coupe-shaped champagne glass appeared around 1850 and did not become dominant until the 1870's.

The masquerade ball held in the Paris Opera is clearly seen to take place in the Palais Garnier in Paris, built between 1861 and 1875 during the reign of Napoleon III.

This impressive opera house, with its lavishly decorated and easily recognizable grand staircase replaced the old and less sumptuous opera house of Rue le Peletier.

Aunt Sophie's lips actually DO move when she says"Oh, my goodness.

It's so uncomfortable underfoot.

" A clip of sumptuous food also shows a fork whose design is wrong by around a century.

Four-tined forks did not appear until around the 1830's and they did not really catch on until the 1870's.

It is among the more common Hollywood historical props goofs because several popular silverware patterns named "Versailles" can be found in antique stores; however almost all of them were designed in the 1880's at a time of enthusiasm for all things fancy.

Several times throughout the movie, Marie Antoinette is seen trying on shoes that distinguish between the left and right foot.

Shoes were not made as left and right until 1850, over 50 years after she left Versailles.

The Comte de Provence (future King Louis XVIII) introduces Louis and Marie to his newborn son, but Provence and his wife never had children.

The baby, who is correctly referred to as the duc d'Angoulême, was the son of the Comte d'Artois (future King Charles X).

Angoulême later became the husband of Louis and Marie's daughter Madame Royale, and pretender to the throne as Louis XIX.

Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI actually had four children, not three as pictured in the painting in the movie.

Their fourth child, Sophie-Beatrix died as a baby as was insinuated by the painting, but at that time they also had three other children.

Marie-Therese, Louis-Joseph and Louis-Charles.

Louis-Joseph would have just passed away (from tuberculosis) at the time that Versailles was overthrown.

In the original painting of Marie Antoinette and her four children Louis-Charles in sitting on her lap, this is not shown in the painting in the movie, nor are the ages of the children accurate historically.

In the dinner scene outside of Petit Trianon, the Duchess de Polignac tells an amusing story, thus causing Count Fersen, on her right, to laugh while facing her.

However, the camera cuts to just him immediately after and he is staring "seductively" at Marie Antoinette while taking a drink.

No time has passed, since Yolande-Gabrielle is still continuing on with her story.

At the wedding, Louis slips the wedding ring on the third finger of Marie's left hand.

However, at the reception, the wedding ring on the second finger.

For the rest of the movie, the ring is either on the second finger or gone.

When King Louis XV approaches the Dauphin as they await Marie's arrival after the handover, the Dauphin is wearing gloves.

When the king presents Marie to the Dauphin moments later, the gloves are gone.

When Marie first gets into her carriage, she sits on the right side.

In the next shot, and, throughout her journey, she sits on the left side.

Marie was handed over on an island near Kehl on the Rhine river, not in Schuttern, as Mercy informs her.

Schuttern was the name of the Abbey where she had spent the night before.

When Marie's party arrive on the grounds of Versailles, the sky is white.

When they arrive at the palace itself, the sky is filled with storm clouds.

As Mercy lectures Marie on offering meats to Louis's hunting party, she offers him a plate of Ladurée macaroons.

Ladurée first opened for business in 1862.

Marie and Louis are sometimes addressed as "Your Majesty" instead of "Your Highness" while Louis' grandfather, the King, is still alive.

At the first dressing, the Comtesse de Noailles introduces the Dauphine to Louise-Marie-Josephine di Savoia as the Comtesse de Provence before she had actually married the Comte de Provence.

The palace shown at the beginning of the film after Marie is awakened by a maid drawing open the curtains of her bedroom is neither Hofburg Palace, where she was born, or Schönbrunn Palace, where she was raised, but the Upper Belvedere portion of Belvedere Palace in Vienna, which, although owned by Empress Maria Theresa, was mainly used for social functions.

When Marie Antoinette is having her first meal at the palace early in the movie there is a caged cockatoo near where she is dining.

This scene is set in 1770, Australian cockatoos were not exported to Europe until after 1788.

Marie is represented as being naked under her chemise, as was customary, but 'Kirsten Dunst' (qv)'s underwear can be seen several times.

At the hand-off, Comtesse de Noailles tells Marie-Antoinette the tent was built astride the border of French and Austrian soil.

Belgium and small parts of southwestern Germany were controlled by Austria at the time.

When Marie Antoinette is first presented to King Louis XV, the Dauphin, and the other members of the French royal family in 1768, Louis' daughter, Princess Victoire (played by Molly Shannon), is clearly shown holding a pekingese.

In fact, the pekingese was unknown in Europe until a hundred years later when British forces successfully invaded China in the Second Opium War and five pekingese belonging to the Emperor of China's aunt, who had committed suicide as the British troops advanced on the Forbidden City while the rest of the Imperial family fled, were brought back to Britain, where one was presented to Queen Victoria, who named it Looty.

When the camera is panning across Marie's shoe collection, there is a pair of purple converse runners in the background.

When Marie Antoinette and her friends are trying on different pairs of shoes there is a pair of All Stars which can be seen in the middle of the other shoes.