Sofia Coppola (left) and actress Kirsten Dunst at a news conference in Cannes on Wednesday. (AFP)

Cannes, May 24: Cannes can be a cruel place as Sofia Coppola discovered when her Marie-Antoinette, an extravagantly shot period movie in the main competition, was jeered and booed after today’s press screening.

“I didn’t know about the boos at the screening,” remarked the 33-year-old daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. Her film would probably not have been one of 20 nominated for competition had she not been her father’s daughter.

“That’s news to me ? that’s disappointing to hear,” she said, when asked about the boos.

The selection committee ought to conduct a serious review of its criteria for choosing movies for together the 20 in the main competition should represent the best in world cinema. Today, it clearly didn’t.

Although Coppola’s depiction of the life of Marie-Antoinette was beautifully filmed with lavish costumes and against the background of the palace at Versailles, it was almost like a poor man’s version of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas.

Compared with Indian historical dramas such as Mughal-e-Azam, it does not measure up at all.

Coppola said: “To me, before I worked on this story she was a symbol of decadence and frivolity. It was very interesting to read and research more about Marie-Antoinette and find out more about the human experience of this young girl who went to Versailles when she was 14, and how she developed in the court of Versailles.”

The director, who was watched by her protective father, called it “essentially a woman’s journey to adulthood”.

The plot takes Marie-Antoinette from the time she is a princess from Austria to the point where the Bastille is stormed and the masses bray for her blood.

Incidentally, she says in the film that the quote ? “let them eat cake” ? was wrongly attributed to her.

“I would never say something like that,” comments Marie-Antoinette.

When asked about the cost of the lavish costumes and settings ? these are truly breathtaking ? Coppola responded that the budget was only $40 million ? “by American standards it’s not a big amount”.

When a friendly journalist pointed out that the much trashed The Da Vinci Code had taken $224 million in its opening week, Coppola said: “I would be happy if that were to happen with my film.”

Giving her Marie-Antoinette, played by Kirsten Dunst, a broad American accent, gave her film a faintly ridiculous feel, even though the screenplay is based on the 2002 biography by the distinguished British historian Lady Antonia Frazer (who happens to be the wife of the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Sir Harold Pinter).

Coppola put a brave face on immediate press reaction: “I think it’s better to get a reaction. Either people really like or really don’t like ? I think is better than a mediocre response, so hopefully some people will enjoy it and (but) it’s not for everybody.”

Coppola’s first two movies, The Virgin Suicides, which also starred Dunst, and Lost in Translation, were critically acclaimed.

The problem for the Cannes authorities is that they feel compelled to include even indifferent American movies in competition as a way of attracting Hollywood talent, without which this festival would not be the most glamorous in the world. But, as a consequence, there was booing as the credits rolled.

The attempt to take the big queens of history and turn them into blockbusters is to be applauded, most cinema viewers would concede. In this case, it did not work out but there is a chance for the Indian director Ketan Mehta to show how it can be done.

“I am making Jhansi Ki Rani ? and have Aishwarya in mind for the role,” he confided.