An Austrian teenager (Kirsten Dunst) marries the Dauphin (Jason Schwartzman) of France and becomes that country's queen following the death of King Louis XV (Rip Torn) in 1774. Lavish imagery and a daring soundtrack set this film apart from most period dramas in Sofia Coppola's vision of the doomed queen, who became a symbol for the wanton extravagance of the 18th century monarchy—and was stripped of her riches and finery, imprisoned, and beheaded by her own subjects during the French Revolution that began in 1789.