She arrives at the border to complete the transfer, as if she were a legal document. She is asked to strip and to bid adieu to her family, friends and pets. She is inspected and remade into the Dauphine of France, wholly unprepared for what lays ahead.

Director, Sofia Coppola, is so attune to the complexities of young womanhood. Every film she has done explores the subject with such depth and care. I am not sure there has ever been a director, an overwhelmingly male occupation over the years, who has been able to capture those feelings on film with such clarity and wistfulness.

Kirsten Dunst has never been one of my favorites. I have found her to be a charming and capable actress up to this point, but she has never blown me away. That is no longer true. Her portrayal is simultaneously exuberant and restrained, spontaneous and thoughtful, grateful and disappointed, blissful and tinged with regret.  It is Oscar level work -- easily the best of her career so far.

She plays the role with the freedom of a child -- and let's face it, Marie-Antoinette is exactly that. That she partakes in extravagant parties, shopping sprees, gambling entertainment & decadent feasts is only to be expected. She is a teenager trying to have fun in a stuffy world of structure and tradition, which she clearly describes as "ridiculous". "But that, my dear", replies one of her assistants, "is Versailles."

She is also pressured with trying to provide France an heir to the throne -- a task she finds difficult with such an aloof Dauphin (Schwartzman), who is more interested in hunting and key-making than in her porcelain assets.

Everything about this film focuses on her insulated world, which stifles her natural energy, and her attempts to make it bearable -- perhaps even, dare she say it, a little fun.

What Coppola does so masterfully here is to style this story in such a way, with lavish visuals and a mélange of music, that it feels like a "young" film. She blends music of the time with contemporary tunes. She is unencumbered by the formal nature usually assigned to period pieces, shifting from the formality of Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" to the patience of Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" to the free-flowing movement of Robert Altman's and Paul Thomas Anderson's steadicam. She doesn't demand uniformity with dialogue or accents. She allows the film to take on a life of its own, making it one of the most original efforts in recent memory.

Coppola uses melancholic bands like New Order, films as varied as "Amadeus" and "Badlands", and designers like Vivienne Westwood to influence every single frame of this movie. It truly is a unique vision. This extremely talented director has already established her own look and feel. I am sure I would recognize one of her movies without knowing in advance -- and there only a handful of directors who can evoke that compliment.

Throughout this film, there is a haunting thread of inevitability. We all know Marie-Antoinette's fate and the film glides to a delicate final act which avoids the predictable and gratuitous ending that some other filmmakers would have provided. Instead, we solemnly watch the final few days, as the angry civilian mob descends upon Versailles to revolt against the monarchy. We observe the farewells to friends. We are handed one final elegant meal, with a sympathetic touch of the hand... and a sorrowful goodbye from a carriage heading to the gallows.

I am so grateful to have found another film like this. I am equally grateful to have another director whose films I will eagerly anticipate above all others. "Marie Antoinette" is assured a place near the top of my 2006 list. It is another quiet masterpiece for those of us who don't need our "cake" handed to us on a plate.