A woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie-Antoinette is haunted by the memory of her last days at the French court of Versailles, when Louis XVI’s magnificent palace succumbed to the irrepressible forces of revolution. Now exiled in Vienna, Madame Agathe-Sidonie Laborde looks back twenty-one years to the legendary opulence of Versailles and, overcome with nostalgia and remorse, discovers the full measure of her fascination with the Queen she served.

Transporting us to eighteenth-century France with the skill of a consummate storyteller, Chantal Thomas meticulously re-creates the miniature universe of Versailles, brilliantly juxtaposing its beauty and its dawn-to-dusk ritual with the chaos that erupts. Her portrait of Versailles and of Marie-Antoinette is an incomparable account of the collapse of a lost world.

I have also updated the gallery with lots of HQ screencaptures of Léa in ‘Lourdes‘! Check them out!

The Sundance Film Festival started yesterday and “Lourdes” is one of the films that will premiere there. Hopefully Léa will make an appearance. We’ll keep you updated.

I’ve also added the scans from the October 2008 issue of the french Glamour which Nora has very kindly donated and translated the article for the site.

GLAMOUR : Can you introduce yourself ?
Léa Seydoux : I grew up in Paris. I just turned 23. That’s it.

In what have we seen you and what’s new ?
I started with a comedy for teens, ‘Mes copines’, by Sylvie Ayme. I have had a small part in Catherine Breillat’s movie, ‘Une vieille maîtresse’. You will also see me in a movie by Bertrand Bonello which is out in October, in ’13 French Street’ by Jean-Pierre Mocky and ‘La Belle Personne’ by Christophe Honoré. I just finished a movie with Sylvie Testud.

The thing most people talk to you about ?
An American Apparel ad where you see my boobs. It made an impression.

Your brain wave about movies ?
It may sound pretentious, but I’ve always known that I was made for it. I wasn’t discovered in the street, I made myself on my own. I took acting classes, I started by doing ads… so I worked ! And I even took big clobberings !

The most discouraging moment ?
It was a casting audition for a TV movie. The producer looked at me and said : “You know, the character is a girl who has experienced things, who is serious, who has a depth. We can’t say that you look like you’ve experienced anything !” Okay, at the time, I was a platinium blonde. She didn’t even wanted me to do the try outs.

Your best (or worst) filming memory ?
The best : Christophe Honoré’s movie. During the filming, I felt the same things as when I’m in love, this kind of euphoric thing : your heart is beating, you want to do a million things.