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On the set of “Marie Antoinette,” Sofia Coppola was a director in her mid-30s with two previous features under her belt — exhilarated and occasionally overwhelmed by the scope of shooting a historical drama at Versailles. And her mother was there documenting it all.
“Making Marie Antoinette,” to be released in theaters Oct. 23 on Mubi, marks the 20th anniversary of the Kirsten Dunst-led biopic. And it is the product of hours upon hours of raw footage Eleanor Coppola shot depicting her daughter at work. The elder Coppola was no stranger to working this way among family: Her most renowned film may be 1991’s “Hearts of Darkness,” about the turbulent filming of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.”
There are fewer fireworks in “Making Marie Antoinette,” which lovingly documents the work of the many craftsmen it took to conjure 18th-century France, including and especially costume designer Milena Canonero, who won her third of four Oscars for the film. The film’s existence, though, is something of a rebuttal to the initial reception “Marie Antoinette” received. Everything from Dunst’s performance, painting the polarizing French queen as a naive, sheltered teen seeking experience, to the film’s punk-inflected soundtrack seemed to befuddle critics.
The film captures a propitious moment for its central figure: Sofia had catapulted forward in her career, winning an Oscar for writing “Lost in Translation” and was working with Sony, a major studio, on the visually lavish follow-up. And it represents a coda in the career of Eleanor. During the COVID pandemic, Eleanor was evaluating her life and career and mentioned to Sofia wanting to do something with the footage she’d shot in France. After Eleanor’s 2024 death, Sofia edited together a feature out of the footage.
What emerges is a sweet tribute to Eleanor, whose observations from the time, written in her diary, are read in voice-over by Diane Lane. (Lane had starred in “Paris Can Wait,” Eleanor’s 2016 feature film directorial debut.) And it’s an opportunity to reflect on our evolving view of Sofia, who, on the “Marie Antoinette” set seemed a wunderkind and who has, with sustained creative success, grown into one of Hollywood’s most reliable indie auteurs.
Sofia spoke to Variety via Zoom about the film and her memories of shooting “Marie Antoinette” with her mom on set.
Seeing the film at the New York Film Festival felt very nostalgic for me. I imagine it may have felt similar for you.
It was wild to see it on that big screen, because I was like, Oh my God, is the footage going to fall apart that big? I’d never seen it so big. But that was back where we showed “Marie Antoinette” originally, and to be back seeing this footage was a lot of emotions. But it was really fun to see it with an audience and hear people laugh and connect with it. [When editing], you’re alone with this footage, and there’s no perspective. And so I was surprised that it was fun.
Were there specific moments that you felt you really wanted to keep in the edit to pay tribute to your mom’s work?
The thing that was most important was showing her point of view. She really wanted this footage to be put together because she wanted to show how Milena worked, and all these incredible details of the food and the art department. She was frustrated that she shot almost 100 hours of footage that was never used for anything, which I kind of forgot. I didn’t realize there was so much footage. It was really important to show what she was interested in.
“Marie Antoinette” was, for you, a massive production, but watching the documentary, your mom’s presence with a camera running feels seamless. I imagine it was familiar, because you grew up on your father’s film sets with her recording.
It was really touching to see it now because I remember her there, but at the time there was so much going on that I couldn’t really take it all in. It was so sweet now to see that. There’s a shot where she comes on set and rubs my back, and I was like, Oh, I didn’t appreciate at the time having a grounding mom presence in all of that craziness. I think everyone appreciated that. Everyone liked my mom because she was so calm and grounding, and to have a mom there … It was, I don’t know, sweet to revisit a lot of that time and to see Jason [Schwartzman] because he’s always sweet and funny.
But it made me appreciate her. She loved to visit set, and she was there for such a span of time — like part of the team.
We do really see her taking care of you. You were really sick with bronchitis during the shoot, and she’s not just recording the experience — she’s trying to intervene and get you to rest and recuperate.
Yeah, I left that in because … I thought, OK, who cares? Nobody cares. I have a cold. Why are we putting this in the movie? It felt indulgent, a little bit, but then I thought, it’s such a unique thing that it’s my mom, who’s also being a mom while she’s being a documentarian. So I thought it was sweet.
There’s a moment you left in that felt so artfully observed about a parent-child relationship …
Me being cranky.
Right! When you’re exhausted in your trailer and tell your mom you don’t want to be interviewed at the moment. We’ve all been there with our parents!
I’m glad, because it was embarrassing. It’s embarrassing to show me being irritated with my mom — I was like, “Do we have to leave this in?” But it’s in the spirit of my mom, who loves to show the real side of things and I think it’s such a universal thing.
Among the things I took from this movie is how fortunate you are to be part of an artistic family — not only is she being creative, but it’s in service to your creativity and your project. And I guess I’m curious, as a mom yourself now, what lessons you took from that when it comes to supporting your kids’ creative endeavors. [Coppola’s elder daughter, Romy Mars, 19, is an actor and recording artist.]
We just grew up, luckily, around creativity and having that encouraged. My mom encouraged us so much, and now seeing it as a mother of a young artist, I have a whole other perspective of appreciating that and the way she’s seeing what I’m making, the same way I love seeing what my daughter’s making and I’m so proud of that.
I try to encourage my kids, and my mom was never like “I want them to do things my way.” I love seeing how they do things their way and discovering what they’re into, and she was very encouraging in that way. It was always fun as a little kid to make drawings, which she would be delighted by in the same way she was on the set. I share that: Of course it’s so thrilling to have kids that are creative when you’re seeing what they’ve made.
Was “Marie Antoinette” the only one of your sets she documented like this?
No, it was sort of a tradition — [filming] was one of her skills. She contributed that on sets, and she filmed on a lot of my dad’s sets and she was on “The Virgin Suicides” and “Lost in Translation.” I wonder if she was on all of my sets. Maybe not all of them, but she would come, because you always need BTS footage for when they’re promoting it. So it was just sort of like something that she could offer. There was a DVD supplement for “Virgin Suicides” that she filmed. But this was the most in-depth. We didn’t realize that she had almost 100 hours of footage until she brought it up and wanted to revisit it.
It’s suitable that there was so much footage, because this film was such a serious undertaking. Toward the end of “Making Marie Antoinette,” you tell your mom that you never want to make a film that elaborate again. Do you ever feel like breaking that promise? You’ve done period films since, but nothing as massive as “Marie Antoinette.”
Maybe. I don’t know. After [”Marie Antoinette”], I was like, Oh, yeah, I just want to be with two actors in a hotel — like a reaction. [Coppola’s follow-up film, 2010’s “Somewhere,” shot at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.]
At one point, I was looking at Edith Wharton’s “Custom of the Country,” and I was excited about doing a period costume piece again, because I love seeing it all come together. But nothing on that scale, with all the extras. I don’t know. That was so massive. I was a little lost in all the coordination of so many people. But we probably do it differently now.
Now, when I see the opera scene and we’re talking about changing the costumes, the wigs — now that I’m experienced, I’m like, Nobody would notice. Just move the people around a little — you don’t have to change all their wigs. But you don’t know that until you make stuff.
It’s interesting that the film shows you speaking with respect but authority during disagreements with male producers. Is there anything you hope emerging filmmakers take away from your approach?
Now it’s changed, because there’s a lot more women department heads and in the crew and it’s not so unusual to think about a female perspective. I hope that, for young filmmakers, it’s helpful to see someone on set, a woman working with a lot of guys, seeing someone sticking to what they have in mind and making it happen — I hope that’s helpful.
This is the second consecutive documentary you’ve worked on. [The Marc Jacobs doc “Marc by Sofia” was released in theaters earlier this year; Coppola’s most recent scripted film was 2023’s “Priscilla.”] Are you thinking about returning to fiction filmmaking?
I’m actually really craving that. It was fun to do something I had never done and discover how that comes about, because it’s so different from how I usually work. But I’m really looking forward to going into an imaginary world and creating that, as opposed to kind of reacting to what you have. I’ve enjoyed this, but I miss that stage and I’m looking forward to trying to figure that out in the new year.
Coming off “Lost in Translation,” you were working with a major studio and got a relatively big budget. In the intervening 20 years, has it been more of a challenge to pull together funding for projects?
I luckily found a way to work where I like to do things lower-budget, so I have more creative control. Because when they get to be big budgets, it’s more about the business and having to make money. Then you lose creative freedom. If you make a successful film, then you have a free pass to do whatever you want, kind of, and I used my free pass to do “Marie Antoinette.” I wouldn’t have been able to make that if “Lost in Translation” hadn’t been successful.
It’s always challenging, especially now, to make a film, but luckily I have a body of work and I keep the budget small enough where I’ve been able to keep making them. But we’ll see.
I felt a strange sense of pride seeing Kirsten Dunst in this documentary — thinking about your long collaboration over the years, from “The Virgin Suicides” to “The Beguiled.” What was it like getting to see her at that stage during the editing process?
I love Kirsten so much. It was sweet to go back to that moment because I’m close to Kirsten, and I see her at this stage of her life. And it was sweet to remember that time and how young we both were — remembering that time and the trust she has in me, and how she really puts her heart into her work.
I loved her performance, and the critics gave her a hard time when it came out. She felt bad, because she was carrying the movie. I’m glad that people appreciate her performance. It’s just sweet to see her at that stage and remember that time we spent.
Sometimes it takes time spent living with art for it to be appreciated or understood. What has the experience of seeing the critical response to “Marie Antoinette” evolve over time been like?
It’s just really gratifying, because obviously we put a lot of work and heart into the movie. So to see it being appreciated and connecting with the audience now — we felt like we made something worthwhile, and it didn’t find its audience. So it’s just been gratifying that it didn’t just disappear.
How important was it for you, in editing this film, for people to see your mom as a director in her own right?
It was completing her work that she wanted to have done. She had a real vision of this footage. It was never intended to be a film, but then she needed this to be put together and there was enough. It was really important at the end of her life that her book was published [the 2025 memoir “Two of Me: Notes on Living and Leaving”] and that this was put together. And so she would be so thrilled that people get to share her work and appreciate her for her work.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
English (US) ·