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The Enduring Appeal of Sofia Coppola

Maya Dhillon
A close up of a blond girl's face as she lies in some grass with her eyes shut.

Maya Dhillon

With Sofia Coppola’s eighth directorial feature, Priscilla, being released in US theatres this month, interest in the director and her work has been revitalised.

Who is Sofia Coppola? 

With one of the most recognisable aesthetics in film, Sofia Coppola is a cinema icon. You only need to open TikTok to see a myriad of posts using hazy dream-like visuals from her films and soundbites of Marie Antoinette’s famous line “Let them eat cake”. There are even young women claiming that their lives resemble so closely a Coppola film that they themselves are also written and directed by Sofia Coppola. 

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Combined, however, Coppola’s movies have grossed just under $250,000,000, and within a relatively small pool of female directors, none of her features are actually ranked in the top 30 highest-grossing movies directed by a woman. Yet, there is an undeniable reverence for her work.

“Her films are not necessarily feminist, they are focused on the feminine experience.” 

Even in the digital age, where everybody seems vehemently against so-called “nepo babies”, Coppola seems immune to this criticism. It could be because her work predates the phrase by more than 20 years. But in reality, people appear to ignore her preordained connections because she is just genuinely good at what she does, and what she does feels truly different. Certainly, there seems to be some sort of magic lurking within her work.

Coppola’s features often focus on coming-of-age depictions of flawed and lost women, and although films are not necessarily feminist, they are focused attentively on the unique wonders of the feminine experience. 

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Adapted from Jeffrey Eugenide’s novel, her first feature The Virgin Suicides is set in American suburbia and focuses on the five Lisbon sisters. The story is told from the point of view of the male characters in the neighbourhood, who view these girls – ordinary as they are – as mythical and impossible creatures. 

The boys are ultimately the lens through which we view the story, they are still “othered’” by Coppola’s direction in favour of the girls. Although we are given the boys’ conjectures about the sisters’ thoughts and feelings, they realise by the end of the film that they never really knew the sisters at all.

The girls were at the centre of their universe, but they had whole other worlds and hopes and dreams that the boys could not be privy to, nor could ever really understand. It was a strong debut from Coppola, and what could have easily become just another coming-of-age movie, felt transformative and fresh in a way that was rarely seen. 

Lost in Translation (2003)

The themes of isolation that the Lisbon sisters grapple with in Virgin Suicides very much bled into Coppola’s next film – and her most successful to date – Lost in Translation. Set in Tokyo, it follows Bob, a has-been American movie star (played by Bill Murray) in the middle of a midlife crisis, who meets an observant young American woman, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). Despite their age gap and differing backgrounds, the two quickly form an intense friendship.

Though Coppola set out to make a movie that focussed primarily on Murray, Johansson’s character is what attracts so many people – especially women – to Lost in Translation. Both characters are “lost” in one sense or another – Bob is dealing with a flailing career and a failing marriage – but newly married Charlotte is making the confounding journey into adulthood. She looks at Bob and in him, sees what the future might bring her.

Coppola’s choice of location in Tokyo is a perfect microcosm of Charlotte’s own isolation and loneliness. She is literally floundering in a foreign, booming metropolis; and metaphorically fighting with her inner turmoil, in trying to find out who she is and what she truly wants. 

Marie Antoinette (2006)

Marie Antoinette (although still exploring another woman’s coming-of-age) marked a significant change to Coppola’s aesthetic. Gone was the soft and hazy nostalgia of The Virgin Suicides; gone was the subdued and contemplative intimacy of Lost in Translation. Instead, Coppola plays with excess and decadence. As you would, if you were given access to film inside the Palace of Versailles for a loosely-inspired biopic of the last queen of France.

Following the young princess blossoming into adulthood, the film highlights the entrapment and frustration she experienced under the stifling constraints of the institution.

“Coppola still never lets us forget that we are watching an incredibly young girl.”

Coppola depicts the young Marie Antoinette’s journey as she leaves her native Austria at the age of 14 to marry the Dauphin of France. She dutifully tries to produce an heir to the throne, and Coppola certainly never lets us forget that we are watching an incredibly young girl.

Versaille as a setting is loud, lavish and indulgent, echoed by the fashion and the anachronistic music and colour palette. And so the “adult” setting of the royal court is juxtaposed with the naiveness and frivolity of Dunst’s character. The film drew criticism for focussing on a “girlish” angle of such a historically important figure. But that is the point –  as Dunst herself has said: “It’s kind of like a history of feelings, rather than a history of facts.” 

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Priscilla (2023)

And that of course brings us back to Coppola’s upcoming feature, Priscilla. Based on Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me (1985), the movie shows the life of the incredible woman who supported the world’s biggest rockstar. 

Following Priscilla from age 14, the A24 biopic starts from the beginning; when she meets the already-wildly successful Elvis Presley (who was 10 years her senior) at a party. Although she has always been emphatic in her love for Elvis since his death, the movie promises to show a whole new side to one of the most iconic relationships of the 20th century. 

Poet Carol Ann Duffy’s collection The World’s Wife (1999) focussed on female partners and counterparts to well-known male figures. These include Mrs Icarus and Frau Freud. Coppola’s Priscilla, then, feels like an extension of this concept; shining the light on an iconic woman who has often been sidelined for her partner.

When asked why she keeps returning to coming-of-age themes, Coppola responded: “I don’t know why I keep returning back to it. Hopefully I grow up soon”. 

But I think the masses hope that she doesn’t grow up anytime soon, but instead continues to weave her wily, feminine magic. 

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Featured image courtesy of David Zellaby via Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here. 

Maya graduated from the University of Oxford in June 2022, with a degree in Spanish and Linguistics. She is currently getting her NCTJ qualification at News Associates.

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