With “Making Marie Antoinette” scheduled for theaters Oct. 23, Sofia Coppola has finished a documentary built from footage her mother, Eleanor Coppola, shot during the making of Sofia’s 2006 film. In an interview with Variety, Sofia described the project as completing work her mother wanted done. Eleanor died in 2024.
During the COVID pandemic, Eleanor told Sofia she wanted to do something with the footage, Variety reports. Sofia edited it into a feature after Eleanor’s death. “It was never intended to be a film, but then she needed this to be put together,” Sofia said. The Film Stage’s review credits editor Aaron Matthews with compiling and editing Eleanor’s footage.
Sofia told Variety that preserving Eleanor’s point of view mattered most. She said her mother wanted to show how costume designer Milena Canonero worked, along with details of the food and art department. Reviewer Jake Kring-Schreifels also describes the documentary’s attention to costumes and other production work. Sofia kept a more uncomfortable moment, too: She told Variety she was embarrassed to show herself declining an interview with her mother in her trailer, but felt it reflected Eleanor’s interest in “the real side of things.”
The accounts give different footage totals. Kring-Schreifels reports 80 hours from the movie’s 57-day shoot; Sofia told Variety that Eleanor shot “almost 100 hours.”
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