Making Marie Antoinette (2026)

Yes, Sofia Coppola is a nepo baby. Have you met her family?

So yes, nepo baby. But goddamn it, she comes from a talented family. Something is brewing in that house that gets the whole Coppola clan making things, and Making Marie Antoinette lets you watch it happen. Eleanor Coppola shot 80 hours on her daughter’s set in 2005, never got to cut it the way she wanted, and asked Sofia to finish it before she died in 2024. Sofia did. Watching them work together and encourage each other is a sight to behold, and it gives me hope for families that back a kid who wants to make art. There’s a touching scene between Sofia and her brother Roman that reminded me of my sister and me, and it brought a tear to my eye.

Eleanor is the best part. Diane Lane reads from her journals over the footage, and they’re honest and clear about the small feelings most people would never write down, like resenting that she isn’t doing her own thing while loving every minute of shooting. I just finished reading The Artist’s Way, and watching her work out her own creative life in the margins of her daughter’s was so sweet.

It’s also a great film about the creative process: the doubt, the hard work, and the tenacity it takes to keep hold of a vision when a hundred other people are making it with you. Sofia spends a lot of the 57-day shoot sick with bronchitis. Marie Antoinette looks like a nightmare to make. It is a goddamn miracle that any film gets produced, especially one as ambitious as this. I still can’t believe the French let an American walk into Versailles and make a movie about one of their most famous historical figures.

That’s as close as I’ll get. I’m on Letterboxd, which means I obviously love film, but goddamn it, I don’t have the drive in me to become a filmmaker. I just love watching them and thinking about them and analyzing them. The Coppolas have the drive, and this documentary shows how much of it they get from each other.

Stray thoughts:

• This may be one of the all-time great mother-daughter films.
• Making Marie Antoinette is honestly a fun hangout film, if you enjoy hanging out with super cool, creative people at Versailles in the summer.
• The documentary invaded my dreams. I dreamt I was on set with Sofia Coppola, and it was just as beautiful and stressful as it looks here.
• When Marie Antoinette came out I was a 14-year-old boy, and I dismissed it early on. My sister, obviously, fell in love with it. It wasn’t until years later that I went back and finally understood what all the hype was about.

Also on Letterboxd