Sofia Coppolawas destined for a life involving film. The daughter of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, she made her first appearance as a newborn inThe Godfather, then continued to act up untilher doomed performanceinThe Godfather Part III, which garnered extensive negative commentary towards her role in the film specifically. However, after coming out with her debut film as a director,The Virgin Suicides, Coppola established herself as one of the biggestAmerican women filmmakerson the scene. With a visual style that rivals her contemporaries like Wes Anderson, Coppola has consistently been criticized for being vain and vapid — comments that, when coming from male directors, journalists, and critics, hold sexist undertones.
Coppola now hasdirected seven feature films, many of which feature young women protagonists. Considering the lack of women directors and writers in the industry, it is directors like Coppola and Greta Gerwig laying down the foundations for authentic mainstream representation of girlhood. However, it is important to note that there are important criticisms about Coppola’s work as a director. As noted several times, Coppola often focuses on a specific kind of protagonist: a young white woman. It would be unfair to say that her movies represent all kinds of girlhood, but Coppola is groundbreaking because she is one of the first prominent woman directors.
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Real Female Characters
In Coppola’s directorial debut, she lays down the foundations that would later become representative of her signature style.The Virgin Suicidesfocuses on the lives of the Lisbon sisters, who live in a conservative household and are picking up the pieces after the youngest sister’s suicide during a house party. Although the film — which is adapted from a book — is told from the perspective of the teenage boys who have crushes on the sisters. They create entire mythology, told from the perspective of the male gaze, in the original storyline forThe Virgin Suicides, but Coppola’s version subtly reclaims the more feminine elements and decentralizes the masculinity of the original novel by fleshing out the female characters more than simply being tragic heroines.
This becomes even more apparent in a film likeMarie Antoinette, which was released in 2006.Marie Antoinettewas Coppola’s third release, and her boldest in this period. The film, coupled with its fanciful costumes, lavish decor, and contemporary rock score, seeks to reconstruct how Marie Antoinette is seen in popular culture. By selecting a historical figure who is often known for her demise, Coppola unwinds the spool of history and shows Antoinette for who she was: a young royal girl that was married off at an early age and shipped to another country. A recent trend in cinema, television, theater, and literature — now 16 years after the release ofMarie Antoinette— is to take a female character in history and give her asense of empowermentthrough cinema and a modern take, such as inThe Greator in the theatrical musicalSix. Coppola was already ahead of the times with this release.
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A Lush, Rich Aesthetic
Marie Antoinetteis often praised not only forKirsten Dunst’s performanceas the royal leading lady, but for the visual elements as well. There is often abundance in the interiors of domestic life in the French court, which makes it even more isolating to feel Marie’s loneliness. She is surrounded by all these objects, some of the finest in her era, and people, but on the inside, she’s just a teenage girl who wants to feel like she is at home. As the camera sweeps back and forth from the extravagance of French court life, simple shots of nature, and the outdoor world, convey this sense of longing for the outside world.
Then, inThe Beguiled, Coppola cranks it up in a more subtle way. Set in the South during the Civil War, the only man who appears in the film is seen as an antagonist to the female characters. It subverts the myth of woman being the original sin, as the male character appears, thus disrupting the peace and order already established in the household.The Beguiledis set in a completely different era than late 1700s France, and its characters are not royalty. Their days consist of mundane chores and tasks, and they do what is expected of a lady in the South. Through the cinematography, muted, pastel costumes, and acting, Coppola conveys that, although these women and girls are very much products of their era, they are still willing to pick up a musket and defend themselves if needed.
This thread of hyper-femininity throughout her films not only reflects Coppola’s inner world through her filmmaking, but also conveys a larger story about female representation in cinema. In the real world, anything considered girly or feminine is dismissed, which ultimately appears in the dismissal of Coppola’s work in regard to her style. Her work has earned the opportunity to be indulgent, as women creators have been denied this for so long. And, perhaps, onlyMarie Antoinetteis considered to be quote-unquote indulgent, and her work is classified so because she is a woman largely making movies about women.
