When it comes to the Coppolas, there always has to be someone on the sidelines to keep them in check.
The great filmmaking dynasty has forever been known for breaking convention; from grandfather Francis Ford to granddaughter Gia, their works have alternatively inspired and reviled many, tracing disastrous highs (Apocalypse Now) to misunderstood gems (Palo Alto, Somewhere, The Bling Ring, damn, maybe even Megalopolis) and everywhere in between. But since the beginning, their films have been strictly family affairs, pooling their generations of talent into a star-studded melting pot and strengthening their distinctive flavor over the years.
Perhaps the most important but least lauded ingredient is Eleanor, the late wife of Francis Ford and mother of Gian-Carlo, Roman and Sofia; in her later life, Eleanor dedicated great chapters of her life to documenting youngest child's Sofia's growth as an artist in her own right. For Sofia's third feature, 2006's underrated Marie Antoinette, Eleanor was forever at the side of her only daughter, shooting the film's making-of documentary with a mini-DV camera around the opulent palace of Versailles.
Not only was this a vital experience for Eleanor as a doting mother, it had to be done as a documentarian; no film crew had previously been given this level of thorough access to the estate, so the opportunity to log such a cultural leap forward was mandatory. A short 26-minute featurette made its way onto the film's DVD release, but Eleanor sat on 80 hours of footage until the lockdown of 2020. As a COVID project, Sofia and Eleanor worked together to extrapolate something richer and more expansive from the wealth of content, only to remain unfinished at the time of Eleanor's death in 2024.
Now, produced by Sofia, edited by Aaron Matthews, and presented by MUBI, the complete cut of Making Marie Antoinette stands as a warm, moving portrait of a distinctly Coppola triumph, brimming with excess and glitz, but never losing sight of the human being in the middle of the stylish whirlwind.
In journals read here by close family friend Diane Lane, Eleanor questions why Sofia would want to travel halfway across the world to tell the story of a French monarch so oblivious to the suffering of her people that she was brutally executed for it. Knowing Sofia's status as the daughter of one of the most turbulent filmmaking firebrands of his generation, it might be evident from the film itself; Antoinette was but a teenager when she was thrust into the pretentious pomp and circumstance of the royal court of Versailles, and Sofia chooses to communicate her life as a lavish pop confection complete with 80s punk needle drops and anachronistic casting choices. Antoinette as a child star (note-perfectly played by former child star Kirsten Dunst) is a clear read from the 2006 film, and having it reiterated through the words of Eleanor and Sofia 20 years later only serves to underline the thesis.
All that is fine and well, but many of the hidden delights come in seeing the wider players bring this production home. Its epic and diverse ensemble cast all get caught candidly; Dunst's poise as Antoinette is often adorably broken by catching Eleanor's camera out of the corner of her eye, and Eleanor brings her guard down beautifully in incisive interviews that highlight why she was the right choice for the role.
Eleanor's real-life nephew Jason Schwartzman, meanwhile, is always putting on a show, quick with a cocked eyebrow and sly one-liner when he's not interrupting production meetings by shredding away on a harpsichord, showing his meek Louis XVI as a far cry from the actor's impishly charismatic self. Seeing outtakes of Schwartzman's different stabs at a yelp upon feeling Antoinette's cold feet underneath the bed sheets is also a complete hoot, as is an appearance by Marianne Faithfull as Antoinette's Austrian aristocrat mother; like an unexpected house-call from an eccentric aunt, Faithfull's winking mischievous spirit joyously infects both Sofia and Eleanor alike.
Behind the scenes, there are also some great characters. Perfectionist costume designer Milena Canonero never stops fixing and primping and powdering her cast, commanding the endless wardrobe of gowns with the precision of a great general, while production designer K.K. Barrett's delight at telling the cast that all of the comically extravagant feasting food is edible is a sparkling moment of an artist happy to be sharing their brilliance. Sofia's lightly combative relationship with third assistant director/grumpy extras handler Jean-Emmanuel Graine also provides some nice friction to the proceedings.
In terms of on-set drama, there is nothing here that rivals the jaw-dropping chaos that Eleanor captured in the production of Apocalypse Now, immortalised in her genre-defining Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. If one is comparing Martin Sheen drunkenly slicing his hand open by punching a mirror, Jason Schwartzman ripping the seam of a tightly-fitted jacket doesn't quite have the same excitement.
Thank goodness, then, for this project is still a joy to behold through Eleanor's lens, and the light sweats that make Sofia decide that she never wants to do anything this large ever again feel like a sensible, cathartic move given her family's experience with going too big to handle. Sofia's vulnerability in front of her mother's camera is the pièce de résistance of Making Marie Antoinette, and while Eleanor ultimately did not get to choose her own words in narrating the tale, the selected quotations from her diaries are a beautiful and tender ode to maternal love.
The tension between Eleanor's role as a mother and as an artist is an aching tension that turns her from excited documentarian into tragic storyteller, often overwhelmingly proud of her daughter, and also mournful of the paths she didn't follow. The benefit of this footage seeing the light of day two decades hence is the evidence of Eleanor carving her own directorial path in fiction, making her feature debut at the age of 80. A heart-rending post-script tells that she was inspired to do so after spending so much time by Sofia's side on her bustling sets; the tradition of Coppolas supporting Coppolas clearly works in a beautiful circle.
While slightly undercut by a restoration that attempts to add polish to the inherent scrapiness of the mini-DV imagery, there is much value in this unexpected addition to the Coppola legacy. Eleanor's steadfast presence for her husband, children and grandchildren is encapsulated in its entirety here, and is a rare snapshot of the family working completely in tandem; the scenes in which Francis visits the set to see Sofia and second unit director Roman working alongside their mother feel like true lightning in a bottle.
Eleanor's kind-hearted and sympathetic eye is going to be a real miss to the film industry, but as a final note, there are few more apt and delightful than this.
The film screens at the 2026 London Film Festival, ahead of a theatrical release. Visit the official festival site for more information.