Sofia Coppola’s intimate portrait of fashion designer and her long-time friend Marc Jacobs premieres in Venice on Tuesday, and the pair are nothing but full of praise for one another.
Coppola and Jacobs were present at the press conference for Marc by Sofia on the Lido, fielding questions about the film from the press.
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“When they asked me to do a film on Marc, I thought, ‘No, I can’t do that. It’s too much pressure,’” Coppola admitted. “‘[It] would have to be good, because he’s my friend and I love him.’ And then I kept thinking about, oh, it’d be so fun to look through all the archives… we’ve been friends for 30 years, and [it would be fun] to get to revisit his incredible body of work that I grew up with.”
The process reminded her of working on films with her brother in her 20s, she added. “Just my brother and me and a camera and a sound person — it was kind of made in the spirit of the way [I] started and I wanted this homemade, personal look.”
Jacobs, who first met Coppola in the early ’90s, concurred: “It was very easy to say yes to Sofia. I feel very comfortable… I was excited by Sofia’s attitude and approach to a documentary which wasn’t conventional. It was much more organic and natural.”
Coppola, known for her work on the Oscar-winning Lost in Translation (2003), Marie Antoinette (2006), and more recently, Priscilla (2023), admitted that it was an adjustment to make a film about such a close friend in an improvisational style.
“I wanted it to feel personal, but it was a balance because I didn’t want it to be about me,” she explained. “I wanted to have a sense of our friendship and that it was being made by a friend, through my point of view… And I wanted to make sure that the audience felt included, that they were brought in and never felt like it was [an] inside joke that they weren’t a part of.”
Jacobs was asked about his candour when tackling tough subjects like drugs, plastic surgery and leaving New York. “It’s true, I’ve chosen to be very honest and open about things that other people feel shame around,” he said. “I just find it benefits me not to feel shame, and the only way to do that is to be frank and open and honest. I knew this wasn’t going to be a Barbara Walters interview,” he laughed, “where I was gonna be stuck and choke on some detail or some controversy or something like that. I knew that wasn’t what we were doing. And I wouldn’t imagine, in any way, shape or form, that that would be something Sofia was interested in doing. So it wasn’t a concern.”
Does Coppola believe her resonance with a younger audience is linked to her passion for the fashion industry? “That’s nice to hear… It’s just something that I love and it’s inspiring and exciting to me. I’ve always loved fashion.” She continued: “[And] I have teenage daughters now…”
The celebrated filmmaker added that while she isn’t planning on making more documentaries, she was surprised at how “fun” and “stimulating” the experience was.
Venice Film Festival 2025 runs Aug. 27-Sept. 6.
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