Mubi has acquired global rights to Making Marie Antoinette directed by the late Eleanor Coppola.
Making Marie Antoinette is a behind the scenes look at Sofia Coppola‘s Oscar winning 2006 film Marie Antoinette, and was shot by Eleanor Coppola. The documentary was produced by Lorenzo Mieli, Mario Gianani, Rachel Dengiz, Youree Henley, and Sofia Coppola; and financed by Mieli and Gianani’s Our Films as well as Mediwan Rights and Entourage Pictures.
In 2005, Oscar winner Sofia Coppola made her third feature film, Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst and Jason Schwartzman, at the Palace of Versailles, which was the first feature production ever to have been granted permission to shoot at the historical property. Eleanor Coppola accompanied her daughter on the set and shot about 80 hours of behind-the-scenes footage. As a documentarian, Eleanor Coppola was known for chronicling her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s myriad challenges in making his 2x Oscar winning 1979 Vietnam War pic Apocalypse Now in the 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
This year, to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Marie Antoinette, and to fulfill her mother’s wishes, Sofia Coppola edited the unseen footage captured by her mother. In addition, the footage was edited by Aaron Matthews with input from Eleanor’s good friends Davia Nelson and Liz Bird.
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In the film, Eleanor Coppola is voiced by Oscar nominee Diane Lane (who starred in Eleanor Coppola’s movie Paris Can Wait as well as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders and Cotton Club), who reads passages from Eleanor’s journals in which she discusses her experiences on set and reflects on her relationship with her daughter. Eleanor Coppola passed on April 12, 2024 at the age of 87.
Efe Cakarel, MUBI’s Founder and CEO said: “Sofia is one of the defining filmmakers of her generation, with a voice and sensibility entirely her own. Marie Antoinette was bold, beautiful, irreverent and hugely influential, and to revisit it now through Eleanor Coppola’s eyes, as both a filmmaker and a mother, is incredibly moving. We are proud to bring this intimate and remarkable portrait to audiences around the world.”
Sofia Coppola said, “My mother and I started going through her footage during lockdown. It was always her wish to make what she shot into a feature length documentary. She was on set as a filmmaker and also my mother, so I found it so moving to go back through the material and to see our shoot through her eyes. I’m so grateful to Lorenzo and Our Films for helping me put this together, and couldn’t be happier that Efe and Mubi are going to be releasing it.”
Our Films’ Lorenzo Mieli said, “Eleanor Coppola is a masterful documentarian, as evidenced by Hearts of Darkness. I feel honored to have been able to help bring this documentary to life, and the mother daughter relationship gives particular depth to the film. Like Our Films, Mubi is all about filmmakers, so this feels like a very good place for a very special film.”
Mubi will announce release plans in the near future. Coppola is represented by Gersh.
