Over the past 24 years, Sofia Coppola has built one of the most impressive filmographies of any filmmaker of her generation. After directing one of the greatest feature debut films of the 1990s, Coppola went on to make some of the best films of the 2000s. While the 2010s were somewhat of a creative lull for the filmmaker, this year she is back with a new A24 drama. PriscillaWhich has already emerged as one of the most acclaimed new releases of the autumn.
The Priscilla Presley biopic, which explores its subject’s perspective on her famous real-life relationship with the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, sees Coppola returning to some of the ideas and themes he has explored throughout his career. He has been interested. For this reason, it seems appropriate to use PriscillaThis week’s releases serve as an opportunity to take a look back at Coppola’s career and rank all of her films from worst to best.
9. A Very Murray Christmas (2015)
It feels weird even including this a very undead christmas In this list. The 56-minute Netflix special directed by Sofia Coppola is the only thing that doesn’t feel like it He made it.
The special pack delivers ample highlights in its relatively short running time, including a showstopping performance Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Maya Rudolph, to justify its existence, and it establishes a fascination with New York City that Coppola would go on to explore further a few years later. However, it is, perhaps, the only title on this list that doesn’t feel like an essential entry in Coppola’s filmography, which is why it deserves to rank where it does.
8. The Bling Ring (2013)
On paper, the Sofia Coppola-directed film about a series of real-life LA heists that targeted some of the world’s biggest celebrities sounds like a recipe for success. After all, who could be more suited to exploring the toxicity of celebrity culture than the daughter of one of the world’s most famous and well-connected filmmakers?
unfortunately, the bling Ring Never keeps his own promises. The film contains some well-calibrated stylistic flourishes and unforgettable moments, but it never moves beyond its surface-level ideas. However, it’s not a complete miss, and the fact that it ranks so low on this list speaks even more to the quality of Coppola’s filmography.
7. On the Rocks (2020)
on the rocks It is a simple father-daughter comedy, which is exactly that and nothing more. Featuring one of the most charming performances of Bill Murray’s late career and a moody, over-the-top aesthetic, this is a perfectly good, lightly comedic romp that sometimes transcends its own limited expectations for itself. Like a very undead christmasIt works better as a love letter to the old New York City than it does as a showcase for its famous star.
While it doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression, this 2020 comedy is worth seeking out just for its few moments of greatness, including a late-night drive through the streets of New York in a cherry-red convertible that single-handedly lets you down. Will be reminded why Coppola has long been considered one of the best visual stylists of his generation.
6. The Beguiled (2017)
Its reluctance to deal with some of the racial elements of both its source material and its 1971 predecessor, directed by Don Siegel and featuring Sofia Coppola. deluded is a charmingly moody and sensual Southern Gothic thriller. Boasting one of the most impressive ensembles that Coppola has ever assembled on screen (scene-stealers included) Banshees of InishreinColin Farrell, Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning), the film sees its director dipping his toes into a world that’s more openly sinister than before, all while exploring the same intriguing relationship between men and women. Navigating social dynamics has long fascinated him.
It’s a startling drama to watch – slowly. But definitely sinks its claws into you until it completely encases you in its poisonous, vile grip. It’s not perfect and its scope, as many have noted before, is more limited than it should be, but as a step forward in the genre of filmmaking Coppola had long avoided, deluded This is a very impressive experiment.
5. Somewhere (2010)
somewhere This is a fragmented, decidedly worldly view of modern life. Stylistically, the film feels like sun-drenched L.A. as opposed to Sofia Coppola’s neon-lit, nocturnal 2003 masterpiece. lost in Translation, which similarly suffers from the suffocating nature of urban loneliness. At the same time, because of the West Coast’s snobbery and its distaste for celebrity culture at large, it feels like a sarcastic response. Marie Antoinette,
Coming four years after that film, Coppola achieved a level of visual extravagance that is still unmatched by many of his contemporaries, somewhere There is a complete rejection of luxuries and an embracement of the kind of unattractive, tenuous relationships that fill our lives with meaning. Without a doubt, this is the least sexy film Coppola has ever made, and this becomes darker the more time one spends with it and the further along its creator gets in his career.
4. Priscilla (2023)
a companion piece of both Marie Antoinette And virgin suicides, Priscilla A predictably surprising, surprisingly serious treatise on the dangers of achieving one’s teenage dreams. Based on the 1985 memoir by Priscilla Presley, elvis and meThe film follows young Kelly Spaeny when the man of her dreams, Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), takes her to a Memphis mansion, but she realizes too late that it is as much a cage as a military base. But he grew up.
Written and structured like a Gothic fairy tale, the film is a hauntingly quiet exploration of the painful, confusing transition from adolescence to adulthood – its third act a movingly optimistic counterpoint to the omnipresent darkness. virgin suicides‘ ending. If loving is really like a dream, Priscilla This proves how painful, yet important this step is when you finally, inevitably, wake up.
3. The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Based on a 1993 novel about a group of doomed teenage sisters and the young boys who admire them from a distance. virgin suicides An ideal, if haunting, entry into Sofia Coppola’s filmography. It has all the same characteristics as her later work, including a synth-pop soundtrack by Mainly Air and an unmatched talent for capturing the inner lives of young American girls on screen, but it is a product of an artist’s intense, infectious energy. Also vibrates. Who has finally found his calling.
In bringing the morbid story of its source material to life, Coppola utilizes a fragmented structure and a soft lighting aesthetic that allows the film to feel alternately like a hazy dream and a distant nightmare. Rarely has a director’s debut film felt so assured and charmingly elusive.
2. Marie Antoinette (2006)
It was unfairly ridiculed when it was released for its nostalgic song selection and unexpectedly sympathetic look at history’s most widely hated elite, Marie Antoinette is a blistering, pop-rock historical drama – and one of the best films of the last 20 years. Filmed on location at Versailles, Sofia Coppola’s third directorial effort presents its infamous title subject not as a stuffy, airheaded queen, but as a teenage girl treated like a piece of property. And then are given access to the kind of luxury lifestyle that some people can’t even imagine. living.
In doing so, Coppola expanded her female-minded perspective beyond the limitations of her circumstances – forcing audiences to reconsider their pre-existing opinions about some of the world’s most vilified women. Featuring the best performance of Kirsten Dunst’s career, Marie Antoinette A living example of historical revival and an even more stunning example of pure, unblemished artistic expression.
1. Lost in Translation (2003)
It’s not often that a filmmaker’s most famous film is their best, but when it comes to Sofia Coppola, there’s no better entry in her filmography than this one. lost in Translation, The 2003 Oscar-winning film is the most personal and most universal film the writer-director has ever made. Few films have portrayed the quietly numbing effects of loneliness so beautifully, and even fewer have demonstrated the importance and power of connection with so much intelligence and no less grace.
Driven by a career-best performance from Bill Murray, the film is a delicate, sublime drama that hasn’t lost an ounce of its power in the 20 years since its release. The same goes for its famous climax, which brings its story to a conclusion that manages to strike a difficult, yet perfect balance between ambiguous and satisfying.
Priscilla Now running in theatres.