Bronwen K. Bradshaw, Arts and Entertainment Editor

Image From, (Priscilla, Sofia Coppola speaks: “You always learn something from the experience of other women”) 

Sofia Coppola began her career in film as a young actress. At the age of 18, she most notably starred in The Godfather Part III. After receiving negative reviews for her performance in the film, Coppola ventured to the director’s chair, following in the footsteps of her father, Francis Ford Coppola.  

Sofia Coppola made her directorial debut in 1999 with the film The Virgin Suicides. The film received excellent reviews, with Coppola winning the 2001 MTV Award for Best New Filmmaker. After she released the film, Coppola directed other critically acclaimed films such as Lost in Translation in 2003, where she won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Marie Antoinette in 2006, where the film received an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.  

Coppola’s style of filmmaking is unique only to her. She captivated audiences through the eyes of young girls and women, punctuated with dream-like scenes, feminine colorings, and imagery. Coppola’s films showcase “the sad girl aesthetic,” often seen in media or social media forums such as Tumblr and Instagram. According to an article for the New York Times, “Ms. Coppola’s canon demonstrates that while she didn’t invent the idea of the sad girl, she’s elevated it to the status of icon: devising an intoxicatingly inert heroine who confers on sadness a kind of hypnotic allure.”  

Coppola’s aesthetic feeds into the narrative of the “sad girl trope,” in which women idealize the melancholic experiences throughout a person’s life through beautiful displays of femininity and vulnerability. In many of Coppola’s films, parallels can be drawn between each of them and how they are presented. For example, Coppola has a running theme in her films: the young heroine is seen sulking in a bathtub, enveloped in the turmoil and sadness invading their life. This instance can be seen in Marie Antoinette, with Marie quietly soaking in the bathtub the morning after her birthday party. Marie has a sullen facial expression as she tries to grasp the good things in life, clothing, parties, etc. while struggling with her “lack of a relationship” with King Louis XVI. Similarly, in Coppola’s film Priscilla (2023), Priscilla lies in a bathtub, reflecting on her tumultuous relationship with Elvis Presley.  

Coppola’s recurring image of the young heroine looking out the car window is prevalent in almost all her films. In Lost in Translation, Scarlette Johansson’s character, Charlotte, is seen gazing out a bus window, showing the landscape of Kyoto, Japan. The scene builds on the idea of escapism and isolation present in many of Coppola’s female characters. “The audience’s focus is almost never on what can be seen through the window and nearly always on the girl doing the gazing, and the temperature of the gaze rarely rises above wistfully blasé,” said Emily Yoshida, in her article titled, “Sofia Coppola and All the Sad Girls.”  

As I mentioned, Coppola’s aesthetic grew very attractive through social media and pop culture. Across Tumblr, you’d be able to find photos of Kirsten Dunst in period wardrobes, smoking cigarettes, or stills from Lost in Translation with Cigarettes After Sex lyrics plastered over them. In an article for The Spectator, Margaret Mitchell describes how “these images glamourize adolescent waifishness and languor while inviting a creepy overture of sex appeal. Young women share Coppola-inspired photos on social media, often of bedroom dressing table clutter or perilously thin, dejected-looking girls; ballerina slippers and a pack of Marlboro reds, a tattered copy of The Bell Jar.”  

The nature of Coppola’s film centers around one central theme: The beautiful and sad moments of female youth. Coppola’s most recent film, Priscilla, can be tied back to her first film, The Virgin Suicides, due to the worlds in which Coppola encapsulates in her work as a director. Her films are popular because of the evoked escapism young female audiences wish were portrayed in their lives. Coppola has made a name for herself as a director focused on the female perspective and creating thoughtful movies reflecting the troubles of youth and loneliness. And we love her for it.