francis ford coppola – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK October 23, 2026: MAKING MARIE ANTOINETTE

October 18, 2026October 18, 2026 Jennifer Merin betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, diane lane, eleanor coppola, francis ford coppola, jennifer merin, kirsten dunst, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, Making Marie Antoinette, Milena Cannonero, monique jones, motw, Movie of the Week, nell minow, sandie angulo chen, sofia coppola

Behind-the-scenes glimpses of movies being made aren’t hard to come by, especially in this all-access age of social media and streaming, but few peeks around the curtain feel as personal as Eleanor Coppola’s Making Marie Antoinette. Edited together from the 80-plus hours of footage that Coppola filmed while on the set of her daughter Sofia’s Oscar-winning 2006 drama Marie Antoinette, it’s both a fascinating document of the filmmaking process and a love letter from a mother to her child.

Festivals Reviews

MAKING MARIE ANTOINETTE (Telluride FF 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

September 11, 2026October 12, 2026 Diane Carson diane lane, eleanor coppola, francis ford coppola, kirsten dunst, Making Marie Antoinette, Milena Cannonero, sofia coppola, telluride film festival, Telluride Film Festival 2026

Already celebrated for her dazzling, incisive Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991) documenting the filmmaking trials of husband Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Eleanor Coppola’s Making Marie Antoinette (2026) confirms and enhances her reputation as an accomplished filmmaker in her own right. Early in the documentary, in excerpts from her journal spoken by Diane Lane, Eleanor acknowledges that she much prefers to stand back and observe, that “it is against my personality to shoot a documentary, and yet I continue to do so.”

Reviews

MEGALOPOLIS – Review by Susan Granger

September 25, 2024September 29, 2024 Susan Granger Adam Driver, aubrey plaza, Dustin Hoffman, francis ford coppola, Giancarlo Esposito, Jason Schwartzman, Jon Voight, Laurence Fisbburne, Mary Beard, Megalopolis, Nathalie Emmanuel, Roman Coppola, Shia LaBoeuf, Talia Shire

Francis Ford Coppola’s passion project Megalopolis is a futuristic fable about the downfall of the American Empire. The 85 year-old auteur envisioned the dystopian concept 40 years ago, writing, revising and re-casting it, spending $120 million to make it, using funds he’d made from Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, etc. and his California wine business. Archaic references to the fall of Rome are everywhere, along with Shakespearean dialogue, peppered with quotes from Greek/Roman/Sapphic poets. Adam Driver even delivers Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be…” soliloquy in its entirety.

Interviews

Producer Jenny Gersten On Francis Ford Coppola’s DISTANT VISION – Brandy McDonnell Interviews

June 11, 2015June 8, 2020 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments distant vision, francis ford coppola, jenny gersten, live cinema, the week in women

Producer Jenny Gersten talks about Francis Ford Coppola’s latest movie production, Distant Vision, an innovative live semi-autobiographical 52-minute cinematic performance