Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola talk about Marc by Sofia fashion documentary
Sofia Coppola’s documentary looks at her good friend Marc Jacobs, his influences and the process of putting together a collection
Neither Sofia Coppola nor Marc Jacobs was convinced a documentary was a good idea. Jacobs was not sure he wanted to be the subject of one and Coppola was not sure she wanted the pressure of being the person behind the camera. This was her friend of more than 30 years, after all. What if the film was no good?
Yet the idea – which they credit to producers RJ Cutler and Jane Cha Cutler – started to take hold. Coppola has always been interested in fashion and the creative process. Jacobs knew that if anyone could make him feel less self-conscious, it would be her. So they decided to jump into the unknown. At least it would be together.
“There was no off-limits,” Jacobs said in a recent interview with him and Coppola. “It was just like come as you are and you get what you get and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
Marc by Sofia, which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this month, is an evocative and very Coppola collage of Jacobs’ influences, his biography and his team at work putting together a ready-to-wear collection.
“I’ve never done anything like this where there isn’t a plan or a script,” Coppola said. “What I was trying to do is show his creative process around this one collection and then interweave inspiration and references and artists who collaborated with him to have this full portrait.”
It was a very lo-fi production, they said. Sometimes it would just be Coppola coming into the office with her own handheld camera. Sometimes her brother would come to help. Coppola had never done a feature-length documentary before and found the process exciting.