This article is a biographical profile feature about Sofia Coppola, published in the culturally-focused magazine The New Yorker in January 2024. In this feature, Rachel Syme reports on the time she spent with Coppola, observing the director’s creative process and influences. It manages to give the readers a glimpse into the creation of Coppola’s newest film “Pricilla”, based on the true story of Pricilla Presley, and her creative influences in terms of aesthetics and attitude towards film direction.

Through this long-form journalistic piece, Syme creates a nuanced and thorough account of Coppola’s career, beginning as an actress in her father Francis Coppola’s films and later deciding to take on a role behind the cameras. The feature is scattered with first-hand interview pieces with Sofia Coppola. She explains that her upbringing as the daughter of a famous director credited for his explorations of male characters has affected her work and inflicted a desire to tell women’s stories through a feminine lens.

With a portfolio of past work such as “The Virgin Suicides”, “The Bling Ring”, “Lost in Translation” and the highly criticised adaptation of Marie Antoinnete’s story, Coppola has managed to create a distinctive style of directing and depicting female characters and “gilded adolescence”. She mentions that one of her favourite ways to depict characters is “trapped behind a window”. Therefore, it can be argued that the journalist’s role in this piece is to highlight Coppola’s views on her works and give the director a chance to uphold herself against criticisms of her style.

This feature arguably highlights a female figure and topics which are highly relevant in the current cultural landscape, as it succeeds the release of Coppola’s new film “Priscilla” alongside her book “Archive”, which showcases behind-the-scenes pictures from the sets of her previous movies.