Sofia Coppola: Forever Young

Beginning with her breakout debut adaptation of The Virgin Suicides, filmmaker Sofia Coppola’s work often explores femininity, youth, and the constraints of excess. Despite persistent cries of nepotism, she has emerged from the long shadow cast by the legacy of her father, director Francis Ford Coppola, to create and direct films with a language all their own. Film critic and journalist Strong presents a straightforward assessment of Coppola’s work, concluding with her 2020 film On the Rocks. Short essays analyzing Coppola’s artistic inspirations provide additional insight into her creative process. Her work on music videos, short films, and other projects, like her 2016 staging of the Giuseppe Verdi opera La Traviata, are also briefly discussed. Additionally, there is a section of interviews with some of Coppola’s frequent collaborators such as Kirsten Dunst. The book’s design and the layout of its text, although in service to the images and Strong’s analysis of Coppola’s work, make it a bit hard to follow at times.