By Hanna Rantala
VENICE (Reuters) -Filmmaker Sofia Coppola had not thought of trying her hand at documentary making but said an offer to profile her friend, fashion designer Marc Jacobs, was too good to pass up.
Their 30-year friendship provided the backbone of Coppola’s debut documentary “Marc by Sofia”, which premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday.
The film centres on the designer and his team putting together the Marc Jacobs Spring 2024 ready-to-wear collection. The creative process is punctuated by reflections on Jacobs’ career and the cultural forces that have shaped his vision.
“I was excited to not have a script or a plot,” Coppola told Reuters shortly before walking the Venice red carpet with Jacobs.
“I knew that it wasn’t going to have a big dramatic arc to the story, that it was just really me discovering his process… and then intertwining it with the history of what he’s made and his references and the artists he’s collaborated with.”
A graduate of New York’s Parsons School of Design, Jacobs rose to prominence in the late 1980s with his grunge-inspired collections and went on to serve as creative director at Louis Vuitton from 1997 to 2013, where he helped transform the French luxury house into a global powerhouse.
“Marc by Sofia” tracks the 12 weeks leading to the catwalk presentation and sees Jacobs carefully choosing fabrics and outlining silhouettes and shapes.
“I was excited about going to the studio and watching Marc from the very beginning,” said Coppola, an American filmmaker who won an Oscar for best original screenplay for her 2003 film “Lost in Translation”.
“It’s always mysterious to me how there’s not a whole plan before, but how it evolves. It was really exciting to be there at all the stages for the first time.”
NOSTALGIC
Having his friend behind the lens was “comforting” said Jacobs, and his trust in Coppola meant he could be vulnerable and “let things unfold the way they did”.
Revisiting his early years and first designs was at times nostalgic, said Jacobs.
“There were a few moments that really surprised me because there was some footage from my Parsons graduate show. I don’t think I have ever seen it,” he said.
Coppola said she hoped the film clips and footage of 1990s New York featured in the documentary would inspire audiences.
“It was really like a fun treasure hunt to find a picture of him with his grandmother and I’ve heard about people in his life and to get to find elements to illustrate that and then use photography from photographers that I admire to try to illustrate moments of his life,” she said.
(Editing by Crispian Balmer and Gareth Jones)
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