Sofia Coppola, the secrets, locations, and world behind her films: an interview

Sofia Coppola and Milena Canonero held an interesting masterclass during the 2025 Venice Film Festival. The American director and the famous Italian costume designer – winners of four Oscars for Barry Lyndon, Chariots of Fire, Marie Antoinette and The Grand Budapest Hotel – enchanted the audience, retracing their collaboration and the birth of a bond that, beyond the sets, has passed through iconic places in the history of cinema .

The special bond between Sofia Coppola and Milena Canonero

It all started on the set of The Cotton Club (1984), when Francis Ford Coppola took over the direction. Canonero was already part of the project and enthusiastically welcomed the director's decision to keep the team. “ I met Milena when I was 11 or 12, on my father's film The Cotton Club ,” Sofia recalled. “ I loved going to the studios after school and seeing what they were creating. I spent a lot of time in the costume department because it was always magical. Milena had an atelier and made incredible dresses . It's a beautiful film and I hold that memory with great fondness .”

Canonero, smiling, added that Sofia's brothers also often dropped by his workshop, but it was with her that a special bond was born: " He wanted to see everything and was often present during filming... we understood each other immediately. I worked with Francis again and then I had the pleasure of dressing Sofia in The Godfather III. Finally, I was extremely touched when he asked me to design the costumes for Marie Antoinette ."

Marie Antoinette: costumes, colors

The relationship between the director and the costume designer was strengthened thanks to films that made locations a fundamental narrative element . The Virgin Suicides captured the suspended atmosphere of American suburbia ; Lost in Translation was a tribute to the metropolitan disorientation experienced amid the lights of Tokyo; while Marie Antoinette , shot amid the pomp of Versailles , transformed into a sensory journey into the life of France's most controversial queen.

For the 2006 period drama, Sofia Coppola was looking for something more than a simple historical reconstruction. “ Her style is unmistakable ,” she explained. “I wanted this historical film to be alive and fresh, not an academic piece. I knew Milena would breathe new life into what I had in mind .”

The costume designer shared a curious detail about Marie Antoinette's color choice. The inspiration came from a Marc Jacobs collection and a box of macarons Sofia brought to the lab in Rome. " Very subtly, she didn't say that would be the palette, but rather, 'I really like these colors ,'" Canonero recalled. " So I used that palette throughout the film, from light pastels to dark chocolate to black . It was a brilliant idea."

The role of locations in his films

The conversation in Venice was enriched by a tribute to Stanley Kubrick 's masterpiece Barry Lyndon , from which a scene was shown that Sofia later quoted in Priscilla . When Canonero was asked to choose a favorite work of the director, the costume designer had no doubts: The Virgin Suicides . The film is set in an American suburb in the 1970s, and most of the filming took place in Michigan , particularly in the Ferndale, Birmingham, and Bloomfield Hills areas.

“ Not just because it's her first film, but because it's excellent, top-notch. It brings to the screen the mystery of growing up and the fragility of youth… it's a timeless classic. Along with Lost in Translation, which tackles a very subtle theme with a sensitivity that few directors possess .” Lost in Translation took her to the East , far from home, but also from her culture: “ Tokyo is so different from anywhere else I've ever been… I wanted to do something set in that world.”

Ultimately, the dialogue between Coppola and Canonero is not just a tale of costumes and artistic collaborations, but also of places. From the corridors of Versailles to the skylines of Tokyo , passing through the atmospheres of American suburbs, Sofia Coppola's films transform every location into a living character, and with Canonero's help, into a wearable work of art.

Speaking about the film Somewhere, the director said: “ Hotels are always a little world unto themselves… It’s fun to see who stays there. And in this story, it just seemed like the right place. The hotel becomes more than just a set; it’s a living, transient space that reflects the characters’ inner state.”