Sofia Coppola’s Light Marc Jacobs Doc

Sofia Coppola and Marc Jacobs have been great friends and occasional collaborators since the 1990s. Fashion writers regularly call her his muse. Among other connections, she appeared in an ad campaign for one of his fragrances in 2002 and directed commercials for his Daisy line of fragrances in 2014. No one would expect Marc by Sofia, Coppola’s first documentary, to be anything but an admiring, affectionate look at a close friend’s career.

But Coppola’s films are always full of fashion and style — most conspicuously in the candy-colored Marie Antoinette, but all the others as well. And Jacobs has been a major designer for decades, with a career worth exploring, so there is a lot to enjoy in this kinetic, colorful, although extremely limited film.

The slim narrative trajectory has Coppola following Jacobs in the 12 weeks leading up to the show for his spring 2024 collection. There are scenes of him choosing the weight and transparency of fabrics, but not much insight into his actual creative process. There is far more about his perfectionist’s attention to the details of preparing the show. In extreme close-ups, we see the fake eyelashes on the models that he says he wants to be more dramatically spiky and clumpy.

It’s interesting to hear him talk about a runway show as “a seven-minute piece of theater,” which involves casting, scenery and staging. But the archival video charting his career and his comments interspersed throughout are far more intriguing. There is a glimpse of his senior show at Parsons School of Design. Briefly, we see Sofia and Marc in the 90s. There are images from his Grunge collection for Perry Ellis that was an attention-getting breakthrough in 1992, and from his 16 years as creative director of Louis Vuitton. A recent show from his own line features models in giant wigs and oversized structured clothes walking under a giant table, making them look the size of Barbie dolls.

Coppola had enormous access to Jacobs’ archives and has curated footage from them and from other sources with her usual sharp eye. She and her editor, Chad Sipkin, have compiled the images in a dynamic style, backed by a buoyant pop-music soundtrack. The film is often full of quick-cut, collage-like flashes. There is a swirl of vibrant Louis Vuitton bags, which Jacobs enlisted the artist Takashi Murakami to create, replacing the line’s staid signature brown background and gold logo with color and infusing the design with a youthful energy. It’s refreshing to see a documentary so artistic and free of talking heads, but that also means that the film simply assumes rather than establishes the importance of Jacobs’ career.

Occasionally Coppola appears onscreen but mostly stays off camera and is heard asking questions. It’s revealing to learn about Jacobs’ pop-culture fashion influences, from the Supremes’ sequined dresses to Liza Minelli and anything Elizabeth Taylor. Coppola shows Andy Warhol’s print of Taylor and a snippet of her in A Place in the Sun as Jacobs says, “All roads lead to Liz.”

Coppola asks a few penetrating questions. Does Jacobs feel that he’s working out personal problems through his design career? How does he deal with the letdown after a show? It offers us a slight window into his character when he talks about the enormous influence of his grandmother. He lived with her for a time to escape a harsh stepfather, and she used to take him as a boy to go shopping with her.

Despite all the insider’s access, though, in the end the behind-the-scenes episodes offer the illusion of intimacy, rather than anything really illuminating. And there is a lot you won’t hear a thing about, including Jacobs’ personal life today, how he built a business empire, or his licensing deals. Marc Jacobs branded fragrances are everywhere, including big box stores and cosmetic store chains, but this documentary stays focused on high fashion. It’s a bauble of a film, but also so distinctly Sofia Coppola’s style that it’s a must-see for anyone interested in the aesthetics of her career. In that respect, Sofia by Sofia might have worked as a title too.