About 20 years ago, Sofia Coppola set out to make her third feature film, Marie Antoinette. She was granted unprecedented access to the opulent Palace of Versailles, and with a cast that included Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, and Rose Byrne, she shot in the queen’s bedchamber, the neoclassical Petit Trianon, its lush gardens, and the famed Baroque Hall of Mirrors. Within these rooms, Coppola crafted her own interpretation of the French queen’s life, building a visual world punctuated by frothy, Milena Canonero-designed costumes and chandelier-brushing wigs, piles of Ladurée macarons, and Thierry Boutemy’s vibrant floral arrangements—all set to an indie sleaze soundtrack.

Today sees the announcement of a compendium that captures it all: Making Marie Antoinette, coming from Coppola’s Important Flowers imprint this September. The book was compiled by Andrew Durham, Coppola’s friend and longtime collaborator who took photographs on the set, and includes an intimate conversation between Coppola and Durham, as well as an oral history of the film’s production. Other anniversary markers to come? A documentary, a theatrical re-release, and an exhibition.

“It brought me back to how fun this era was,” says Coppola. “We were living in Saint-Germain in Paris and getting to work in Versailles. Everyone had their guard down. Some of Andrew’s photos have floated around for years—they’re online, they’re on counterfeit T-shirts. It’s special to bring them together in one place.” (Indeed, some of the most famous photos of the cast first ran in the April 2006 issue of French Vogue.)

“The images are filled with a lot of personal and intimate memories for me,” adds Coppola. “I met Tom [Mars], my now husband, around this time. I love that Andrew ends the book with this image where I’m walking away, like that moment in Sixteen Candles.”

About a year ago, when Durham began putting this book together, he was at a screening of Marie Antoinette, where he heard someone in the audience say, “They don’t make films like that anymore.” “That comment really stuck with me,” he tells Vogue. “Sofia made such an effort to put all the artistry of her collaborators on the screen: the sets, the costumes, even the flowers. You don’t see that a lot anymore. Big-budget studio films seem to be made up of computer-generated images and the smaller indie films have more of a mumblecore approach, less cinematic. Looking back at these photographs reminded me how special and rare this was—and is.”

That the film was shot just before the iPhone was also, in hindsight, a boon: “I think that made a big difference. What would have been an Instagram-palooza was relatively undocumented,” he says. “It worked out great for me!”

His own favorite shot? A photo of Al Weaver, Mathilde Favier, and an extra having a cigarette break in costume, hanging out by the water cooler and chatting on their tiny flip phones.

“I still love to see those photos of people breaking character, at the craft service table, with their headphones on,” says Coppola. “I have a big print of some of our extras in their wigs taking a photo at my house—and now, this scrapbook.”

On October 2, Sony will re-release a fully restored version of Marie Antoinette in the United States. “Restoration sounds so ancient, but it looks so alive. The colors are refreshed. I’m so excited,” says Coppola. “There’s a generation of people who never got to see it in the theater, who’ve only watched it through clips on TikTok, never big.”

As Vogue’s own Keaton Bell observes in the book’s sprawling oral history with cast, crew, and figures like Grace Coddington and Marc Jacobs, Marie Antoinette has become such a cultural touchstone that it’s easy to forget how polarizing it was upon release. Coppola herself recently stumbled upon clippings of all her “terrible” reviews: A Royal Mess, reads one. Lost in Sensation, blares another.

“Every single one was worse than the next,” she says. “I never read the actual reviews, but just the headlines were so bad! And…they were all written by men. I was like, ‘Were there any women reviewing movies?’” At the very least, there appeared to be little patience for anything frilly, feminine, or fluffy among serious film critics. “That was a total offense,” she says. “I don’t think the people who come up to me and tell me the affection they have for the movie now really know that.”

She continues: “It got me thinking about the early 2000s again, how women were looked at, how the tabloids treated them. It was a different time 20 years ago! I am glad [girliness] can be embraced now.”

Bell’s oral history, which originally ran on Vogue.com in 2021, has also been updated for the book, now featuring perspectives from a generation of artists influenced by Marie Antoinette. These include Olivia Rodrigo and PinkPantheress, both of whom have produced music videos in the film’s roguish Rococo style. (Rodrigo’s Petra Collins-directed “Drop Dead” visual was also filmed on site at the Palace of Versailles.)

A major throughline in the book is the importance of staying scrappy, independent, and true to your creative voice. “I felt lucky that I was able to make exactly what I had in mind, even if it wasn’t a popular view or approach at that time,” says Coppola. “It will always be a good reminder to just go with your instincts of what you’re into, and believe there are people out there that will connect to it.”

A documentary arriving this fall takes as its subject Coppola’s flinty belief in her project; she has transformed the more than 80 hours of footage her mother, the late documentarian Eleanor Coppola, shot behind the scenes into Making Marie Antoinette by Eleanor Coppola.

Coppola and her mother, who died in 2024, began looking over the material during the pandemic. “She really wanted to make it into a film,” Coppola says. “Although it was very hard to watch myself as a baby director, it was interesting to see me through my mom’s eyes. She loved moments that were difficult and she got me to open up in a way I wouldn’t with anyone else.”

“I think she wanted to show what creativity is really like,” Coppola goes on. “Now I can appreciate that rather than feel embarrassed: I can see myself fighting for my vision, not yet so confident to express myself. I can see the resistance. I hope it’s interesting for any other young woman directors. I have artist friends that have watched the rough cut and say they’ll still have those conversations—you have to make your point twice as much as a woman.”

Finally, to bring it all together, from September 22 through January 24, 2027, the Château de Versailles’s Petit Trianon will host a landmark exhibition exploring the movie’s process, aesthetics, and wider culture impact, with Cartier as a main sponsor. It’s a “total dream” for Coppola, who has already returned there to help map it out. Accompanying Durham’s photography and pieces from Coppola’s archive will be costumes, a moodboard and sketches, and of course, music.

Coppola remains deeply gratified by the way the film has continued to reach new audiences. “My daughter showed me these edits on TikTok of hip-hop songs over Marie Antoinette, and they’re so good,” she says. “I’m impressed by them! It’s fun to see that it’s still a part of youth culture.”

“Young women, women, gay men—these are the audience I most think about,” she adds. “I hope people don’t overdose on Marie Antoinette, but every element continues to be really, really fun.”

Making Marie Antoinette (Important Flowers, 2026) by Andrew Durham will be published by MACK this September. It’s available for pre-order now.

Sony will re-release Marie Antoinette on October 2 in the US; Park Circus will release the film in November in the UK and Ireland; Pathé will release the film in November in France.