You know a Sofia Coppola movie when you see it: often melancholy in tone, visually enchanting and aways distinctly feminine, she has a style like no other. Over the years, though, certain photos of the behind-the-scene workings of her films (Kirsten Dunst in full costume on the set of Marie Antoinette gazing at a Macbook; Bill Murray lounging in bed between takes on Lost In Translation; The Virgin Suicides cast laughing together) have piqued fans’ interest in the details that don’t make it to screen. 

Now, Coppola is letting fans in on some of the most intimate parts of her movie-making process. In her first book Archives, Coppola has collated the personal items tied to each film – what she once thought of as “junk”, including polaroids, marked-up scripts, letters, props and doodles – to take readers on a nostalgic journey. 

“After each project, stuff ended up in boxes: a mix of references, notes, scripts and photos from set. I took photos with my Contax T3 and asked photographer friends to come visit,” Coppola writes. “As the boxes started to pile up over the years, and enough time had passed, I finally opened them up and started to look through them.”

And aren’t you glad she did? Below are some of Stylist’s favourite photos from the book.  

The Virgin Suicides 

Released in 1999, The Virgin Suicides was Coppola’s directorial debut and is today considered a cult classic. It was adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides’$2 1993 novel of the same title, following the lives of five sisters, the Lisbon girls. 

The Bling Ring

The Bling Ring was adapted from a Vanity Fair article by writer Nancy Jo Sales, which reported on a group of teenagers robbing the homes of the rich and famous in Los Angeles. Paris Hilton, one of the victims of the group, is featured in Coppola’s moodboard for the movie. 

The Beguiled 

Coppola’s 2017 film The Beguiled won her Best Director at Cannes Film Festival – the film centres on the unexpected arrival of a wounded Union soldier at a girls’ school in Virginia during the US Civil War. Below, Elle Fanning can be seen on set in full costume. 

Archive by Sofia Coppola (Mack, £55) is out 4 September

Images: courtesy of Sofia Coppola