The Custom of the Country, this is the title of the mini-series that Sofia Coppola was to direct for Apple TV+. It was to be an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Edith Wharton published in 1913 which depicts the journey of Undine Spragg, a young woman who arrives in New York with the firm intention of rising to the top of society , regardless of the means.
A series which, unfortunately, will never see the light of day and the reason is quite unexpected.
“The idea of making a series about a detestable woman did not please them,” explained the filmmaker to New York Times. “But that’s what I was saying about who makes the decisions. » Indeed, as Sofia Coppola points out in the preface she wrote for a reissue of the novel published last year, the character of Undine Spragg is not necessarily detestable for everyone.
A gendered point of view
“As I was working on the adaptation, I found it interesting to hear men talk about how detestable Undine was, while my female friends loved her and were fascinated by this figure and what she would accomplish” , wrote Sofia Coppola in an extract from her preface published by Entertainment Weeklysuggesting a male over-representation among Apple TV + executives.
“We have all already seen an Undine at work. The way she enters the room, the way she focuses on the men and the ease with which she moves under their gaze,” she writes further. “We admire her and at the same time she annoys us. (…) There has never been a character that I loved and hated so much at the same time, while also making me smile when thinking of all the Undines I know. »