If the words “Hollywood royalty” apply to anyone, it’s Sofia Coppola. Her father is Francis Ford Coppola, director of such American classics as “The Godfather” (1972) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979); her mother, Eleanor, was an acclaimed documentarian; and her family tree includes such thespians as Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, and Nicolas Cage. Unlike some Hollywood scions, however, Coppola does not downplay her privilege. Rather, she makes it an essential aspect of her work, interrogating the effect this rarefied air has on the humans who breathe it – particularly those simultaneously navigating the fraught experience of existing as young women.

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In the coming weeks, the younger Coppola’s work receives some long-overdue appreciation at the Harvard Film Archive in a series titled “Marie Antoinette and Friends: Three Films by Sofia Coppola.” While the female protagonists of these films are separated by decades (and in some cases centuries), they share many of the same pleasures, frustrations, and heartbreaks. Coppola’s heroines live in gilded cages, with all the luxury and imprisonment that implies.

Though she made her onscreen debut decades earlier (she’s the baby getting baptized at the end of “The Godfather,” as well as young Mary Corleone in 1990’s “The Godfather Part III”), Sofia Coppola burst onto the scene as a filmmaker with “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), in which the beautiful Lisbon sisters (including Kirsten Dunst as homecoming queen Lux) rock their suburban 70s community with an act of shocking violence. One can easily imagine “The Virgin Suicides” as a trashy Lifetime exploitation film, or as a conventional Oscar-bait tearjerker. Coppola’s genius, however, is framing the story not from the point of view of the sisters, but of the boys who watched them from afar. The Lisbon sisters’ tragedy is filtered through decades of hazy memories and romanticization, while never losing sight of the sadness and numbness which drives them to do the unthinkable. It’s as assured a debut as any in recent memory, and a crystal clear mission statement of Coppola’s concerns as an artist.

Superficially, “The Bling Ring” (2013), Coppola’s fifth feature, could hardly be more different. Where “The Virgin Suicides” is gauzy and enigmatic, “The Bling Ring” is scathingly satirical and brashly funny. However, both represent opposite sides of the same coin. Where the Lisbon girls recoil against the expectations of their social class, the valley girl bandits of “The Bling Ring” hunger for higher status. The gang, led by a fiercely funny Emma Watson, traipse into Beverly Hills mansions owned by the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, helping themselves to whatever strikes their fancy from their wardrobes. It’s tough to overlook the fact that Coppola runs in similar social circles as the Ring’s victims; Dunst makes a conspicuous cameo as herself, painting the town red with Hilton. But the filmmaker’s sympathies lie with the confused (albeit already quite affluent) kids on the outside looking in, attempting to gatecrash the ivory tower through sheer force of will. Whether they find happiness, or even learn anything, is mostly moot; they sense they’re missing out on something, and set out to get it by any means necessary.

Then there’s the queen of them all. If there’s a single film which sums up Coppola’s ethos as a filmmaker, it’s “Marie Antoinette” (2006), which follows a teenage queen from the heights of opulence to utter ruin. Dunst returns once more as the young Dauphine, thrust into the  very pinnacle of society via an arranged marriage to Prince Louis XVI (Coppola’s cousin Jason Schwartzman). “Marie Antoinette” was Coppola’s follow-up to her 2003 breakout “Lost in Translation” (not included in this series, but well in keeping with its theme), and it benefits from that film’s success. Coppola was allowed to shoot in the actual halls of Versailles, and the Oscar-winning costumes by Milena Canonero rival those worn by the queen herself. Unfortunately, it also bore the brunt of a certain amount of backlash. Critics were dismissive, box office numbers were middling, and it was (allegedly) booed at the Cannes Film Festival.

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But time has been kind to Coppola’s biopic. In the decades since its release, “Marie Antoinette” has amassed a devoted following, particularly among young women. Its candy-colored, giddily anachronistic aesthetic has become part of the cultural vernacular, and its portrait of the melancholy girl underneath the legend continues to resonate. For its 20th anniversary, “Marie Antoinette” assumes its place in the pantheon of modern classics with a Criterion Collection blu-ray, an upcoming feature-length making-of documentary (assembled from footage shot by the late Eleanor Coppola), and, of course, this very series.

This belated appreciation is entirely in keeping with Coppola’s filmography. The women in her films are at once idolized and overlooked, faced with crushing alienation even as they seem to have it all. In a time of increasing isolation and class divisions, it’s no wonder her films feel more and more relevant. It’s Sofia Coppola’s world; for better and for worse, we’re all living in it.

“The Virgin Suicides” and “The Bling Ring” screen Friday, 9/18 at the Harvard Film Archive. “Marie Antoinette” screens Thursday, 10/29 (with Sofia Coppola in attendance) and Sunday, 11/15.

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