The film of Sofia Coppola does not convince
The film of Sofia Coppola does not convince
Sofia Coppola and her Somewhere land at the Venice Film Festival and expectations are all on her and her film. The festival so far has not shown exciting films. Except, that is, for the precious 'La Pecora Nera' ('The Black Sheep') by the Italian theater actor Ascanio Celestini. And Sofia Coppola is certainly on the other side of the Atlantic, and not just physically. Where Celestini tells the story of a mad house in the Roman banlieue, Coppola tells of Hollywood, stars and starlets.
"Well - she says to ANF - I wanted to tell a story about something I know well". And she certainly does know about spending time in hotels with her director father, stars, money, big cars, interviews… "Well yes, - she agrees, always speaking with few words - I have been certainly influenced by my own memories, my life with my father. I can remember how excited I was to enter with him into the world of the adults, the world of the showbiz. There are scenes, like the one in Las Vegas when the father teaches the daughter to gamble, which are from my real experiences. Likewise, I think I put in my film my fascination with hotels. Hotels are a world a part, never definitive, always temporary. And I have a fascination with telling about the temporary, something in transition".
The film is simple in its story, and also a bit of a clique: the young, beautiful Italian-American actor Johhny Marco (played by Stephen Dorff) at the top of his career, is going through a personal crisis (when asked by journalists, "Who is Johmmy Marco?" he cannot answer). He is living in the Hotel Chateu Marmont (famous for housing many actors and because there John Belushi died of an overdose) going from party to party, always ending up in bed with a different woman. But his life changes when his ex wife send him their 11 years old daughter Cleo (the sweet and very good Elle Faning). Father and daughter get to know each other while traveling from Los Angeles to Italy, to Las Vegas.
In Italy Sofia Coppola could not resist to tell and show the trash of the Italian (Berlusconi's) television. She show the ceremony of the Italian Telegatti. "I had participated when I was a child to this ceremony, so I tried to show it as I remembered. But I did not want to give a negative judgement about Italy. We also have trashy things like Las Vegas". She feels the need to be polite, but perhaps it has more to due with the fact that the distributor of the film is Medusa, Berlusconi's distribution.
Of her father's influence we know, what about your becoming a mother for the second time has influenced this film? "It influenced me very much, - she says - because when I wrote the script I already had my first daughter Romy. In the film there is a father in crisis, but the arrival of this daughter awakes him. The arrival of the daughter has a kind of 'redemptional' power for him".
And speaking about father, what your father, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) has told you, does he give you any advise? "Well, my father - she says - he is now in France with my mother looking after my children. Yes, he always encourage me and my brother Roman (a director, in Venice as producer of his sister's film) especially to do 'our' films. When he saw Somewhere, he said, 'only you could do a film like this'".
The critic is divided after watching Somewhere. It is definitively not the best film by Sofia Coppola. Indeed it is a bit of a predictable and somehow patched up kind of style-exercise.
The showbiz, Los Angeles is certainly the other protagonist of the film. "I wanted to explore this universe - says Sofia - It was the perfect context for a character who is living a transitional phase. Esthetically I am fascinated by the 70's so I tried to recreate the atmosphere of films like 'Shampoo' or 'American Graffiti'.
Sofia Coppola is a woman of few words. She does not go into more political issues. "I concentrate on doing my films, I am happy of course that there are more women directors nowadays but I just concentrate on my work", she says when asked about women directors. And perhaps it is this concentrating only on her work that comes out of Somewhere as well, a portrait of a world which to many, or most of the people, looks like another, distant world. A world a part, out of the reality and therefore not that interesting anymore.
"Well - she says to ANF - I wanted to tell a story about something I know well". And she certainly does know about spending time in hotels with her director father, stars, money, big cars, interviews… "Well yes, - she agrees, always speaking with few words - I have been certainly influenced by my own memories, my life with my father. I can remember how excited I was to enter with him into the world of the adults, the world of the showbiz. There are scenes, like the one in Las Vegas when the father teaches the daughter to gamble, which are from my real experiences. Likewise, I think I put in my film my fascination with hotels. Hotels are a world a part, never definitive, always temporary. And I have a fascination with telling about the temporary, something in transition".
The film is simple in its story, and also a bit of a clique: the young, beautiful Italian-American actor Johhny Marco (played by Stephen Dorff) at the top of his career, is going through a personal crisis (when asked by journalists, "Who is Johmmy Marco?" he cannot answer). He is living in the Hotel Chateu Marmont (famous for housing many actors and because there John Belushi died of an overdose) going from party to party, always ending up in bed with a different woman. But his life changes when his ex wife send him their 11 years old daughter Cleo (the sweet and very good Elle Faning). Father and daughter get to know each other while traveling from Los Angeles to Italy, to Las Vegas.
In Italy Sofia Coppola could not resist to tell and show the trash of the Italian (Berlusconi's) television. She show the ceremony of the Italian Telegatti. "I had participated when I was a child to this ceremony, so I tried to show it as I remembered. But I did not want to give a negative judgement about Italy. We also have trashy things like Las Vegas". She feels the need to be polite, but perhaps it has more to due with the fact that the distributor of the film is Medusa, Berlusconi's distribution.
Of her father's influence we know, what about your becoming a mother for the second time has influenced this film? "It influenced me very much, - she says - because when I wrote the script I already had my first daughter Romy. In the film there is a father in crisis, but the arrival of this daughter awakes him. The arrival of the daughter has a kind of 'redemptional' power for him".
And speaking about father, what your father, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) has told you, does he give you any advise? "Well, my father - she says - he is now in France with my mother looking after my children. Yes, he always encourage me and my brother Roman (a director, in Venice as producer of his sister's film) especially to do 'our' films. When he saw Somewhere, he said, 'only you could do a film like this'".
The critic is divided after watching Somewhere. It is definitively not the best film by Sofia Coppola. Indeed it is a bit of a predictable and somehow patched up kind of style-exercise.
The showbiz, Los Angeles is certainly the other protagonist of the film. "I wanted to explore this universe - says Sofia - It was the perfect context for a character who is living a transitional phase. Esthetically I am fascinated by the 70's so I tried to recreate the atmosphere of films like 'Shampoo' or 'American Graffiti'.
Sofia Coppola is a woman of few words. She does not go into more political issues. "I concentrate on doing my films, I am happy of course that there are more women directors nowadays but I just concentrate on my work", she says when asked about women directors. And perhaps it is this concentrating only on her work that comes out of Somewhere as well, a portrait of a world which to many, or most of the people, looks like another, distant world. A world a part, out of the reality and therefore not that interesting anymore.
