Saturday, December 4, 2010
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Saturday, December 4, 2010
AWARDS SEASON
2010-2011
For Sofia Coppola,
Somewhere Is Right *Here*
Sofia Coppola, director of "Somewhere", opening in limited
release in the U.S. on December 22.
Focus Features
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Saturday, December 4, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO
LESS than a mile from her father's American Zoetrope cafe and restaurant,
film director Sofia Coppola arrived a tad late to the stage last night at the LucasFilm/ILM
Premier Theater at Letterman Drive in this city's Presidio
district for a Q&A following a capacity audience screening of her new film
"Somewhere". When finally present, dressed in black, she had brought
along her film's lead actor Stephen Dorff, himself nattily-attired in a
black suit, black tie and white shirt, outfitted like one of Quentin Tarantino's
"Reservoir Dogs", only more polished and far better mannered.
George Lucas, the theater's owner, had been in the audience watching Ms.
Coppola's film, which he called "deliriously fascinating". He conducted a
conversational Q&A with Ms. Coppola and Mr. Dorff about "Somewhere", which opens
in limited release in the U.S. on December 22. The film stars Mr. Dorff as
a movie star actor who does his own stunts and is constantly entertained,
pampered and chaperoned while staying at L.A.'s Chateau Marmont. Elle
Fanning also stars as Mr. Dorff's onscreen daughter.
For Ms. Coppola the genesis for "Somewhere" came while living in Paris and after
giving birth to her first child. "I was thinking about Los Angeles, being
far from it, and I'd seen some stories in the news about some successful actors
that were part of this party lifestyle and had a personal crisis, and so I was
thinking of what that might be like at just this moment in [an actor's] life. And
also, just experiment with a minimal portrait. And after I had the
baby I was thinking about how that changes your perspective, how it affects you,
thinking about becoming a parent, and my childhood, and wanting to put that into
what I was writing about."
Despite her comments on this night, in public at least, Sofia Coppola, a
serious, perhaps even shy artist, is generally a lady of few words. She
uses each with an economy when describing her films or answering questions in
general. The films she directs not surprisingly maintain those
characteristics: low-key, precise, sparse and meditative. Each of these is
a staple of her satirical drama, which won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion Award
for Best Picture in September.
Ms. Coppola, mother of two and girlfriend of one of the band members of Phoenix,
which scored the music for "Somewhere", talked about spending a lot of time
around her father Francis on his sets as an infant and young girl, and learning
a lot. Her observances also fueled "Somewhere" to a small extent,
though she mentioned that Ms. Fanning's character was based on a friend's
11-year-old daughter, and not on Ms. Coppola herself.
The Oscar-winning director took about seven weeks to film "Somewhere", which was
shot in and around Los Angeles and Italy. Filled with silences and very
little dialogue, it, as Mr. Lucas opined, feels like a 1960s or 70s European
film, with lots of longer, unbroken takes and only the choicest editing.
Mr. Dorff confessed that he "had a lot of questions" for Ms. Coppola before they
got started on shooting "Somewhere". "I read the script and I was blown
away. I kind of saw more of this adolescent father becoming a man, kind of
in the center of all this other stuff... Sofia writes a lot shorter than most of
the scripts that I've gotten, you know? The next thing you know, I'm off
to Paris, because I'm so excited to be working with a friend of mine. And
it is rare these days where a camera will actually sit and get inside a
character's head."
The director concurred with her star about the time invested in the focus on the
film's lead character. "It was always scary in the editing even when we were
shooting to see how long we could let things play, but I wanted to feel like
you're alone with the guy and get into his frame of mind. But then we hope
you're not pushing it and just boring everybody. Steve, I'm sorry. I
know you can give monologues."
"Somewhere" opens in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on December 22.
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