Sofia Coppola. Coppola has given us one of the best films of the 00’s decade and five of her six films have landed in the top 100 of their respective decade. She’s yet another one of the directors that critics decry as “style over substance”. Because of that- Sofia is now dreadfully underrated by the critical consensus. She’s a style-plus director with her own trademark visual style, consistent themes, who makes films of painterly splendor. Specifically, her first three films (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette) make for a remarkable start to a career as an auteur.
Best film: Lost in Translation. I don’t think there is any debate here to be had as its one of the best 10 films of the 00’s decade. It’s a visually masterful travelogue, the career best work from the actors involved, and has simply one of the best scenes (the inaudible whisper) in cinema history.
total archiveable films: 6
top 100 films: 1 (Lost in Translation)
top 500 films: 2 (Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette)
top 100 films of the decade: 5 (The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Somewhere, The Beguiled)
most overrated: Nothing. Blind Ring is her low-point—but it’s still not overrated.
most underrated: Marie Antoinette is still outside of the top 20 of 2006 on the TSPDT consensus list (21st century list edition)
- After lost in translation (and largely because it came after that masterpiece) this was viewed as a major disappointment upon initial release but it’s a visually stunning film. Sofia was given a larger budget for this after lost and it’s not a perfect film- but the money is up there on the screen and it’s quite transcendent
- Oscar win for best costume is well deserved- Milena Canonero worked with Francis Ford Coppola (cotton club, godfather III), Kubrick (the shining, clockwork orange, barry lyndon), Wes Anderson (Darjeeling, life aquatic, brand Budapest), out of Africa, titus, dick tracy– a virtuoso genius.
- Casting of Dario argento daughter
- Talented ensemble- some of them in cameo or seldom used like judy davis, steve coogan, tom hardy
- You can see the similarities to barry lyndon and wes Anderson with the symmetry and exacting detail in the décor
- There’s some interesting sofia/father autobiographical stuff going on here with the unready young and naïve heiress coming into the world she’s not quite ready for—along those same lines dunst (who is great here) and her Antoinette is not a flake (though I think the social criticism of paris hilton and other empty-headed heiresses (all shopping and tiny dogs) is still on-point)- she’s young and naïve and she turns jaded and selfish when those close turn against her
- Filmed inside Versailles for first time- it’s magnificent photography and set pieces
- Largely a dialogue-less movie with an inspired 80’s “me-generation” soundtrack and amazing visuals
- Prologue shot of indulgences is a great foreshadowing shot
- Isolation shot—dunst alone on the balcony amongst the massive castle—again- this film doesn’t really need dialogue at all—heavy soundtrack and montage heavy as well
- Not sure the “fools rush in” song fits- feels out of place
gem I want to spotlight: Somewhere
- A meditation on isolation and celebrity that has to be seen in the context of Sofia’s brilliant oeuvre. These are hermetically-sealed worlds- Virgin Suicides, The Beguiled— privilege- Bling Ring, Marie Antoinette
- Opens with a metaphor that annoyed some but I loved it- Stephen Dorff is literally driving his Ferrari in circles on a road to nowhere then spends the bulk of the film in his Hotel California hell—Bonfire of the Vanities
- Golden Lion in Venice winner
- A tone poem—I wish the visuals were a little stronger (we’d have a sure must-see top 5 of the year film) but still- more European or art-house in atmosphere and total lack of care for a plot—all of her work is like this
- Malaise and ennui—Antonioni
- Car is a constant metaphor—it breaks down—then he leaves it for the powerful finale
- Phoenix score- they’ve worked with Coppola—there’s not much there till the “love is like a sunset” final
- The opposite of Lynn Ramsay—Coppola’s characters are not post-trauma zombies, they are sleepwalking (literally falls asleep as part of the form) and lost in their insulated world. Dorff says “I’m not even a person” to his ex-wife
- Great film form all over the place from Coppola- we have the twin strippers, he’s constantly looking at the found and surrounded by pills and beer. This doesn’t make for narrative but that’s not the goal—unlike some of her best work (Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette) or like Antonioni’s similarly themed work (L E’clisse) it doesn’t make for great visuals either. Another reoccurrence is Dorff falling asleep with strippers dancing and in a girl’s lap. Meets Benicio Del Toro in the elevator. Massage from a guy. He has no idea what day of the week it is. It’s sad/funny
- Duration and repetition
- We need more of the gorgeous zoom of the father/daughter laying by the pool and less Nintendo Wii playing to make this a masterpiece
- Exactly half way through the film the ex-wife says “she’s yours” about daughter- great form
- Elle Fanning’s daughter- she cooks, they get a song sung to them on the couch, Dorff’s brother and her uncle is a good guy learning about her—there’s growth here, the underwater tea part—this is life and it’s unsentimentally realized by Coppola in the day to day
- Again, it’s not beautiful (Marie Antoinette) and Coppola is no great writer- she’s about capturing tone and form—closer to Jarmusch—repetition but not a Jarmuschian fish out of water premise- she has her world’s well established
- Repetition of his clothes, flannel, white t, glances from and to women
stylistic innovations/traits: Her films, all of them, are thoughtful medications on celebrity, loneliness, affluence and sort of an existential malaise. Narrative isn’t the concern and she’s not a great dialogue writer (which is a little ironic because she won the best screenplay Oscar for Lost in Translation). Her films are about surroundings and characters—about setting the tone (style) and circumstance (backdrop) and letting the characters go. Some of her stylistic traits remind me of Truffaut (especially The Virgin Suicides with their freeze-frame character intros) but really she has a 1960’s-70’s European style about her–Antonioni is another one I think of- he easily could’ve directed Somewhere… ennui. Sofia Coppola is very similar to Lynn Ramsay— but Coppola’s characters are not Ramsay’s post-trauma zombies, they are sleepwalking (literally falls asleep as part of the form in Somewhere) and lost in their insulated world. All of Sofia’s protagonists live in a hermetically-sealed world (she wouldn’t done a great version of The Little Mermaid if Disney would’ve let her) coming from privilege (this is personal cinema for the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola). Her films are filled with characters looking from inside a window looking out (each and every film) and there are many shots of characters in isolation with their imposing surrounding (like the opening of say Punch-Drunk Love to show this loneliness.
top 10
- Lost in Translation
- Marie Antoinette
- The Virgin Suicides
- Somewhere
- The Beguiled
- The Bling Ring
By year and grades
| 1999- The Virgin Suicides | HR/MS |
| 2003- Lost in Translation | MP |
| 2006- Marie Antoinette | MS |
| 2010- Somewhere | HR/MS |
| 2013- The Bling Ring | R |
| 2017- The Beguiled | R/HR |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Watched Lost in Translation (2003) – quite impressed, good thing Sophia discovered acting was not her calling with her performance in GF3 haha.
– style galore with color, camera angles and movement, shallow focus, Scarlett with the pink
hair
– repetition and chance encounters remind me of In the Mood for Love (2000)
– Anna Faris is unbelievably annoying
– great shots of Scarlett alone in a crowd (like the one on this page)
– gorgeous shots of Tokyo at night
– impressive performances all around especially from the leads
– tremendous restraint narratively in the lead characters not actually sleeping together, also
reminds me of In the Mood for Love
– definitely similarities with Antonioni films, wealthy characters searching for meaning in their
lives
Will definitely check out more Sophia Coppola films
Yes, I haven’t watched anything other than Lost in Translation either. But it blew me away, in a sense, because I never expected it to be as lovely as it was. It really is a wonderful film. The most impressive aspect is, to me, the way Coppola captures the Tokyo lights. Everything, the pace, style, atmosphere, it’s all attuned to our characters’ rhythms, loneliness and sense of detachment. The film conveys such isolation, and there is a distinctly, but gently existential aspect to it. It’s a beautiful film and a great achievement, on all accounts. Even Anna Farris, annoying as she was, was in fact very poignant in her performance. Needless to say, Murray and Johansson are perfect – melancholic, forlorn and honest, in performances of surprising sensitivity. Because of both films’ focus on atmosphere and melancholy, I think the comparison with In the Mood for Love is spot on. The whisper in the end is indeed brilliant and has rightfully cemented its place in film history and pop culture as well. I wouldn’t know, only having watched Lost in Translation, but I’ve read somewhere her films being described as featuring a thematic motif, that of a ‘golden cage’, in the sense that we meet characters showered with material goods and luxury, who can’t help but be overcome by disconsolate sadness, an ever growing void and a loss of meaning and purpose.
@Georg- I saw it in a video the 2 possible things that can be read from the whisper are:
1. I have to be leaving but I won’t let that come between us, okay.
2. When John returns next time tell him , okay.
Interestingly Murray was asked to improvise the whisper.
@M*A*S*H – I do believe you can hear him say ‘okay?’ at the end and both of those alternatives seem quite plausible, though number 2 is probably more realistic. But I do like it that we won’t ever really know and I don’t like to think about it too much. It’s just perfect, how this is a deeply personal and intimate moment between these two profoundly connected people, that is just theirs. We don’t get to be a part of it, and it’s simply genius. The fact that the whisper was improvised only adds to the film’s honesty.
Me too. I love ambiguous endings like these. A seperation is another such example. We never know which parent she chooses to be with. But whoever she chooses, she has lost both of them as nothing’s gonna be same anymore.
@M*A*S*H – I haven’t watched A Separation yet, but yes, when done well, ambiguous endings can be extremely powerful – evasive and puzzling. They do trigger a lot of thought, but at their best they also serve to communicate something important in the context of the film. Coppola, I find, accomplishes exactly that, but to even a greater extent since there is something universal about the story of those two people.
@Georg – reminded me of In the Mood for Love, the scene where Tony Leung whispers into the tree which served as an outlet to reveal his strong emotions that he can’t share with anyone. The whisper here is great as both characters are married and will go on with their lives.
@James Trapp- you’re absolutely right! I never thought of the whisper in In the Mood for Love, but they do have that in common as well. It’s wonderfully elegiac.
Agree with you completely.
The Virgin Suicides —
Lost in Translation MS
Marie Antoinette R
Somewhere R
The Bling Ring —
The Beguiled —