Saw a Somewhere thread recently around here. Lots of Sophia hate I recall. I don’t mind her myself.
Marie Antoinette is a masterpiece.
sofia is a gymnast :O)
A lot of misogynists don’t like Sofia Coppola.
A lot of regular people, too, no doubt.
I’m a big fan of all of her work so far… so I’ve been anticipating this from day one. But now that I’ve seen the trailer, I can honestly say it looks absolutely fantastic. Stephen Dorff is looking to be the sleeper performance of the year (unless there’s another that pops up before January, or I’m simply forgetting someone at the moment) and Elle looks to add another amazing performance to her already fantastic filmography (she was pretty great in Benjamin Button and downright brilliant in Phoebe in Wonderland).
a lot of feminists don’t like her – no wonder after lost in translation…
I’d guess 90% of the reason she gets so much hate is people think she didn’t earn her status, she inherited it.
I’ve liked everything she’s done. Marie Antoinette was soooo underrated.
What is there in Lost In Translation that would turn feminists off of her?
i saw it over the weekend. i liked it very much. it couldve ended a few minutes earlier, and im not sure that im crazy about the very very end, but i still think this is her best work since virgin suicides.
No no no non no, this was a joke right? a joke? The movie, I mean. Sofia’s career I mean.
The ending may be a bit contrived; the guy behind me in the theatre might have called it “hands down, the shittest movie [he had] ever seen”. I think the poster is arguably the best I saw last year, and I enjoyed the hell out this thing. By no means a perfect film, “Somewhere” feels like a film that hopes to understand what it is trying to do or what it is trying to be as it casually unfolds. For me, this was a very fitting reflection of Johnny Marco’s internal dilemma: famous and desirable but utterly miserable and unable to articulate his ennui. I applaud Sofia Coppola for refusing to inject any major plot devices into the story, for sitting back and just letting shit happen. She knows how to trust her images. Good stuff.
Let me just say that I really feel for Sofia. She grows up in daddy’s formidable shadow, is torn apart for her acting and her surname, spends almost a decade partying like some kind of above-average-IQ Paris Hilton, and then makes The Virgin Suicides. I think she deserves some credit. Priveleged or not, she’s actually making interesting movies, taking risks and sticking to her guns. Her pedigree should have no bearing on people’s appreciation and assessment of her films.
L West is quite correct.
“Somewhere” is a very engaging variation on “Lost in Translation.” Murrya and Johanssen were total strangers. Dorf and Fanning are father and daughter. In both films something subtle and ingratiaitng passes between the two.
Obviously she’s too low-key for every taste. But she suits me right down to the ground.
It’s a good film, though it recycles too much from Lost In Translation.
There are some subtle things I appreciated. How, when he has a broken arm, all he’s doing is watch his daughter perform things and barely interacting with her. His arm heals, suddenly he can play with her and relate to her. His ability to relate to his daughter is strictly based on participation in her activities.
Also, I like the comparison between him watching the pole dancers and him watching his daughter figure skate. In each he’s equally the detached spectator.
But, the movie is a bit too slow for such basely sentimental themes. Decent film, not a great one.
I am a Sophia Coppola fan but was really disappointed in this venture.
I thought it contrived and agree with JIRIN, recycled way too much from Lost in Translation. The whole thing felt like an undercooked soggy cake being sucked into a vacuum hose. Neither here nor there and cloyingly self aware…especially when Phoenix starts to play and you are like – here is when Sophia wants us to "feel"something for the emptiness that is the characters life and now we will watch 5 minutes of them staring at something and getting room service. We’ve been here before. This worked in Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, in my opinion, because Coppola successfully built a rapport with the audience and the character. Bill Murray, Kirstin Dunst and even Scarlett Johansson had enough persona to pull this off and the scripts, in my opinion, were filled with just the right amount of irony, insouciance, wordplay and silence.
Stephen Dorf and Elle Fanning honestly just did not have enough to pull together such a sparse, frankly pointlessly dull script and their flintiness and lack of presence really hurt. Also that guy from Jackass…what??
When you still could care less about your main characters and you only have 10 minutes left of the film…your annoyance is the only thing you can think about. That and the stripper twins.
“Obviously she’s too low-key for every taste. But she suits me right down to the ground.”
Enough with the “indie talents” of the Coppolas and the likes of the American pseudo-culturalistic industry. Not only they’ve become way too tiresome for their own good, now we have the Ehrenstein academics to praise them like they’re some sort of “art-house goodies”.
“I’d guess 90% of the reason she gets so much hate is people think she didn’t earn her status, she inherited it.”
No, she simply has zero talent, one LiT doesn’t prove shit. Tarantino made a couple of films too, is he the world’s bestest director because of his “talent”? Nope, he and she are of the same kind: popcorn anatomists.
You can be quite harsh, Dimitris, but I have to agree.
@Dimitris
Popcorn anatomists?
Well yes, take Coppola’s philosophy for a bit: Marie Antoinette, one of the bitchiest queens + ironic dose of modern transistor vibes next to a surgical procedure of cinema verite-biographical hypocrisy and there ya go: artfulness for the mass.
I’m sure I can easily reconstruct the Somewhere variation too.
Aw. I will steal that.
“What does he know about man alone?” Plato, from “Rebel Without A Cause”.
Coppola’s low-key personality and humble manner make it impossible to hate her, and what is the point, when there are many more targets rightly deserving of such scorn. About this film: the ending feels to me too much like the requisite modification of behavior insisted upon by mainstream screenwriting practice, and which damages far too many American films. After she has been bold enough to trust her images throughout, to succumb to this seems like a concession, or lack of nerve. Everything else is impressively managed. C’mon, admit it, the moment with the plaster cast was nicely done. As was Dad’s Ferrari making an aimless circle. Which recalled the character Bud in Vincent Gallo’s “Brown Bunny” speeding round-and-round on his motorbike. Both of which recalled the scene in the desert in Antonioni’s “The Passenger”, where Locke’s jeep is trapped in the sand, its spinning wheels only sinking him deeper.
This isn’t a great film, but neither is it a rank failure. Coppola, as a director, is patient, and she shows the capacity for empathy. One may, if one choses, knock her for who she is and where she comes from. But she is not smug and self-aggrandizing. Were she, that would be intolerable, and worthy of derision.
Yeah, sure, Coppola lives in a bubble of privilege, and I wish she’d turn her lens elsewhere, or at least take notice of other figures in her universe beside the wealthy and the indolent. Like maybe a glimpse at the nameless nobodies who attend to these poor rich souls. That’s where she falls short, way short, of Antonioni, who was very very aware of class distinctions, no matter that his primary figures, and he himself, were of the privileged class. I really would like her to risk that the next time. To see her get herself out of the sinking sand.
I have to say how superb Harris Savides’ photography is. Any project he’s on, I’m going to see it.
I remember being an alienated 13 year old without a single friend in the world; and when I saw Lost in Translation then, it gave me hope…not to mention, it made me fall in love with film. Her body of work is so dreamy, and so grand in scale for a young modern filmmaker to have undergone; yet all of her work is marked with her own distinct vision.
The Virgin Suicides was a faithful adaptation and a wonderfully cold 1970’s period piece. It’s beautifully crafted. Hypnotizing. It managed to execute the same thoughts the novel did.
Lost in Translation is no doubt a modern masterpiece (unless you find it to be “racist” or “boring”).
Marie-Antoinette I found to be rather anarchic in it’s approach to portraying history. I felt as if Sofia was commenting on how we consume and romanticize history, and how we can do so so easily. Plus, it’s wonderfully done.
Somewhere is finally playing in Albuquerque this weekend. I am excited to see it.
Moderated
“I have to say how superb Harris Savides’ photography is. Any project he’s on, I’m going to see it.”
Except for his work on Whatever Works, of course, which was pretty unimpressive imo. maybe that’s Woody’s fault though.
loved this. despite some obvious narrative similarity to LIT, it’s its own thing. if you don’t like sofia coppola’s prior work you won’t be swayed. and yes, harris savides!
I totally missed this. Is this out on VHS yet?
Clint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvSspY7WU10
What does everyone think? I’ve always been fascinated by Sofia Coppola and the way she is able to evoke a feeling of vagueness and boredom, even if it was a little too much in Marie Antoinette. It looks like she’s getting back to what she was up to in Lost in Translation: a washed-up Hollywood actor hanging out in a hotel and finding an unexpected connection (of course this time it’s his daughter). It may be a little too thematically similar, but I’m excited nonetheless.