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Photo By Steve Ramos
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Sofia Coppola
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She's suffered through offbeat roles in forgettable movies. Sofia Coppola played a Times Square junkie opposite Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson in the 1993 B-movie Sometimes Salvation.
Her time as co- host of cable TV's Hi Octane was short-lived. Coppola's pop-culture pit stops interviewing Hollywood celebrities about their cars failed to hold audiences' attention.
Her career path uncertain, maybe it was inevitable that Coppola would turn out to be a kind of modern-day renaissance girl. She practiced painting, photography and fashion design after leaving the California Institute for the Arts in 1991. She even modeled briefly. Still, the movie camera beckoned.
It's understandable if she remains a bit apprehensive about a career in the movies. Her performance as Mary Corleone in her father Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part III (1990) earned disastrous reviews. It didn't matter that Coppola replaced an ill Winona Ryder at the last minute. Now, 10 years later, Sofia Coppola's big-screen notoriety finally turns positive with her directing debut, The Virgin Suicides. A coming-of-age tale about the five beautiful Lisbon sisters and the tragedy that changes their affluent community, The Virgin Suicides has ridden a wave of positive momentum since its debut at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. It makes one wonder if Sofia Coppola's filmmaking talent owes itself to a fatherly mentor.
"My dad showed us things that were his favorite movies," Coppola says, speaking earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. "I got to see things that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. Being a film fan, he showed us things that he liked. But I saw Purple Rain when I was 12, and I loved it. So I'm not into just one kind of film. I'm not a film snob."
Comparisons are inevitable. It's true for anyone who follows in a famous father's footsteps. But Coppola was never paralyzed by a confidence crisis. It helps that she's worked with her father before.
Coppola made her film debut as a baby in the climactic baptism scene in her father, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather.
She played on the Philippine beaches while her father was filming Apocalypse Now. She even makes an appearance in the documentary about the film's troubled production, Heart of Darkness. At age 17, she co-wrote and designed the costumes and opening-credit sequence for her father's segment of New York Stories (1989).
But it was Coppola's love for Jeffrey Eugenides' 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides that finally put her behind the camera. Muse Productions already owned the rights to The Virgin Suicides, but Coppola decided to go ahead and adapt her own screenplay. She was given a shot at directing her screenplay after the initial project failed. It wasn't long before her father came on board as one of the film's producers.
Coppola cut her auteur teeth with a 14-minute black-and-white film called Lick the Star. Its tale, about a high schooler's plan to poison his classmates, revealed her interest in the perverse. From a storytelling perspective, The Virgin Suicides is a natural progression.
The film's themes of young loss resonated with Coppola. The older of her two brothers, Gian-Carlo Coppola was killed in 1986 in a speed boat accident at age 22. It was also important that the sense of loss be portrayed in a dreamlike fashion
"I wanted the film to be an abstract, like a memory of something," she says. "If you saw something as shocking as that (suicide), I think you'd just remember fragments. I also wanted to have some distance from it (suicides) because I didn't want it to be too shocking."
Like most children of the rich and famous, much of Coppola's lifestyle is public knowledge. She has opened up her clothes closet for media scrutiny and published a diary of her 1999 Cannes experience with The Virgin Suicides. Magazines pronounce her favorite tropical escape: Blancaneaux Lodge, a resort her father owns in Belize. The contents of her suitcase are listed for young girls wanting to pack like Sofia -- Kiehl's Cucumber Body Lotion, Laura Urbinati bikini and a Yashica T4 Super Weatherproof camera.
Paparazzi documented her summer 1999 wedding when she wed director Spike Jonze at her father's vineyard. Hers is the type of wide-open profile one would expect from an emerging filmmaker who is already somewhat of a celebrity.
Coppola was part of the 1999 Sundance sorority that introduced a new class of female filmmakers. But old labels die hard. At the premiere screening for The Virgin Suicides, Coppola listened to a frequently asked question from the audience: What did you learn from The Godfather Part III? It's something she has wondered over the past 10 years.
"I was 18, and I was at the age where you want to go away from your family, do the opposite that your parents tell you and make your own way," Coppola says, eating a late lunch at a Park City, Utah, restaurant. So it was hard at that age to have my dad be my boss. But it was valuable for me to know what that experience was like. I definitely learned about being in front of a camera. I know how you feel vulnerable. I also learned that was one thing I didn't want to do. I think the critics were pretty harsh but, you know, it makes you tough. It wasn't devastating because I hadn't set out to be an actress. I think something like that would be harder with this film, because I really put myself completely into it."
The initial acclaim over Coppola's $3.5 million film starring Kathleen Turner, James Woods and Kirsten Dunst is finally pushing her Godfather III reputation aside. Now, people just want to ask about her filmmaking. Coppola's arty knack for split screen and montage reflect the film history passed down by her father. Her deft use of 1970s soundtrack and a score by French popsters Air reflect her own youthful sensibilities.
"I wanted to the film to have a naïve quality that a girl's world has," she says, speaking softly. "I know when you're a kid you do feel separate from the adult world. Kids and adults are really separated"
Filmed on location in Toronto during 1998, The Virgin Suicides is a fresh breath of unique cinema style. Coppola emphasizes that "Daddy" only visited the set three times, although there were frequent phone calls for advice. Still the film ultimately belongs to her no matter what assumption people want to make.
"I hope that people will see it as someone making their first film." Coppola says softly. "And I hope people see the film outside my family. Of course, that might not happen. I don't know what I can do about it. I can't change my name at this point. If I thought about that too much, I'd never do anything. I hope people see it for what it is."
Coppola's shot at auteur status looks promising. It's the type of splash someone needs to make when entering the family business. It's not certain whether she will someday equal her father's reputation.
Of course, the same thing was said of Michael Corleone. ©
