Sofia Coppola
has grown up on film before our eyes. From the time she was born she appeared in
her father’s films – from the baby being christened at the end of The
Godfather, to rolls in The Outsiders and Rumblefish, and even
a controversial turn as Mary Corleone in The Godfather, Part III. With
Francis Ford Coppola as her father and Spike Jonze as her husband, it seemed
only natural that she would ultimately find herself behind the camera. In 2000
she released her first feature The Virgin Suicides.
While her first film was arguably inevitable, she’s now returned at age 32
with her second attempt, Lost in Translation, and in doing so has defined
herself as a serious filmmaker with a vision of her own. Lost in Translation
was shot in 27 days and stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson as mismatched
American strangers roaming about a Tokyo hotel over the course of a week.
I spoke with her on a recent Sunday afternoon and learned that her cousin
Nicolas Cage was ironically at the same hotel in midtown to promote his latest
work. If Francis Ford Coppola is known for being boisterous and larger than
life, then Sofia is shy, speaking in hushed tones – though she subtly makes
forceful points.
For Sofia, who wrote the original screenplay, Translation is about how,
“You can have a valuable exchange with someone that doesn’t have to be a
part of your life.”
“I had spent a bunch of time there (Tokyo) in my early and mid-20’s doing
work on different things. When I was there I thought, Oh I wanna do a movie here
someday. I just love the way it visually looks. It’s just so foreign. I’ve
never been any place where you just feel like you’re on another planet. Then
with jetlag on top of it. So to me it was a unique experience. That was sort of
the starting point.”
She continues, “I remember driving home in a taxi and seeing the neon blurring
by and listening to music…I thought, Wow! I knew that I wanted to show Tokyo
in a movie because I haven’t really seen it in a movie like that.”
Lost in Translation was filmed in chronological order on location. The
picture has a grainy look with red lights constantly glowing all around. Sofia
spent time discussing with her cinematographer Lance Acord how best to capture
the experiential rush she wanted to convey. “I talked about shooting on video.
It was low-budget and we considered that. I wanted to be mobile and not
intrusive, so it was important for me to be able to shoot in low-light and not
have to interrupt everything. To be able to shoot real things in Tokyo. Lance
assured me that with high-speed film stock we could run around and shoot without
lighting. That’s probably why it looks like
that. But I think he’s so talented and I loved the way the film looks. I
wanted it to have that kind of romantic feeling of a memory – video seems more
immediate and film is a little more stylish.”
Even
though they figured out how to achieve the overall look, the actual shooting
logistics still weren't that easy. Sofia explains, “It was really tricky
shooting on that short of a schedule. We were kind of running all over because
the bar – we could only shoot in it from one in the morning till three in the
morning or till the sun came up. We were running around shooting all night, then
shooting day scenes in the morning. It was kind of crazy. But there was a point
into the shooting where they were saying, ‘We’re never going to get all this
stuff done. We have to cut scenes.’ I said, ‘No, we’ve gotta find a
way.’ And luckily my big brother showed up – Roman – he came over and shot
second camera. So that made us able to get everything done.”
While most of the film was indirectly inspired by real life experiences, Sofia
certainly drew inspiration from classic motion pictures as well. “I watched a
lot of movies while working on this like L’Avventura – that kind of
meandering feeling. And when I was on the plane to Tokyo Roman Holiday
was playing.” One film that influenced her and made it into the final cut was
based on a bizarre encounter: “I actually saw La Dolce Vita on TV when
I was in Japan. It was just something with the Japanese subtitles and they were
speaking Italian. Just that international feeling.”
Sofia is busy promoting Lost in Translation and has no idea what her next
project will be. One thing is certain, she has no plans to act for her father
anytime soon. She declares, “I’m pretty self-conscious in front of the
camera. I much prefer being behind it.”
As for Francis, he’s busy working on his dream project MEGALOPOLIS. Sofia
illuminates, “My dad’s been working on the script for a long time. It’s
his personal film.” She then relates, “ He always encouraged us to make
personal work.”
-Copyright
2003 by Jamie
Stuart