We look closer at Sofia Coppola’s beguiling cinematic worlds, her early life and her key works, from The Virgin Suicides to the Beguiled.
Works Cited & Consulted:
Oris, Scott. “Feminism and the Art of Banality: Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere.” Cinemablography. http://www.cinemablography.org/somewh…
Nordine, Michael. “Sofia Coppola’s Favorite Films.” Indiewire. 6 February 2017. http://www.indiewire.com/gallery/sofi…
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:05
the youngest child of legendary
00:08
filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola Sofia
00:10
Coppola was born a kind of royalty into
00:13
a community that gave her a lot to live
00:15
up to artistically but from her debut
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film Coppola carved out a style and a
00:20
way of looking at the world that is
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entirely her own the inverse of her
00:29
father’s ethics like The Godfather in
00:32
Apocalypse Now her films our intimate
00:34
and scale they follow characters
00:36
suspended in moments of transition
00:38
they are muted in color and filmed in
00:40
natural light we wander through her
00:42
lonely dreamscapes guided by sound she’s
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a true indie filmmaker who opts for
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creative freedom over a big budget as
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Coppola herself once said I don’t make
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the kind of movies that lend themselves
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to wide releases the most other certain
00:56
characters in transition and how people
00:59
can be motivated to change not from
01:01
something outside disaster or being held
01:04
hostage which is kind of a little moment
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in life isn’t such a big deal I [ __ ]
01:07
mice
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those are the things that make you look
01:11
at yourself or change
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you know you’re watching a Sofia Coppola
01:18
film if it follows a protagonist who’s
01:21
typically female and at a turning point
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in life the story isn’t driven by plot
01:25
but by schemes often of loneliness teen
01:29
culture burgeoning femininity and
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stilted ambition you learn about a
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character’s emotional state through
01:35
visuals as opposed to dialogue it’s shot
01:37
on film
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except for Bling Ring which was shot on
01:40
digital it has her signature follow shot
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that pulls the viewer into the story
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whether it’s filmed on a handheld camera
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or love dolly it’s characterized by
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ambient sound and the documentary
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sensibility colors feel muted or pastel
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thanks to the natural light creating low
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contrast in the image
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all of these elements establishing
01:58
immediately a Sofia Coppola mood Sofia
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was born in New York City in 1971 the
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only daughter of Francis Ford Coppola
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and artist and filmmaker eleanor coppola
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her first entry into the film world was
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as an actor she played Michael
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Corleone’s godchild at the baptism and
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her father’s iconic The Godfather she
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also had a small role in part two as an
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immigrant child and a key role as the
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daughter of Michael Corleone in part
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three you don’t have to ask me please
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famously her performance wasn’t very
02:30
well received by the critics as 15 she
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interned for Chanel in Paris her ongoing
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flair for fashion has made her something
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of a style icon her friend Marc Jacobs
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has called her his muse and her
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attention to detail translates into her
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films costume design looking at these
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period clothes from the beguil’d
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or Marie Antoinette we can almost
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imagine them in a spread in vogue at 18
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coppola worked with her father to write
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the screenplay for the short life
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without Zoe
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one third of the anthology film New York
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stories in the 90s she enrolled at Cal
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arts for painting but transferred to the
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Art Center College of Design to study
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photography her formal training as a
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photographer shows in her deep
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understanding of visual storytelling we
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never learn about her character’s
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emotional states through what they said
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we learned through cinematography and
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sound design through a character stand
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the color of her lights and most
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importantly the way she’s framed here
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the distance shot from above in which
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Lux appears tiny and awkwardly near the
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edge of the picture represents her a bit
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vulnerability how small she feels waking
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up alone after homecoming here Johnny
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apathetically floats out of the frame
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reflecting his loneliness
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despite the glamorous backdrop and like
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in a photograph Coppola leaves room for
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viewers to project their own feelings
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onto the image having grown up on movie
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sets Coppola was exposed to
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international art house films from a
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young age her father introduced her to
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the French New Wave an Italian
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Neorealism some of her favorites include
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Godard breathless Kubrick’s Lolita
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Hughes’s sixteen Candles Francis Ford
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Coppola z– Rumble fish and Peter
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Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show she
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also cites visual art and music as key
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sources for inspiration and even plants
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visual references to artists within her
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work
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Paula’s debut feature The Virgin
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Suicides premiered at Sundance in 2000
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putting the director on the arthouse or
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indie map based on Jeffery huge entities
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1993 novel the story set in 1970s
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suburban Detroit and like the book it’s
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told from the perspective of boys who
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are entranced by the isolated lives and
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sisters Coppola and her director of
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photography Edward Lachman to pick this
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point of view through shaky follow shots
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shot through windows and other views
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that communicate the boys and the
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audience’s yearning to access this
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untouchable girl world do you like to
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wrestle the outsider looking in
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perspective is a theme and visual
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approach that would continue to permeate
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her film the movie introduced the world
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to Coppola the Romantic visual style The
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Virgin Suicides aesthetic took after
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Terrence Malick’s 1973 badlands Bill
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Owens photographic book suburbia and
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photographer William Eggleston
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die transfer photos from the 1970s like
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the Virgin Suicides Coppola second
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feature lost in translation focuses on
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the perspectives of emotionally
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imprisoned protagonists the title lost
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in translation on the surface references
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the comic difficulty the characters
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experience communicating via
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interpreters notes and technological
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needs is that everything
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it seemed like you said quite a bit more
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than that on a deeper level it
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represents the chasms that have formed
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in their personal relationships
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suspending them in
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shared depressive limbo before Bob and
05:45
Charlotte meet they’re shown drowning
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among unfamiliar crowds or occupying the
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edge of the frame alone but when the
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characters are shown together and
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they’re content the composition is truly
05:56
at balance Coppola utilizes silence
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throughout the film to increase the
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weight of the visuals and also to
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perpetuate the theme of those moments in
06:03
which meaning is lost in translation
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lost in translation was nominated for
06:07
four Academy Awards in 2003 in Coppola
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won for Best Original Screenplay
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solidifying her status as a powerhouse
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filmmaker
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early in her career we meet another
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female protagonist in flux in Marie
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Antoinette Coppola off-kilter biopic
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that was brewed at can at its 2006
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premiere one of the most interesting
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aspects of this movie is the way Coppola
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sprinkles in anachronism like converse
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high-tops and songs by two strokes in
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1775 his stylistic form of present ism
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applying present-day ideas to the
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distant past sends a bold message that
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this movie isn’t actually about 18th
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century France it’s about a teenage girl
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then today or anytime and her stories
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told through the symbolic material of
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Antoinette’s life loosely and liberally
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interpreted she’s a girl out of her
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depth whose mind is focused on typical
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young girl things like boys clothes and
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fun while her circumstances demand a lot
07:02
more maturity from her performance why
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not have it was wonderful we can
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empathize with Antoinette not as a
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historical figure flattened into a
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textbook but as a prematurely sexualized
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and disoriented teen matching its
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content the film’s aesthetic is far more
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over-the-top and Coppola typically
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understated visual style yet amidst the
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lavish costumes sets and desserts in the
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framing and the museum son we’re still
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seeing copal as refined and neatly
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composed i and the film showcases her
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inclination for fashion for time
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oscar-winning costume designer milena
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Canon arrow used a box of la tarea
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macaroons Coppola brought her as a color
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palette and they got Manolo Blahnik to
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designer shoes again the period is a
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jumping-off point less important than
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thematic expression the clothes
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symbolically mirror Antoinette’s
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personal transformation from an innocent
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child to an extravagant party girl to a
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and finally to a political prisoner we
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might even interpret the film as a
08:00
defense of the appeal of superficial
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beauty as an athlete and lover of many
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arts Coppola is sympathetic to those who
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love or fall for beauty even if that
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beauty ultimately turns out to be
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shallow when he’d come back whereas many
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of Coppola stones explore female
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questions 2010 somewhere follows a male
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protagonist Stephen Dorff Johnny
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a depressed Hollywood actor who
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sleepwalks through his glamorous boring
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days and lonely promiscuous nights we
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open with a two-minute sequence in which
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Johnny drives his black Ferrari in
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circles on a desert Trek passing in and
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out of the frame
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the quiet opening shot anticipates the
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slow burning journey to come the
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minimalism real time feel and
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playfulness of somewhere make us think
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of French new-wave films like Cleo from
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5 to 7 and the name of Johnny’s daughter
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Cleo
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may be a reference to that Agnes Varda
08:53
film harrison video from her father fer
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showed me the Chantal aquamarine human
09:00
doll – of iris particles so for the
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watching there William kind of real-time
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and not before fastened
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in her signature style Coppola renders
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Johnny’s emotional states through
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composition and sound design take for
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example two nearly identical scenes in
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which a pair of twin strippers give a
09:22
private performance for John the
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repetition and the subtle differences in
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how he responds signal his current mood
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as well as the absurdity and emptiness
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of his routine all was the most
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minimalist of shot choices a wide from
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his point of view of the strippers and a
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reverse shot of Johnny the restraint of
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the minimalism actually heightens the
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humor and the sadness when Johnny feels
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alone it shows in the frame when he’s
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spending time with his daughter creo the
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composition is more at balance and the
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frame has motion vibrancy or warmth the
09:51
joy of the film lies in the moments Cleo
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and Johnny spend together and almost all
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of these are wordless or use words only
09:58
as additional texture it’s a story told
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in my new visual choices mood and subtle
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story details like the Eggs Benedict the
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Cleo makes for her father so good that’s
10:10
really good clear you got the sauce
10:12
perfect it’s like not too heavy
10:18
why the inspiration for 2013 The Bling
10:24
Ring came from a Vanity Fair article the
10:26
suspects wore Louboutins the film’s
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based on the true crime story of a group
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of celebrity obsessed teens who
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burglarized homes of the likes of Paris
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Hilton and Orlando Bloom making out with
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over 3 million in clothing cash and
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jewelry a fun fact Paris Hilton actually
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makes a cameo in the movie Coppola has
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said that she studied the social media
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profiles of her lead actors for visual
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reference the end result was a collage
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of digital images with a documentary
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feel countless handheld shots mimicking
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the selfies and granular skype videos
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that dominate the lives of the main
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characters and again like Marie
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Antoinette but in a different way
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Ling Ling has sequences that feel like
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music videos visually and musically
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capturing the feeling that her
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characters are chasing and emphasizing
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the way that to these young people the
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promises of riches and fame feel
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impossibly cool and glamorous the
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bloomerang is copal as only film shot on
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digital to date she decided to try it
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out based on a recommendation from
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cinematographer Harris Aviv who passed
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away from brain cancer during
11:25
post-production together they composed
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one of the film’s most memorable shots
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the teens breaking into a glass house in
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the Hollywood Hills from the perspective
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of an abandoned house across the street
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this is another instance of composition
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as metaphor from here the people look
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like Barbies wandering around a
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dollhouse the image plays on the film’s
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materialistic motifs and the idea that
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for these characters grand larceny is
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child’s play Coppola and civilities
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crafted a symbolic visual world for the
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fame-hungry Bling Ring to inhabit a dull
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suburb by day and a glittering pop art
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playground by night The Bling Ring Marie
12:00
Antoinette and The Virgin Suicides share
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a common interest in illuminating the
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inner lives of misunderstood teenagers
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tragically shaped by society no way I
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think I’m hearing you will compare
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everybody in 2015 Coppola got together
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with Netflix for a very Marie Christmas
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the melancholic musical comedy which
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features an impressive cast of
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celebrities is an homage to old
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hollywood themed variety shows while it
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seems to be a 1 offer a departure a very
12:31
Merry Christmas parish traces of co+
12:33
personality a crowd of famous relatives
12:35
and friends a beautifully lonely
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rendering of New York City and comedic
12:39
moments that might make you feel a
12:41
little miserable Coppola made history at
12:57
can 2017 when she became the second
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woman ever in the first American woman
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to take home the Best Director award for
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the beguil’d an adaptation of a Southern
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gothic novel by Thomas P Cullinan which
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was also made into a 1971 film starring
13:11
Clint Eastwood the story shows what
13:13
happens when a wounded Union soldier
13:15
shows up at an all-girls boarding school
13:17
in rural Mississippi the beguil’d
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explores a theme reminiscent of the
13:21
Virgin Suicides group dynamics
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particularly among women when Nicole
13:26
Kidman’s miss Martha remarks it seems
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the enemy it’s not how quickly this
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speaks to the film’s exploration of
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relationships between the sexes and how
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the presence of a man can immediately
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change how women behave together in
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keeping with the Southern gothic
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tradition the tight self-contained story
13:42
unravels in what feels at moments like a
13:45
horror movie my antenna seems to be on
13:47
the subtle side so so I push myself to
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be a little more there’s more dialog and
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a little more call excusing it it’s like
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oh this is an action movie – you come
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with there’s guns and a stuntman and
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what you seem to be a sensitive person
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Bessy apart from her stylistic influence
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one of the ways Coppola has been most
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influential in cinema is in her example
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as a prominent woman in film with a
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distinctive style and the freedom to
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make the film she wants to make and
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while she’s repeatedly demonstrated her
14:20
capabilities Coppola still faces
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criticism but dismisses her stylized
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visuals as hollow or her subjects as
14:27
frivolous but gaining critical respect
14:29
in the film industry shouldn’t require
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championing male scenes Coppola herself
14:33
is often described as being soft-spoken
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yet in control onset and this translates
14:38
into her film they may be quiet and
14:40
soft-spoken themselves but we can feel
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the firm directorial hand at work in
14:44
every scene she really puts together
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good energies of people and cast members
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I think and so it naturally kind of her
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visions so easily comes to life in my
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opinion and she doesn’t second-guess
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herself if Coppola films thus far are
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any indication we know she’ll continue
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to tell stories that embrace female
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points of view use aesthetic mean to
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tell stories of what’s happening beneath
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the surface and shed light on the
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interior lives of people in transition
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and she’ll tell them the way that she
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wants
15:12
[Applause]
15:19
[Music]
15:26
you
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video