Sofia Coppola, celebrated filmmaker. Photo by Ruben V. Nepales
LOS ANGELES—The soft-spoken, low-key way Sofia Coppola recounts how she heard her history-making win in Cannes—she became the second woman, and the first American female in the film festival’s 70-year history to win the best director prize—pretty much describes her.
Wearing a simple black blouse, white pants and black Chanel sandals, Sofia quietly explained why she did not accept in person her prize for “The Beguiled”—the first woman to win the award since Yuliya Solntseva in 1961.
Seated in a meeting room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, Sofia began: “I went home (to New York, where she lives now, from Cannes) and there was no news. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. But you hope that your film will be brought up when they are talking about the final films. So I went home to my kids.
“That morning, I got a call that I was going to get a prize. We didn’t know which one. It was the morning of [the awards ceremony] so I couldn’t get there anyway. But we were going to Coney Island with my kids. I got a call that I got the director award. It was a big surprise, and exciting. My daughters were very excited.”
The kids, Romy and Cosima, are her two daughters with her husband, musician Thomas Mars. Sofia divorced her first husband, director Spike Jonze, in 2003.
The only daughter of Francis and Eleanor Coppola has quietly set records—the first American woman (and only the fourth American) to bag the Golden Lion (for “Somewhere”), Venice Film Fest’s top plum and the third woman to earn an Academy Award best director nod (for “Lost in Translation”).
Sofia was only about 5 years old when Francis and Eleanor brought the family (including sons Roman, now a producer, and Gian-Carlo, who died in 1986) to shoot “Apocalypse Now” in the 1970s, which was plagued with problems. But eventually, “Apocalypse Now” became a landmark film on the Vietnam War, often hailed as one of the movie masterpieces of the 20th century.
Eleanor’s documentary, “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse,” in which she chronicled the trials and struggles of making the film, won several awards.
“I was a little kid so I wasn’t aware that there was so much drama going on,” recalled Sofia, 46. “I thought it was exciting to be in the Philippines. But I learned a lot—that my dad always believed in what he was doing, he had so much passion and was fighting for making the movie he wanted to make. I got that from him and of course, you have to fight to get exactly what you want.
“I am so happy that with ‘The Beguiled,’ I got the cast that I wanted and I got to make exactly the movie that I wanted to make, thanks to Youree (Henley), my producer.”
A Southern Gothic Civil War drama-thriller, “The Beguiled” was first adapted by Clint Eastwood in 1971, based on the book by Thomas Cullinan. Sofia’s version stars Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Kirsten Dunst as among the women in a girls’ school who shelter a wounded soldier (Colin Farrell). The man’s presence triggers sexual tension and rivalries in the all-female household.
Cannes is memorable to the Coppolas. “I remember having my eighth birthday during Cannes when my father was there for ‘Apocalypse Now’ and just the excitement of being there,” Sofia said.
“I brought my first film, ‘The Virgin Suicides,’ there. It was well-received. I felt that that started my career.”
But her special memory of the festival is amusing. “I remember going to the Palais to see movies but mostly, I remember the year that Cheech and Chong had ‘Up in Smoke’ (laughs). They had a huge joint up on the Croisette. My brothers got to go and I couldn’t go.”
Sofia credits her mom for making her and her brothers appreciate the visual arts at an early age. “When I was growing up, my mother, who was always interested in contemporary art, brought us to museums to see exhibits and always encouraged us to make art and be creative,” reminisced Sofia, who studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, both in California. “My demeanor on set comes from my mother, who keeps a calm exterior in the storm.”
However, she does shout out directions on the set. “I do talk to the cast and crew before a scene and I am not shy to interrupt and to talk while we are filming.”
She conceded being closer to Francis. “I was a daddy’s girl but like most teenage girls, there was friction with my mother because that’s who you rebel against to make your identity. Now, I am close to both my parents.”
To this day, Sofia remembers what an actress told her. “I met Anjelica Huston when I was 14. She told me, ‘Don’t worry, you will grow into your nose someday.’ And I thought, someday, I want to be like Anjelica Huston.”
On casting Colin as the only man in the cast—apparently an opportunity the actor enjoyed immensely—Sofia said: “That was the hardest role to cast because I had the women in mind and then I had to find an actor who could really carry himself with all these women, someone so charming and charismatic.
“I wanted someone who was really masculine and would be sexy to a wide range of women.”
The director, who was born in New York when Francis was shooting “The Godfather” (she played the christened baby), grew around the Pacinos and De Niros of the movie world, so Sofia no longer gets excited seeing actors. “I get starstruck around Edward Ruscha the artist, but movie people, not as much. But more with music or art people like Elvis Costello.”
Looking forward, she said she had no plans of making a sequel to “Lost in Translation.” “But that would be interesting,” she shared with a smile.
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com. Follow him at https://twitter.com/nepalesruben.