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Conversations With Filmmakers Series
Sofia Coppola: Interviews
Sofia Coppola (b. 1971) was baptized on film. After appearing in The Godfather as an infant, it took twenty-five years for Coppola to take her place behind the camera, helming her own adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’s celebrated novel The Virgin Suicides. Following her debut, Coppola was the third woman ever to be nominated for Best Director and became an Academy Award winner for Best Original Screenplay for her sophomore feature, Lost in Translation. She has also been awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and Best Director at Cannes.
In addition to her filmmaking, Coppola is recognized as an influential tastemaker. She sequenced the so-called Tokyo dream pop of the Lost in Translation soundtrack like an album, a success in its own right. Her third film, Marie Antoinette, further showcased Coppola’s ear for the unexpected needle drop, soundtracking the controversial queen’s life with a series of New Romantic bangers popular during the director’s adolescence.
The conversations compiled within Sofia Interviews mark the filmmaker’s progression from dismissed dilettante to acclaimed auteur of among the most visually arresting, melancholy, and wryly funny films of the twenty-first century. Coppola discusses her approach to collaboration, Bill Murray as muse, and how Purple Rain blew her twelve-year-old mind. There are interviews from major publications, but Coppola speaks with musician Kim Gordon for indie magazine Bust and Tavi Gevinson, then-adolescent founder of online teen magazine Rookie, as well. The volume also features a new and previously unpublished interview conducted with volume editor Amy N. Monaghan in which Coppola discusses her plans for the now-cancelled adaptation of The Custom of the Country. To read these interviews is to witness Sofia Coppola coming into her own as a world-renowned artist.
In addition to her filmmaking, Coppola is recognized as an influential tastemaker. She sequenced the so-called Tokyo dream pop of the Lost in Translation soundtrack like an album, a success in its own right. Her third film, Marie Antoinette, further showcased Coppola’s ear for the unexpected needle drop, soundtracking the controversial queen’s life with a series of New Romantic bangers popular during the director’s adolescence.
The conversations compiled within Sofia Interviews mark the filmmaker’s progression from dismissed dilettante to acclaimed auteur of among the most visually arresting, melancholy, and wryly funny films of the twenty-first century. Coppola discusses her approach to collaboration, Bill Murray as muse, and how Purple Rain blew her twelve-year-old mind. There are interviews from major publications, but Coppola speaks with musician Kim Gordon for indie magazine Bust and Tavi Gevinson, then-adolescent founder of online teen magazine Rookie, as well. The volume also features a new and previously unpublished interview conducted with volume editor Amy N. Monaghan in which Coppola discusses her plans for the now-cancelled adaptation of The Custom of the Country. To read these interviews is to witness Sofia Coppola coming into her own as a world-renowned artist.
186 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 27, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 10, 2024
This concept for a book is chill until you have to read the same context / intro over and over with each interview - otherwise it’s cool and I love Sofia and her cards are always the perfect distance from her chest very admirable quality
Very much pro Pinterest late at night kind of energy - live by that
Very much pro Pinterest late at night kind of energy - live by that
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November 27, 2023So I have to start off by saying I've been obsessed with director interviews maybe since I've been in high school. I read them kind of obsessively, maybe even more since film school, because I'm always looking to see how different filmmakers work or make their films and hoping for reassurance that the way I do things isn't messed up. I really appreciate this series because I'm always looking for interviews with directors where they actually talk about what they do on set, like whether they storyboard or do rehearsals. I think it's absolutely crazy that Miss Coppola shows up to set without a shot list or a storyboard but that's not my business I guess!
I wish that we'd had more from Virgin Suicides, just because I haven't made a first feature yet and I really wanted to know how she pulled that off. It seems like this is literally just a nepotism thing which is depressing. And that's kind of the thing.
I don't know why I'm drawn to Coppola because her movies usually aren't for me, but I see the artistry, and it's hard not to admire it. I think she's one of the only American female filmmakers who has kids and has made eight features as a 50-something. That's crazy and so inspiring to me. I also really, really admire how she knows what she wants and is clear about her vision and only makes movies she's really into. There were multiple interviews where she kind of mentions working for a studio and then it fizzles out because she doesn't have enough control. I know she can probably do that because she's a Coppola, but still.
When she talks about not wanting to make a movie for a long time after Marie Antoinette because it was such a hard experience, I was really grateful for that. I also really appreciated the part where she mentions her father telling her to yell action louder, but she says she has to direct her own way. This felt great as someone who hates yelling on set and is pretty soft spoken! I also was really really interested in the fact that she hates coverage and started making films as simply as possible. She kept saying she wants to get the budget as low as she can so she can get more control, which I really like.
My friend asked why I care about her because she's a nepo baby and so different from me and I think because, at least in the way she moodboards and shares with collaborators and plans out her movies, we are pretty similar. Even if what we make is really different.
Anyway, I got kind of frustrated once we got to The Beguiled and wanted to skip those interviews honestly. I don't know if it's because of the interviews that were selected here, but no one asked her about the black character she omitted, and I was really irritated; the people who were interviewing her were all white and it was really interesting (not surprising) that no one noticed that.
It's only referenced once she'd doing interviews for On the Rocks and one interviewer said she "had it really hard" or something, which irritated the hell out of me. And after reading her talk so long and deeply about so many subjects, I was really irritated at the one line, "Oh that was really hard but a good convo and I'm glad it happened" she gave about the whole thing. I know she probably doesn't want to talk about criticism, but it was just annoying that no one pressed her. But there are parts where she seems really clearly not to want to get into any public fights, maybe because she's traumatized frm when she was publicly dragged for her performance in the Godfather 3 (they literally asked her in almost every interview from 2000-2020 about it, it was kind of insane).
But like her husband mentions she doesn't like the Beatles, and then she says she doesn't want to get into it because she doesn't want to offend. Which... I get. But I kind of wonder how much she can say if a big part of her whole thing is not wanting to offend or make people angry. There's a part where she says she's not a feminist filmmaker because her films aren't political. And like girl! All art is political! You are saying something with your films, you know you are because you acknowledge it, and what you are saying is political! What you have to say about privileged women is political!
I think I always felt drawn to her because she felt way more self made to me (which is silly -- I realized this when an interview mentioned that her father has produced all of her films), but a lot of lines in these interviews reminded me just how privileged she is and just how different from me she is, which... is eye opening!
I wish that we'd had more from Virgin Suicides, just because I haven't made a first feature yet and I really wanted to know how she pulled that off. It seems like this is literally just a nepotism thing which is depressing. And that's kind of the thing.
I don't know why I'm drawn to Coppola because her movies usually aren't for me, but I see the artistry, and it's hard not to admire it. I think she's one of the only American female filmmakers who has kids and has made eight features as a 50-something. That's crazy and so inspiring to me. I also really, really admire how she knows what she wants and is clear about her vision and only makes movies she's really into. There were multiple interviews where she kind of mentions working for a studio and then it fizzles out because she doesn't have enough control. I know she can probably do that because she's a Coppola, but still.
When she talks about not wanting to make a movie for a long time after Marie Antoinette because it was such a hard experience, I was really grateful for that. I also really appreciated the part where she mentions her father telling her to yell action louder, but she says she has to direct her own way. This felt great as someone who hates yelling on set and is pretty soft spoken! I also was really really interested in the fact that she hates coverage and started making films as simply as possible. She kept saying she wants to get the budget as low as she can so she can get more control, which I really like.
My friend asked why I care about her because she's a nepo baby and so different from me and I think because, at least in the way she moodboards and shares with collaborators and plans out her movies, we are pretty similar. Even if what we make is really different.
Anyway, I got kind of frustrated once we got to The Beguiled and wanted to skip those interviews honestly. I don't know if it's because of the interviews that were selected here, but no one asked her about the black character she omitted, and I was really irritated; the people who were interviewing her were all white and it was really interesting (not surprising) that no one noticed that.
It's only referenced once she'd doing interviews for On the Rocks and one interviewer said she "had it really hard" or something, which irritated the hell out of me. And after reading her talk so long and deeply about so many subjects, I was really irritated at the one line, "Oh that was really hard but a good convo and I'm glad it happened" she gave about the whole thing. I know she probably doesn't want to talk about criticism, but it was just annoying that no one pressed her. But there are parts where she seems really clearly not to want to get into any public fights, maybe because she's traumatized frm when she was publicly dragged for her performance in the Godfather 3 (they literally asked her in almost every interview from 2000-2020 about it, it was kind of insane).
But like her husband mentions she doesn't like the Beatles, and then she says she doesn't want to get into it because she doesn't want to offend. Which... I get. But I kind of wonder how much she can say if a big part of her whole thing is not wanting to offend or make people angry. There's a part where she says she's not a feminist filmmaker because her films aren't political. And like girl! All art is political! You are saying something with your films, you know you are because you acknowledge it, and what you are saying is political! What you have to say about privileged women is political!
I think I always felt drawn to her because she felt way more self made to me (which is silly -- I realized this when an interview mentioned that her father has produced all of her films), but a lot of lines in these interviews reminded me just how privileged she is and just how different from me she is, which... is eye opening!
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May 12, 2024oh wow this took a while to finish. honestly i kind of forgot about it bc i read 3/4 of it in december and got sort of sick of it. because its literally just a book of interviews it was certainly repetitive but i do love ms sofia coppola, so i persisted!! i need the sofia coppola archive SOOOOO BADDD!!!!
September 5, 2023
i love this chick
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews