The desire for escape in Sofia Coppola’s movies
After releasing her first feature film, The Virgin Suicides, in 1999, Sofia Coppola earned herself a dedicated fanbase that remains strong today. Her ardent followers are largely female due to her cinematic explorations of women, with many teenage girls (although not limited to) finding understanding within Coppola’s work. Despite the filmmaker’s obvious ability to create complex films with equally as beautiful aesthetic accompaniment, her penchant for femininity and ‘girlish’ visuals has often led her work to be held in less esteemed regard than her male counterparts.
In an industry dominated by male filmmakers and male stories, voices like Coppola’s, telling stories of young girls and women, are incredibly rare. Yet, these tales are vital, allowing these groups to see people somewhat like them reflected on the big screen. Of course, Coppola’s films have rightly received their own criticisms – mainly surrounding her preoccupation with white, privileged female characters. However, she has undoubtedly had a significant impact on the industry by helping to carve a space for more stories about adolescent girls and young women – of all backgrounds – to be told.
Before Coppola, it was rare for a mainstream film to truly depict the loneliness of being a young woman with the precision that the filmmaker executed through movies such as The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette. She epitomises what it feels like to see the world from a distance, to feel trapped inside a bubble that cannot be easily burst. Subsequently, a theme that runs through all of Coppola’s work is the female desire to escape. Whether that be from a relationship, overbearing parents, boredom, or royal duty, the women in Coppola’s films have an overwhelming desire to be free from the shackles of expectation.
All of these reasons are related to the patriarchal demands placed on women to look and act a certain way, which Coppola depicts as suffocating. These characters are stifled by their lack of freedom, which often has disastrous consequences. By highlighting the desire for escape in so many of her films, Coppola addresses the female need to live on our own terms, not dictated by patriarchal expectations.
Starting with The Virgin Suicides, which asserted Coppola as a highly-skilled filmmaker, the film sees the five Lisbon sisters grapple with their traditional parents’ oppressive behaviour. Terrified of their daughters succumbing to anything sinful, such as sex and alcohol, Mr and Mrs Lisbon eventually lock them inside the house to ‘keep them safe’ following the suicide of the youngest sibling, Cecilia. Banned from listening to rock music, socialising, and even attending school, the girls look for anything resembling freedom. Unfortunately, a joint suicide pact, which they successfully enact, is the only thing the Lisbon girls can think of. Meanwhile, the neighbourhood boys become obsessed with the five girls, fetishising them in both life and death.
The film has spoken to girls worldwide since its release 25 years ago, finding a resurgence in popularity among teenage girls on apps like TikTok and Pinterest over the last few years. There’s a reason why young girls are so obsessed with the film – Coppola expertly highlights how it feels to be constantly objectified, to have your feelings disregarded, and to be pressured into performing an outdated, traditional form of femininity that limits personal expression and freedom. The sisters long for freedom in the same way that many girls today still desire to live the kind of lives that aren’t already written for them.
In Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson’s Charlotte looks for escape as she finds herself alone in Japan – her singular body framed in front of windows hosting large, illuminated skylines full of towering buildings and bustling streets. Her alienation within her relationship is emphasised by her situation as a foreigner in a new city, unfamiliar with the culture and language. Using mellow tones, Coppola paints a portrait of a young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage – one that she most likely felt forced into. Charlotte finds a sense of understanding in Bill Murray’s Bob, suggesting that, if we look hard enough, we might find a way out of our loneliness.
Similarly, Coppola has portrayed alienating relationships in movies like Marie Antoinette and Priscilla, with the latter featuring a considerably more hopeful message than the former (as we know, the real Marie Antoinette was executed when she was 37). In Coppola’s latest film, Cailee Spanney plays Priscilla, the young wife of Elvis Presley, who is soon forced to live like a prisoner in Graceland while ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ gets to live it up as the most famous musician in the world. Abused, dismissed, and treated like a child (she was a child for almost half of their relationship), Coppola depicts a woman who longs to be free. Priscilla eventually leaves Elvis after several years of marriage, starting a new life without her husband’s domineering nature controlling her and successfully escaping years of constant oppression.
From the very beginning of her career, Coppola’s work has demonstrated this search for freedom and a longing to escape the repressive expectations placed on young girls and women. Even movies like The Bling Ring, a comedic retelling of the series of celebrity break-ins committed by teenagers in California, speak to this desire for young women to escape the boredom of their lives. The girls in The Bling Ring are enticed by a world of fame, fashion and wealth that presents a somewhat false vision of empowerment – a world away from their normal lives. The film is a fascinating look at gender in relation to celebrity culture and extreme wealth, which is often overlooked in the grand scheme of Coppola’s filmography.
Many female audience members have breathed a sigh of relief after watching one of Coppola’s films. The filmmaker seems to truly understand the desire that all women feel at some point in their lives to escape from powerlessness, objectification and stereotype. While some of her characters are more successful than others, Coppola’s films present a nuanced look at the female experience, with this innate need for liberation at the heart of her stories.
