The one movie Sofia Coppola can never resist: “I’ll still watch it every time it’s on”
Dreamy visuals, an impeccable soundtrack, and an understanding of girlhood unlike any other director: these are the hallmarks that make a good Sofia Coppola film.
She might be a nepo-baby, but Coppola has firmly earned her place in Hollywood with a gorgeous body of work that has led her to be a figure of worship for teenage girls and young women across the globe. With her debut feature, The Virgin Suicides, Coppola created a visual feast full of soft pastels and hazy sun-dappled imagery, sharply contrasting the parental and religious oppression, male objectification, and a preoccupation with death which clouds the Lisbon sisters’ young lives.
Following it with her Oscar-winning Lost in Translation, Coppola’s focus wasn’t strictly on girlhood here, but the isolation felt by young women still plays a prominent part in the film, which is the throughline of her work. Marie Antoinette sees the young queen suffer the realities of having to take on responsibilities far beyond her age, when all she really wants to do is have fun, while Priscilla emphasises the loneliness at the heart of being married to the ‘King of Rock and Roll’.
There’s something about Coppola’s intrinsic understanding of young women, especially those with deep inner turmoil, that has attracted such a dedicated fanbase to her work. But would she have become the successful creator of such definitive teen films if not for her own love of the genre?
Given her knack for exploring the inner worlds of teens, it’s no shock that Coppola’s long looked up to John Hughes. His coming-of-age films cast fresh light on what growing up felt like in the 1980s. It was a key period for her creatively, and while his work was very much of its time, it struck a chord. For a lot of young viewers, it was the first time they saw the mess and magic of adolescence laid bare on the big screen – warts and all.
While we might look back on certain titles from his catalogue and cringe from the casual sexism, racism, rape jokes, and generally problematic depictions of the characters, Hughes’ films undeniably made a massive impact on coming-of-age cinema, and thus Coppola’s work. For her, there was one that attracted her the most, which is Sixteen Candles, and it’s still a firm favourite of hers.
Talking to Rotten Tomatoes, she explained, “That was one of my favourite films when I was growing up, and I’ll still watch it every time it’s on”.
Sixteen Candles follows ‘80s teen icon Molly Ringwald through the trials and tribulations of turning 16, where crushes are the most painful thing in the world (do they ever become less painful, though?) and you feel unbearably stuck between the confusion of adolescence and the unknown and dark allure of adulthood.
The movie was a big success, yet it’s hard to ignore the racist caricature in the form of an Asian character called Long Duk Dong, while a date rape plotline makes for uneasy viewing. For those who grew up with these films, however, perhaps nostalgia clouds these problematic aspects, such as the generation before laud Gone with the Wind, and the popularity of Hughes’ films has significantly decreased with the younger generation, relegated to simple trivia questions.
Instead, it’s the work of Coppola which now has a much more timeless and stylish appeal. Her films are more introspective and considerate of their characters, unlike the offensive stereotype-laden world of ‘80s teen cinema.
