Sofia Coppola explains how her filmography reflects her personal growth
Following a greatly chastised performance in her father’s film The Godfather Part III, the media quickly labelled the blossoming career of 19-year-old Sofia Coppola firmly over. Yet, despite the heavy criticism, Coppola quickly proved that she was much better equipped behind the camera, releasing her first short film, Lick the Star, in 1998.
Of course, the filmmaker’s status as Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter gave her a head start in the industry. However, Coppola’s films, which typically centre around isolated young girls and women, have attracted a significant fanbase over the decades. She has undoubtedly established herself as one of cinema’s most important contemporary directors. Most of Coppola’s films have amassed a cult following, particularly her debut feature, The Virgin Suicides, which seems to garner a new group of dedicated teenage fans every year, attesting to the story’s timeless appeal, and the endurance of Coppola’s dreamy visual aesthetic.
After releasing the beautiful yet brutal The Virgin Suicides, which she adapted from the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, Coppola began work on her next feature, Lost in Translation. The film, starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray as alienated individuals who form a unique connection while living in Japan, won Coppola an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, becoming one of few women to win the prize.
As Coppola’s career has progressed, she has kept her focus on lonely yet wealthy white women, naturally gaining her some criticism. For example, when her 2017 film The Beguiled was released, the filmmaker was slammed by several critics for her choice to remove the black slave character. She explained: “I didn’t want to have a stereotypical character that wouldn’t have been respectful to that history.” Whether you agree with Coppola’s decision, it cannot be ignored that her films are incredibly white, and it often seems as though people of colour don’t even exist in her world.
In defence of her filmography’s whiteness, Coppola stated: “I worry sometimes that [my characters] are too privileged, but that’s the world I know about. I feel I can only write what I know, and hopefully, there are some universal, human aspects that everyone can relate to.” Writing what she knows is the cornerstone of all of Coppola’s work, with the director referring to her characters as “parts of me at different stages of my life.”
Indeed, Coppola’s films trace critical periods in her life, from adolescence to adulthood. Coppola spoke to the Guardian about her connection to The Virgin Suicides, explaining: “I made The Virgin Suicides, my first feature-length film, a little later. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, it was personal. When I was 15, my eldest brother Gio died suddenly in a boating accident. This gave me a connection to The Virgin Suicides, which is also about loss.” However, in later works such as her 2010 film Somewhere and 2020’s On The Rocks, Coppola focused on father-daughter relationships inspired by her own father, demonstrating her maturity and growth as a filmmaker.
Although Coppola uses her personal experience as inspiration for her movies, this often results in a depiction of womanhood only relatable to a small minority. However, when we look at her movies for what they are – complex depictions of privileged yet troubled young women, Coppola is undeniably skilled. She treats female teenage characters with utter respect and seriousness, a rare sight in cinema, which is why she has attracted such a cult following among young people.
