The fourth feature by Sofia Coppola, daughter of New Hollywood genius Francis Ford Coppola, Somewhere is an autobiographical essay about a daughter’s relationship with her famous father.
The main character, Cleo (Elle Fanning), is eleven years old. Her parents are divorced, and while her mother is busy with personal matters, Cleo is sent to her father, the famous actor Johnny Marco. For her this is a chance to feel her father’s love, but Johnny sees an opportunity to escape from a series of meaningless and monotonous revelry, a string of lovers, and his lonely life in the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel, which personifies the strange and alluring life of Hollywood stars.
Known for her approach to visuality, Coppola’s mise-en-scènes, costumes, lighting, and the universe of objects reveal her wild fantasies about time and the cultural phenomenon she addresses. Images from her films, such as Kirsten Dunst in an eighteenth-century dress and Converse shoes in Marie Antoinette or Scarlett Johansson wearing a pink wig in Lost in Translation, have become iconic pop culture tropes. They are a manifesto of rebellion and the sincerity of contemporary culture created by a young director. Working together with Gus Van Sant’s permanent director of photography, Harris Savides, Coppola creates a space of viscous summer timelessness, as if captured on Polaroid film. Somewhere is an impressionist story composed of sensations. Cleo and Johnny play, joke, keep quiet, and travel to Italy for a film premiere. A growing closeness between father and daughter is read in their mutual implicit signals.
The film will be screened in English and Italian with Russian subtitles.
Somewhere
Dir. Sofia Coppola
USA, UK, Italy, Japan, 2010. 99 min. 16+