First Watch: Sofia Coppola Films
Catch my opinions upon first watches of Sofia Coppola’s films. Note: this piece will be continually updated upon viewings.
First Watch: The Series
Finding movies to watch is one of my favorite things to do, other than actually watching them. With so many essential, important films that have released since the beginning of cinematic history, I thankfully have plenty to choose from since. Enter: First Watch. If you want to read my introduction to this little series of pieces, here it is.
Sofia Coppola actually inspired me to begin this series. I was listening to one of my favorite movie podcasts, The Big Picture, and one of the co-hosts, Amanda Dobbins, is a huge fan of Sofia Coppola. On the show, they talk about her and her films, which of course I’ve heard of, but never got around to watching. And so I watched The Vigin Suicides, and then Lost In Translation. I wrote my own thoughts and review about, at first just for myself to make note of or to put on Letterboxd, but then I got to thinking…there are several notable directors from the last 30–40 years alone that I’ve not given much time to. Thus, the First Watch series was born.
First Watch: The Reviews
The Virgin Suicides (1999) — watched on Aug 4, 2022
I didn’t read this book at all so I can’t speak on how this film “compares” but I can say that this film is artistically very well done. This is my first Sofia Coppola film.
Though the story itself and the overall tone is heavy and depressing, the filmmaking is deliberate and beautiful. Somehow through the lens of these four boys, we’re introduced to the five Lisbon girls, and we get just enough of their life as though the viewer is simply another one of the boys peering into their lives.
We don’t get into the emotions of the story, we don’t see the family any deeper than, say a friend coming over for dinner. We don’t see the family much more than another onlooker, but we can still see the underlying parental oppression at play.
There’s a terribly sad familial connection between the girls and their parents, of whom are protective of their girls as parents naturally are, yet far too overbearing. Their relationship reads more controlling than protective in the end.
What’s interesting, though frustrating to some, is that the story remains a mystery. Personally, I like that aspect because, again, we’re seeing through the eyes of an onlooker — in this case, through the young boys across the street. And like them, we don’t know the truth behind The Lisbon girls’ struggles; we don’t get to deeper understand their internal monologues, or the way they cope with everything. All we see what they give to the outside world.
The story of the Lisbon girls forever remains a mystery, while both alive and dead. When it comes to a story about death and suicide, one might imagine a perspective of going on that journey with the character, but instead we are on the outside looking in.
The longer I grapple with the artistic and stylistic decisions made, the more impressed I am with Sofia Coppola’s direction of the film. The viewer is another outside looking in, which captures the mystery, the elusiveness, while still capturing the weight of emotions very beautifully.
Lost in Translation (2003) — watched on Aug 5, 2022
Upon viewing, I was feeling rather impatient this day, and so the timing felt very slow. But that’s not necessarily a complaint, though it may sound like one. The story was very much a beautiful, slow-burning romance between an extremely unlikely duo. Bob and Charlotte had arguably very little in common other than the fact they are both in unhappy marriages and are both feeling stuck in their life. Nonetheless, these two common struggles were enough to bond them, almost instantaneously.
Ostensibly, there is not much plot. This story is driven very heavily by character development; a splice-of-life character story beyond much else. The several frames of Charlotte or Bob aimlessly walking somewhere or doing something minute made the story and pacing feel slow to me, but then again, I understand the creative craft behind it all. These scenes support both characters’ internal aimlessness and directionless feelings. It’s apparent I either felt bored of this choice, or I felt it all too relatable — if I’m honest, there’s a chance I felt a bit of both.
This film is, once again, artistically crafted. The visuals and the frames are absolutely stunning. For what I believe to be her sophomore film, there is definite growth from her first film in terms of style and framing — though it’s not as though The Virgin Suicides was poorly framed or styled. Sofia’s experience had noticeably elevated her individuality and continuing to grow into her own with each project.
In hindsight, the sense of “boredom” I felt with the characters and their respective aimlessness paced the story perfectly, and it ended where naturally it should have. Lost In Translation is certainly not a film about nothing, though there were sequences that felt as though they could’ve been left out and the storyline would not have changed. But the fact is that, if any of those aimlessness sequences were forgone, the essence and weight of Bob and Charlotte’s characters would have felt different, essentially changing the entire emotional trajectory of the film.
Sofia Coppola certainly captures emotional reflection and feeling very well on screen. I’ve seen her style be coined as “soft” and “girly”, and I think that’s honestly a low-blow to her product. Her films highlight female stories, they convey from a women’s perspective, whether the story itself calls upon the perspective of a female character. Sofia’s own perspective on the story she’s telling provides a tonality that had not been seen or critically-acclaimed before at that time. She has captured sentiment, longing, love, and countless other real, human emotional experiences in such a raw, visceral way.
Not that male filmmakers can’t give it a fair try, but let’s be real here…historically speaking, I’ve yet to see the bar reached in comparison if a man tries to tell a woman’s story behind the scenes. So what better way to categorize a women’s work in a man’s world? Oh yeah, she makes soft, “girly” films because she’s a woman; she captures emotion because she’s a woman…and all the other bullshit, stereotypical categorizations that women are subject to when bringing something solid to the Man’s Table.
What a gift to filmmaking Sofia Coppola is. I’m excited to continue on in her filmography.
