By: debbie lynn elias
Sofia Coppola is masterful when it comes to mood and attention to detail in a film. Just take a look at “Marie Antoinette” or “Lost In Translation.” Both are perfect in each sense. Even with her earliest film, “The Virgin Suicides”, Coppola establishes her own directing style, one that she has honed to perfection over the years. With SOMEWHERE, she turns her keen sense of observation to a world which, in many respects, she is very familiar; that of Hollywood and celebrity. But Coppola takes it a step further by telling this story from the perspective of not only a guy, but a superstar and a father. With a radiant performance by Elle Fanning and the emotional sensitivity of Stephen Dorff, SOMEWHERE is a beautifully examined intimate portraiture that is engaging and personal, at times feeling almost like a small roundtable press day or 1:1 interview. Coppola gives us a slice of life from the inside looking out, punctuated with laughter and filled with heart.
Johnny Marco is a living legend. A superstar action hero, he has looks, money, fame. He lives at the famed Chateau Marmont; you know the place, the one where John Belushi died, the one hidden behind trees and a winding drive, the one that we rarely see, the one that just screams mystery, glamour and fame. Living in a hotel, Johnny has everything he could possibly want at his beckon call. Room service brings food and alcohol. He gets wake-up calls when necessary. Personal assistants, publicists and agents make his decisions for him and just tell him where and when to be someplace. He never even has to think. He has more friends than he knows what to do with, many of whom are nice enough to throw parties on Johnny’s dime. And girls? Oh, Johnny’s got a steady stream of them, including on-call strippers who bring their own poles for in-room performances. And talk about vanity! Just look in the bathroom. Bottles of Propecia and Viagra line the sink. After all, being a superstar does require maintenance. And when he’s not being chauffeured around, he’s got a nifty little Ferrari to tool around town in. Why, even a drunken fall down the stairs and a broken arm aren’t enough to stop Johnny from playing in his sandbox called celebrity life. But Johnny’s also got something else – an 11 year daughter named Cleo who he generally only sees on weekends but who is now deposited on Johnny’s doorstep just as Johnny is in the middle of a promoting a new film and travelling to Italy to accept a glitzy award.
In the blink of an eye, one easily sees that Johnny is not the fatherly type and has had limited involvement in Cleo’s life. He is clueless as to her schooling, what grade she’s in, what hobbies she has. He’s so out of touch, that even regular mealtimes are outside of his realm of comprehension. But despite this great divide, there is a great rapport between father and daughter, even if it means Cleo acting more the parent than Johnny. A great love is clearly evident, if only Johnny would learn how to grow up and express it.
Showing a surprising side of his talents, Stephen Dorff steps in as Johnny Marco. With great sensitivity, he is at ease and comfortable in the part. Believable to a fault. Very telling is his scene in full prosthetic make-up as an old man. At that moment and thereafter, Dorff brings this new emotional layer to Johnny that makes him more likeable, more interesting. He has seen the future and he doesn’t like the emptiness in the eyes behind the mask. Dorff’s chemistry with Elle Fanning is charming as it appears more like an older brother-little sister relationship, which is right in keeping with Johnny’s emptiness and ineptitude as an independent thinking man. Dorff really gives some great grown kid-frat boy attitude to Johnny. When asked “Why Stephen Dorff?” Coppola is confident in her choice. “He came to mind when I was writing the script. He came to mind in this kind of Hollywood bad boy, actor [way]. I thought it would be interesting to see him show this more sensitive side. I’m glad I had a hunch and I’m glad he really came through for me.”
For the character of Cleo, there was also no doubt in Coppola’s mind. “When I met Elle, I was really taken with her. She is so radiant and I love that she is smart and wise but still a kid. She gets excited about a Halloween costume and ballet.” Fanning is simply enchanting as Cleo. She is the character with whom you most connect. She is the one you worry about, the one who makes you smile, while Johnny is the one who entertains. So excited over the part of Cleo that Fanning even learned not only how to ice skate, but a complete choreographed routine, for what is a very pivotal scene in the movie. So intent was Coppola in capturing true emotion, that Dorff never saw Fanning skate, let alone the final routine, so the paternal reaction captured on camera is as authentic as it can possibly be.
And I would be remiss not to mention some of Hugh Hefner’s former “twin girls next door” who tackle their pole dancing tasks with some rather interesting results.
Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, the relationship between Johnny and Cleo is precious and beautifully visualized, but where Coppola truly excels is in capturing emotion – the sadness of a little girl lost between a screwed up mom and movie star dad, not to mention the internal realization by Johnny that he really is a helpless empty mess; he has this amazing career, amazing daughter, all the trappings that money can buy, yet he can’t make a meal of spaghetti – even his daughter has to cook for him when they are together. He is cared for 24/7 and has really stopped thinking for himself.
Drawing the audience into the characters, Coppola embraces humor and some truly funny laugh-out-loud funny moments, particularly when addressing the ins and outs of Johnny Marco’s life as a “celebrity.” According to Coppola, “I put in things that I think are funny so it’s always nice that other people think so, too. I like putting in all those little moments, the kind of details you find funny or touching or sad.” And Coppola has many personal remembrances of those little details. “[My dad] is not like the dad in the movie. But I was familiar with sometimes being a kid and being brought into worlds that kids aren’t usually around. It was always exciting to go on a trip with my dad where you get to see things in the world where kids aren’t normally around. Like I put in the scene of him teaching her craps. I remember being in a casino with my dad and him explaining that [laughing], so I tried to put in kid memories into that character that are connected to my life.”
Written in the summer of 2008 and shot in 2009, Coppola credits the story with her being “a little homesick and thinking about LA.” Having just finished “Marie Antoinette” and living in Paris, she wanted something “not girlie, and now with a guy’s perspective.” “When I’m writing, I try to be open to whatever I’m interested in and not try to figure it out. I think just pop culture and celebrity is kind of curious. And a challenge for me – I wanted to do this minimal portrait of this guy.” Herself a relatively new mom with her first daughter, “I was thinking about how much that changes your perspective and priorities and then imaging a guy like this with that relationship, what that might be like. I try to put whatever is personal for me, what I’m thinking about, into what I’m doing.” On asking Coppola how she created the character of Johnny, “I based him on people I’ve met and people I know; on stories I’ve heard from the Chateau Marmont. He’s kind of a combination of them. Not one person in particular, but there’s maybe a dozen people that I took pieces of.”
Shooting at the Chateau Marmont is a rarity in movie history. Known for its homey shabby chic atmosphere and as a hideaway that respects the privacy of its guests, the hotel has always done its best to deter opening its doors to film crews. However, when you personally know the manager and owner of the hotel and provide a sense of security that gives them the feeling that, “you’re going to portray it in an accurate way”, doors do open, as is the case with SOMEWHERE. And luckily for Coppola they did as “there was no back up plan.” Once gaining filming access, the next challenge was not disrupting the hotel. Again, luck came into play as Coppola had previously lensed at the Park Hyatt. “ I was used to having to kind of sneak around and stay out of the way. We didn’t have trucks. I wanted to shoot with a small crew and to be able to film in the real location we had to have a really small crew. We took over the fifth floor. Each department was in a different room. The manager was really helpful to work with us. But we had to stay out of the way.”
A great personal challenge for Coppola was trying to “figure out how much we could push [the story] without it being totally boring. I wanted to keep the audience involved; have it feel like it was from [Johnny’s] point of view and to be in his state of mind.” Besides the humor and engaging characters, the real key to success comes in the form of Harris Savides’ cinematography. Beautifully capturing the drama of Sunset Boulevard and the glittering Los Angeles skyline where dreams twinkle in the midnight sky, balanced with the sun-filled days with a clear blue sky, everything looks beautiful, feels beautiful, is beautiful.
There is nothing earth shattering or mind blowing about SOMEWHERE. This is a simple story that is told simply, eloquently and beautifully. Coppola gives us wit, truth, irony, laughter, smiles and heart. She has taken cliched moments about Hollywood and made them funny and endearing. She has taken the truth in life and placed it under a nuanced magnifying glass that is perhaps rose-tinted at times. We are along for the ride as if in Johnny’s Ferrari, getting an inside peek behind the walls of the rich and famous, seeing that at times, it is nothing more than an empty shell and one should be thankful that they don’t need a note from mom pinned to their clothes with instructions for the day.
A hopeful, lovely, easy breezy charming piece of moviemaking, SOMEWHERE is going everywhere.
Johnny Marco – Stephen Dorff
Cleo – Elle Fanning
Written and Directed by Sofia Coppola.
