Nepotism

Nepotism - She should be the poster child of the century.

If there really was nepotism (I mean, regarding her being a director and not being an actress), then, in her case, nepotism was justified.

If she was a bad director, then her directing career would've also ended after "The Virgin Suicides" (like her acting career ended after "The Godfather III").

Then, she directed one of the best films or maybe the best film of 2003.

And after that, I guess, because the right people were probably utterly impressed by her films, she was allowed to shoot her next film in Versailles. As far as I know, not many people, were allowed to shoot a film in Versailles. Others would've only been allowed to use exterior shots of the estate but not interior ones. They probably would've been forced to build the interior locations somewhere in a studio. So that means people who were - how can I put it in words - most probably not "culturally uneducated" apparently had trust in her. I suppose, they wouldn't have trusted her, if her level of direcotrial competence would've been as low as her level of acting competence.

She couldn't act, she's a terrible director, and the less said about her writing the better.

Acting... a different matter (but she stopped acting and hasn't been acting since ages). However, great director. I remember, once I read that her father told her to shout "ACTION!" because she wasn't doing that. Or that she seems like someone who isn't in charge on the set. But she is. It probably only looks like she isn't. And it kinda looks effortless. And that's a much better style than to impose authority on whoever on the set.

To sit through an interview with her, one should be compensated.

She admits herself that she cannot or does not like to express herself by an interview or words but by expressing herself by film. And that she can.

Are you a credit reader or like so many, do you jump up as soon as the movie ends ?

She hires her close,personal friends as actors (Kirsten Dunst four times, Elle Fanning twice, Jason Schwartzman Bill Murray,etc.), All of her films are produced by her Daddy, her brother Roman, and Fred Roos (the 80 year old "stand-in" for her father on all of her sets),who has also produced quite a few of her father's films (coincidence ? Sure.)I would like to feel sorry for Mr. Roos ,but anyone who was crazy enough to put their money into One From The Heart, probably does deserve the punishment of working with Sofia.

And before you accuse me of being "jealous" , I have never desired to be a director but I think of all of the students wasting their time and their parent's money in film schools around the world who will never get half of the opportunities because no matter how talented, enthusiastic, gifted, creative, etc. they may be, if they do not have the very necessary connections to get their films made, let alone seen, they are already finished before they get started. I hope they have something else to fall back on.



Don't judge my path if you haven't walked my journey.

Are you a credit reader or like so many, do you jump up as soon as the movie ends ?

I know, in the end credits of her films you can always read "Thanks to Mom & Dad". How horrifying.

To be serious, yes, sometimes, I read the credits. Not always. If the "end-credit music" is a great choice, for example (like everytime in a Sofia-Coppola film... how can you not sit through the end credits when "LiT" ends with "Just Like Honey" or "MA" ends with "All Cats are Grey" or in films of other directors when "Doctor Strangelove" closes with "We'll Meet Again"). Last time I did that was after seeing "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (another favourite director of mine and, yes, as far as I know, Wes Anderson is a close friend of S.C.).

She hires her close,personal friends as actors (Kirsten Dunst four times, Elle Fanning twice, Jason Schwartzman Bill Murray,etc.)

It's like a family gathering. In a good way.

And even her husband and "his" band do appear in some of her films (in "Marie Antoinette" and "A Very Murray Christmas"). Besides, a lot of directors work with the same people over and over again. Don't know what's wrong with that. [Patricia Hitchcock was also in a small role in one of ther father's films. Or Polanski's son in Polanski's "Carnage". And those two directors' children had maybe much less to do with film than Sofia Coppola. And still they cast their children.]

And, by the way, the casting choices are great (Johannson and Murray in "L.i.T." or K. Turner and J. Woods in "The Virgin Suicides" or E.Fanning in "Somewhere" or (if it's true) Colin Farell in "The Beguiled").

And I'm sure her casting choice of "The Little Mermaid" she intended to make was probably great as well (it was said to be Uma Thurman's daughter).

All of her films are produced by her Daddy, her brother Roman, and Fred Roos (the 80 year old "stand-in" for her father on all of her sets),who has also produced quite a few of her father's films (coincidence ? Sure.)I would like to feel sorry for Mr. Roos ,but anyone who was crazy enough to put their money into One From The Heart, probably does deserve the punishment of working with Sofia.

If it's only nepotism and unjustified support and if it's so easy to profit from family support, then her brother should be as famous and successful as her. I guess he isn't (although having some credits in co-writing or as a second-unit director). As I said, the support she got was justified.

I guess, it doesn't work like "Dad, I wanna shoot a film. Give me money." Even if yes but the first film is rubbish or not convincing, then you will not get money for the second, third or fourth film. Because after the rubbish first film you're done. Maybe you can then become, if you still insist being a director, someone like a cult bad director like Ed Woods. But that's it.

Something else: There were people who claimed that her father directed "The Virgin Suicides". I mean, don't those people have eyes in their heads? Maybe it isn't a myth and Spielberg directed "Poltergeist" but never in a thousand years did F.F.Coppola direct "The Virgin Suicides".

Besides, they are a family who had been in the film business since three (?) generations? It's like with the Hustons. I guess after her grandfather and father and aunt and cousins and herself, the probability is high that her kids will continue to work in the filmbusiness. It's their tradition. And, may I add, in their case, rightly so.

And before you accuse me of being "jealous" , I have never desired to be a director but I think of all of the students wasting their time and their parent's money in film schools around the world who will never get half of the opportunities because no matter how talented, enthusiastic, gifted, creative, etc. they may be, if they do not have the very necessary connections to get their films made, let alone seen, they are already finished before they get started. I hope they have something else to fall back on.

In her case, it's great that she is not another one of those talented but unlucky film or art students who don't happen to know the right people. It's sad to think that without proper support, there wouldn't have been great films like "The Virgin Suicides" and subsequently "Lost in Translation".

Oh, brother.




Don't judge my path if you haven't walked my journey.

LMFAO. Yeah, nepotism for the director and writer of one of the best movies ever made, Lost in Translation. You can not get more funnier than that.

Feel your heart beat.