Best Known As: The writer and director of Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola is the writer and director of the two critically acclaimed movies The Virgin Suicides (1999, starring Kirsten Dunst) and Lost in Translation (2003, starring Bill Murray). The daughter of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia got her start in the movies as an infant in The Godfather (1972). In her younger years she appeared in a number of her dad's movies, including The Outsiders and Rumble Fish (both 1983), The Cotton Club (1984, with Richard Gere) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986, co-starring her cousin, Nicolas Cage). Her first movie as a writer/director, the somber The Virgin Suicides, proved that she was an able and mature filmmaker, and the sophistication of Lost in Translation (which earned her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) made it clear she was an up-and-coming force in the movies. Her film Marie Antoinette debuted at Cannes in 2006 and starred Kirsten Dunst as the French queen.
In 1999 she married filmmaker Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich); they filed for divorce in 2003.
Career Highlights: The Virgin Suicides, The Godfather Part III, New York Stories
First Major Screen Credit: New York Stories (1989)
Biography
Perhaps it makes sense that a woman whose earliest memory was on the set of Apocalypse Now would grow up to direct a dark fable about five adolescent girls who unapologetically and unceremoniously kill themselves, but for Sofia Coppola, the path to the director's chair was an uncertain one. Literally christened into a filmmaking career, the third child and only daughter of Francis Ford and Eleanor Coppola was born in Manhattan in the spring of 1971, during the production of her father's masterpiece, The Godfather. When it came time to shoot the baptism scene near the end of the film, the elder Coppola didn't have to look very far for an infant, and the epic became the impromptu actress' first, uncredited role. He found another bit part for the tiny Sofia in The Godfather Part II before her memorable experience on the tumultuous set of Apocalypse, as recorded in Eleanor's 1991 documentary of the making of the film, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse.
Coppola continued to pop up in her father's films in the early '80s and even ventured outside of the clan for a spot in 1987's Anna. It wasn't until father and daughter collaborated on a segment in the 1989 anthology film New York Stories, however, that Sofia began to attract critical attention -- albeit of a disparaging ilk. She and Francis co-wrote the half-hour children's fantasy Life Without Zoe in an attempt to evoke the glamorous, candy-colored world of the classic Eloise children's tales. In her dual role as costume designer, the 17-year-old swathed the film's lead characters in lavish designer jewelry and threads. Unfortunately, the Coppola portion of the film almost universally bewildered critics, who found it too trifling for adults and too baffling for children. By then a high school graduate, Sofia retreated from the world of filmmaking and concentrated on fashion design, contributing her costuming talents to The Spirit of '76 (1990), a Dazed and Confused-style comedy co-written by her brother Roman.
Fate intervened, however, when cloudy circumstances forced Winona Ryder to bow out of Francis' much-anticipated The Godfather Part III. Sofia was swiftly cast in the role of Mary Corleone, and rumors regarding her acting chops -- or lack thereof -- began to swirl before she even shot a scene. When the film was released in late 1990, critics had a field day with her minor, but rather wooden, performance, finding it "hopelessly amateurish" and unintentionally comical. Even her aquiline profile became fodder for ridicule, and in March 1991, the Razzie Awards gave her the dubious distinction of Worst Supporting Actress as well as Worst New Star. Again, Coppola recoiled from Hollywood, entering the fine arts program at the California Institute of the Arts. There she began to nurture her interests in photography as well as costuming and experimented with video shorts. As their first post-graduate effort, she and some friends created the TV series High Octane, an offbeat news magazine on cable's Comedy Central network. The show was discontinued in 1994 after just four episodes, and Coppola continued to work on her brother's projects, primarily music videos.
Around this time, Coppola read Jeffrey Eugenides' 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides and was captivated by its dark, haunting take of adolescent sexuality. More significantly, she relished the challenge of translating the fervid, pubescent-male viewpoint of the book to the big screen, and she began writing her own screen adaptation of the text. Coppola was undaunted when she found that the rights to the book were already secured by Muse Productions, whose script was much more violent and overtly sexual than hers. Impressed with her work, Muse scrapped their version and backed Coppola. After securing a stellar cast -- including James Woods, Kathleen Turner, and Kirsten Dunst -- and the production assistance of her father, she began shooting the film in Toronto. When the finished work premiered in the Directors Fortnight of the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, the reception was an about-face from her previous run-ins with the press. Critics applauded Coppola's delicate, evocative handling of the tale, as well as her subtle, dream-like visual sense, aided by ace cinematographer Edward Lachman. Paramount Classics picked up the film for distribution in May 2000, when it received a brisk arthouse run.
In the summer of 1999, Coppola indoctrinated yet another filmmaker into her already distinguished clan of actors, composers, and auteurs when she married director Spike Jonze, whom she had met on the set of a Sonic Youth music video at the beginning of the decade. Jonze shot his first feature -- the critically acclaimed Being John Malkovich -- at the same time Coppola was helming her debut. Just as her husband was faced with the challenge of following up such a promising debut, Coppola too spent the years after The Virgin Suicides dabbling in TV production (on the ill-fated UPN hip-hop soap Platinum) and developing her sophomore feature. This time, however, she chose to fashion a screenplay not based on existing material but on her own experiences visiting Japan in her early twenties. The resulting character study, 2003's Lost in Translation, drew from a disparate set of memories: her father's work on a liquor ad with Akira Kurosawa in the mid-'70s, her memories of a former mentor in the fashion industry, and her own uncertainty over her future. Starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson as two similarly displaced, maritally dissatisfied Americans toiling away the hours in a posh Tokyo hotel, the film built upon Suicides' ethereal, deliberate pace and tone as it offered Murray one of the most textured, soulful roles of his career. An autumn arthouse smash that managed to cross over to mainstream audiences, Translation remained in theaters well into the new year, as the film, its director, and two leads were showered with accolades from critics' groups and industry organizations. After winning Golden Globes for Best Screenplay and Picture (Comedy or Musical), the young filmmaker took home the prize for Best Original Screenplay at the 2004 Academy Awards. Coppola also made history by becoming the first American woman to receive a Best Director Oscar nomination, though she ultimately lost the award to Peter Jackson.
Lost in Translation's success garnered attention of another sort: critics and audiences speculated that Coppola's marriage to Jonze was not-so-discreetly mirrored in one of Translation's plot threads -- the distant relationship between Johansson's character and her flighty photographer husband, played with a Jonze-like intensity by Giovanni Ribisi. Sure enough, Coppola and Jonze announced their divorce plans in December 2003, and the indie film world lost its nascent royal couple. After the mirrored triumphs of Suicides and Lost, rumors swirled in the trades surrounding Coppola's tertiary effort in the director's chair, which she announced as an adaptation of Antonia Fraser's historical novel Marie Antoinette: The Journey. The 2006 period piece/costume drama starred Virgin lead Kirsten Dunst as the titular queen of France and archduchess of Austria, alongside a four-star cast highlighted by the presence of Jason Schwartzman (the director's cousin), Judy Davis, and the venerable Rip Torn as King Louis IV. Coppola took a bold and risky roll of the dice when she opted to relay the historical tale of Antoinette as a story of freewheeling youth (Variety terms it a film "about a girl who would just rather have fun"), laden with a contemporary alternative and post-punk soundtrack. Roundly booed at Cannes, the picture received devastating advance critical notices, including a pan in the aforementioned Variety notice that seemed to predict a significant box-office letdown. Salon's Andrew O'Hehir assessed it as "a bit too pretty, proper, and trivial." ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Coppola began her career as an infant, making several background appearances in her father's films. The most well-known of these early roles is her appearance in The Godfather as the baby boy in the christening scene. She is also seen in her father's film The Outsiders in a scene where Matt Dillon, Tommy Howell, and Ralph Macchio are eating at a Dairy Queen before the famous burning church scene.
Frankenweenie (1984) was the first film she performed in that was not associated with her father. However, it often goes unnoticed due to her stage name, "Domino" which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous, while still being quite ridiculous.[4]
In 1986, 15-year old Sophia was given the role of Kathleen Turner's sister, Nancy Kelcher, in Peggy Sue Got Married. The film was directed by her father, Francis Ford Coppola, and co-starred her cousin, Nicolas Cage.
The 1989 short film entitled Life Without Zoe was released as part of a 3-part anthology film, New York Stories. It was written by Sofia Coppola and her father, Francis Ford Coppola (who also directed the film).
Her best known acting role is Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990), a role for which she was cast by her father after Winona Ryder fell ill. This was a significant role for such an inexperienced actress, and the casting decision has been described as celebrity nepotism.[2] Her heavily criticized performance (for which she received the award of "Worst New Star" in the 1990 Golden Raspberry Awards) effectively ended her acting career, save for appearances in the 1992 independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland, and in the background of films by her friends and family. In 1999, she appeared as Saché in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. She has since been quoted as saying she wasn't hurt by the criticism from her role in The Godfather Part III because she never especially wanted an acting career.[5]
Coppola can also be seen in several music videos from the 1990s, appearing in The Black Crowes' "Sometimes Salvation" in 1992 and went on to play a gymnast in the 1997 video for "Elektrobank" by the Chemical Brothers, which was directed by her ex-husband Spike Jonze.
In December 2008, Coppola's first commercial premiered during an episode of Gossip Girl. The advertisement in which she directed for the Christian Dior fragrance Miss Dior Chérie which was shot in France with model Maryna Linchuk was very well received and continues to be popular on YouTube.[8]
Variety reported in April 2009 that her new film, Somewhere, had recently received permission to film at Chateau Marmont. The plot of her latest work will centre around a "bad-boy" actor portrayed by Stephen Dorff who is forced to re-evaluate his life when his daughter, played by Elle Fanning, arrives unexpectedly.[9]
Modeling
At the beginning of the 1990s, she was often featured in female-oriented magazines like Seventeen and YM. In 1998, she co-founded the clothing line Milkfed in Japan with friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.
In 2002, fashion designer Marc Jacobs handpicked the actress/director to be the face of his house's fragrance. The campaign involved photographs of her shot by photographer Juergen Teller in his chic signature grainy style.
Personal life
Coppola married director Spike Jonze in 1999 after being friends for nearly ten years; they were divorced in 2003.
Sofia Coppola lives in Paris, France. Sofia described her love for the city and her favorite places there, "The Palais-Royal, the Tuileries Garden, the Musee D'Orsay. You can tell I love the city, right? It's a filmmaker's dream there; the colors are beautiful!"[10] There, in Paris, on Tuesday, November 28, 2006, Coppola gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Romy, who is named in honor of her brother Roman. The child's father is Thomas Mars, of the French rock bandPhoenix.[11] Coppola first met Mars while producing the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides.[12] They have since collaborated on Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette[13] and reportedly the upcoming Somewhere.[14]
