Don’t expect Sofia Coppola to jump on the horror movie bandwagon anytime soon. While speaking at a masterclass at the Biarritz’ Nouvelles Vagues Festival, Coppola said she “[doesn’t] really like violent films.”
“There’s so much gun violence in my country,” she said. “It’s really hard to see [those] movies. Old cowboys are cool, but just the way [violence] is overdone now is upsetting.”
Coppola, who flew from New York to be the guest of honor at the third edition of Nouvelles Vagues Festival in the picturesque south-western town of Biarritz, cited Martin Scorsese as a filmmaker whose movies have violence that serves a narrative purpose. “I love Scorsese, so there are moments for it,” she said, adding that “violent themes can be interesting or insinuating. But really, gory, not so much for me.”
The effortlessly chic Coppola also reminisced about her childhood, her early passion for fashion and photography, and the making of “The Virgin Suicides,” which screened right before her talk at the Chanel-sponsored fest whose mandate is to champion movies highlighting youths before and/or behind the camera.
She said a male director was initially developing the adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’s novel “The Virgin Suicides” before she came on board and had a much different take on the book.
“When I read the book, I loved it, and I heard that a guy was going to make it,” she said. “He was going to make it very dark and sexual. I was like, ‘That’s not how I see it. I hope they don’t make it like that.’”
She started adapting a few chapters to “learn how you adapt a book into a screenplay,” and later on, when she felt confident enough, she asked the producers to consider her script “if it didn’t work out with the guy they had,” she said. Eventually, she directed the film, which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 and became a cult classic.
Over two decades ago, when she began her career, not many female directors were given the opportunity to direct sought-after projects, but she’s noticed a “big shift” in recent years. “When I was starting, there were so few of us,” she said. “It’s really exciting to see so many more women directors, so many young women directors.”
Speaking of her inspiration for the young female characters who populate her films, she singled out “all the films of Jane Campion, as well as a French film, Claude Pinoteau’s 1980 coming-of-age ‘La Boom,’” starring a young Sophie Marceau.
Reflecting on the common themes across her movies, including “The Virgin Suicides,” “Marie Antoinette,” “Priscilla,” “Lost in Translation” and “The Beguiled,” Coppola said a lot of these stories are about “finding your identity.” “When you’re born into a certain environment, are you going to go along with that, or finding out who you want to be?”
When it came to choosing her own path, becoming a director came somewhat naturally to her, because “there were always cameras around” while she was growing up. “We made movies as little kids with my dad and my brothers. It was something we did for fun,” she said.
She said the fact that she “grew up with all boys” also pushed her to develop her own tastes and personality. “My room was my very feminine world because everything else was pretty masculine in my world,” she said, adding that photography was “definitely something that helped me shape a point of view of what I liked and didn’t like.” Coppola, who admits she’s always been “very opinionated” when it comes to her tastes, has always been a visual artist and a curator. Each of her films carries a specific aesthetic, atmosphere, meticulously chosen costumes and original soundtracks (it helps that her husband is ‘French touch’ superstar Thomas Mars from the indie rock band Phoenix).
Before she begins working on a script, she starts to “collect images and listen to music, to understand what the feeling is first.” The sprawling creative process behind her eight films is actually on display in “Archive,” her first book, which came out last year.
Coppola also revealed that her brother, Roman (who is a filmmaker and frequent collaborator of Wes Anderson), is “always the first person that [she] shows [her] script to. I really trust him.”
Her last film, “Priscilla,” an adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir “Elvis and Me,” starring Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny, world premiered at Venice in 2023 and won best actress for Spaeny.
The Biarritz festival, which is presided over by Jérôme Pulis and headed by general delegate Sandrine Brauer, kicked off Tuesday evening (June 24) with the screening of “Nouvelle Vague,” Richard Linklater‘s tender tribute to the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave classic “Breathless.” The opening night ceremony was followed by a glamorous dinner hosted by Chanel at the Hotel du Palais.
Sofia Coppola is the guest of honor of the third edition of the Nouvelles Vagues Festival (photo courtesy of Chanel).
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