Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

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Grand Illusion
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#26 Post by Grand Illusion » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:17 am

Marie Antoinette was one of my favorite films of that year. I like it considerably more than Lost in Translation.

Now with my opinions on the table, didn't she date Quentin Tarantino, who led the jury at Venice?

James
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#27 Post by James » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:23 am

Grand Illusion wrote:Now with my opinions on the table, didn't she date Quentin Tarantino, who led the jury at Venice?
I'm not sure, but regardless, the decision was unanimous.

Grand Illusion
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#28 Post by Grand Illusion » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:27 am

James wrote:
Grand Illusion wrote:Now with my opinions on the table, didn't she date Quentin Tarantino, who led the jury at Venice?
I'm not sure, but regardless, the decision was unanimous.
Oh yeah. I guess I should read the article. :oops:
When asked later at a news conference if it was a difficult situation to give the prize to a friend, Tarantino replied that he didn't "let anything like that affect me."

"There was no me steering any directions. Sofia doesn't know any of these other people on the jury and her prize was unanimous," Tarantino said.


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John Cope
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#30 Post by John Cope » Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:26 pm

The comments on that piece are mostly dismissive or outright idiotic. Meanwhile, a more amusingly incensed reaction comes to us via Nigel Andrews, who evidently can't imagine any world with perspectives contrary to his own (solid critical acumen there).

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Tom Hagen
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#31 Post by Tom Hagen » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:05 pm

Has anyone given thought to the notion that Tarantino et al, as film industry people, would perhaps have more of a connection to the themes of Hollywood ennui and the emptiness of wealth than would film critics (or really anyone else)? Sort of the converse situation to the meta anaylsis that people applied to the critical love that Sideways received when it was released.

Grand Illusion
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#32 Post by Grand Illusion » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:19 pm

I'm actually a pretty big Coppola fan after MA, but it's pretty obvious that there existed a conflict of interest having a former lover of hers to head the jury. Regardless of the quality of Somewhere and regardless of whether the jury was indeed swayed, it's an issue that should have been identified, with Tarantino possibly being removed as head of the jury.

Then again, welcome to film festivals. It's a pretty incestuous and nepotistic business anyway, so this just highlights something that already existed. Talking about Coppola and Tarantino is more exciting than talking about which producer's rep knows what programmer and so on.

As to the actual win, who really knows? Tom Hagen's hypothesis is as good as any. Personally, I'm quite looking forward to the film and making my own decision.

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Zumpano
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#33 Post by Zumpano » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:32 pm

If Tarantino was just picking his friends, why not give the Golden Lion to "Machete" then? This type of argument does not hold up very well.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#34 Post by rs98762001 » Sun Sep 12, 2010 9:16 pm

Regardless of Tarantino's motivations, the prize list from Venice is depressingly wan and thin. Whether that's reflective of the festival as a whole nowadays, which seems to have lost all its standing to Toronto, or simply Quentin's oft-suspect taste, I'm not sure.

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gokinsmen
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#35 Post by gokinsmen » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:57 pm

Zumpano wrote:If Tarantino was just picking his friends, why not give the Golden Lion to "Machete" then? This type of argument does not hold up very well.
Wait. Is this a joke? Machete might well have won if it was in competition at Venice.

Silver Lion went to another buddy of his, Alex De La Iglesias. Special Jury Prize to his idol/chum, Monte Hellman. And Golden Lion to ex-lover, close friend Sofia. I would be more irritated except it's just silly awards. The White Ribbon was swept under the rug (relatively speaking) despite winning the Palme D'Or, so a Venice prize won't really make a difference to a film's prospects.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#36 Post by Grand Illusion » Thu Dec 09, 2010 5:53 am

While not the tour de force that Marie Antoinette was, this is a quality film. It's probably Coppola's funniest film, mostly due to bits dealing with the constant availability of sex to a superstar actor. The film has lots of small moments with a restrained performance by Dorff. The sequence where his character is entombed in a special effects cast around his own head is among the best things Coppola has ever filmed.

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Tom Hagen
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#37 Post by Tom Hagen » Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:28 am

O'Hehir wrote:If anything, "Somewhere" purifies the themes of "Lost in Translation," stripping away most of the sentiment and artifice. Now, it was the sentiment and artifice that gave "Lost in Translation" much of its appeal, so I'm not necessarily claiming this is a better or more lovable film. What it is instead is a fascinating, mature, beautifully crafted work of art, from a director who continues to surprise us. Sofia Coppola has absorbed the Italian avant-garde more completely than her father ever did, and has made a film about celebrity in the vein of Antonioni and Bertolucci, a film about Hollywood in which she turns her back on it, possibly forever.

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John Cope
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#38 Post by John Cope » Sat Dec 25, 2010 1:00 am

I couldn't agree more with O'Hehir (and A.O. Scott). This is a fragile and beautiful, really extraordinary film, quite possibly the year's best. There will be a temptation amongst many to dismiss it as just more observations from a privileged, blinkered view but that does such a disservice to what Coppola shows us and how she shows it to us. I deeply admire her steady patience and sustained reserve.

The film's been compared, rather lazily I think, to Antonioni and though there are some obvious stylistic or thematic parallels his work was not what I thought of during this. I thought more of Nina Menkes' experimental cinema, perhaps especially the Vegas set Queen of Diamonds with its assemblage of scenes, both protracted and not, designed to represent a life but also the overall context or environment that encourages that life to express itself as it does. In that same vein I was also reminded of the willingness to observe in Asian cinema (the occasional moments of song or music breaking through the vacuum around Johnny Marco and presented as complete scenes of life experience certainly recalls similar such moments in Apichatpong but also recent Miguel Gomes). Somewhere evokes the charged anomie of Bette Gordon's Luminous Motion too and even brings to mind the almost subconscious currents of Dumont's 29 Palms (albeit shorn of its very particular Hobbesian Romanticism).

The long scenes of observation are really great and the reason that they are has to do with Coppola's resistance to cutting too quick. I think we've all seen a lot of stuff that looks and feels like this and even plays like it up and to a point. What is different is in her understanding that to show, say, only 15 or 20 seconds of the pole dancing in Johnny's bedroom or a more abbreviated piece from Cleo's ice skating routine would be to make a point with it or about it. Instead, by allowing it to play out as she does, she renders the notion of point elusive and instead (as with someone like Hou--of which more later) just allows for an accretion of both detail and time. This has the effect of settling our senses, pacifying the insistent, driven urge to search for a point or specific meaning. The pure duration of these scenes forces a kind of latent, almost inexpressible understanding that could not come otherwise; either that or we reject them as unnecessarily over extended. The sexual opportunities Grand Illusion mentions are expansive in implication, extending beyond Johnny's sphere of influence or solipsistic bubble. Those moments represent the de facto assumptions and responses of an entire milieu, an entire world. On one hand they are reactions to Johnny's stardom, yes, but they are also indicative of the limited set of responses in general, easily exhausted but just as easily renewed. The key being their ease, the way in which they demand little of anyone. As with the encounter between a distraught Danny Huston and a coterie of high class Hollywood escorts at the end of ivansxtc, these opportunities can offer up nothing ultimately adequate enough.

The fact that Coppola's aesthetic strategy is and has to be very delicately achieved is clear throughout and scene after scene illustrates her mastery of it. One instance stands out for me: the scene in which Johnny and his daughter are playing Guitar Hero and we see Cleo eventually relax into an easy conversation with Johnny's boyhood friend while he continues on immersed in the game. This could have been a disastrous moment in which the all too obvious point was telegraphed to us with blunt force. Even writing out a description of the events in brief risks that and demonstrates what Coppola is up against. Because the obvious read here is that Johnny is indifferent, negligent, not involved enough. But Coppola never over emphasizes that take on the scene. It's present and possible for those sensitive to it or, more pointedly, pre-disposed toward it as a take. But really what we get here and throughout are just moments in lives represented but with plentiful qualities and enough attention to nuance to make interpretation possible and viable. The irony is that Johnny's late picture flailing, almost formless despair has much to do with the fact that he can't identify what it is that bonds he and his daughter (which for me had to do with Cleo's lack of guile, the purity of her dependance upon him and desire to be with him versus the purely opportunistic and superficial desires of everyone else); so he can't even fully comprehend what exactly he lacks or needs. In other words, it's the idea of definition that remains remote and somewhere else.

I also loved the head cast moment referred to earlier. With its super gradual tightening in of the frame the sense of claustrophobia and isolation is emphasized but, once again, without bluntly underlining that as having larger metaphorical implications. This moment is also rhymed beautifully toward the end in the equally slow pull back shot from Johnny and Cleo at the pool, suggesting the kind of comfortable ease that allows for a relase and opening up in attitude and experience. This is also one of the relatively few scenes that is actively scored to music. That general lack does not necessarily imply a hollow life but it does imply a void that can be filled with expressivity and realization.

I've seen a number of commenters obsessed apparently over the identity of the person sending Johnny the vaguely threatening texts throughout the picture. But this is not some mystery to be resolved; it's actually a device similar in spirit and tone to Hou's employment of the titular Red Balloon in his recent film. It's an anchor line reminding us of how Johnny is generally perceived and understood, his revealed external persona, but in its presence there is also a method of rhythm and structure. This is not the way in which details of this sort are generally understood or employed in American film, indie or not. The seemingly off the cuff Twilight reference is also perfectly handled and integrated as that same kind of astute and insightful accent. And once again, how we take that little bit of dialogue, what we make of it, is resolutely left up to us as all the while such details and their suggestive associations continue to accumulate. This is a definite sign of Coppola's striking, even remarkable, maturation and artistic wisdom. I hope she'll be given the credit she deserves for it.

Grand Illusion
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#39 Post by Grand Illusion » Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:45 am

Interesting that you mention Weerasethakul. While I definitely see the echoes of Hou and other directors that work in minimalism, particularly in contemporary Asian cinema, I actually thought of Weerasethakul during the head cast sequence.

I saw it as familiar to the iconic shot in Syndromes of a Century of the air vent. It's a slow push-in on a static visual, abstract and dehumanized. Also, the inhalation tube can be mirrored to Johnny's inhaling of his much needed oxygen through those two tiny nostril holes. Both sucking in the air around them, alone, removed from any relationship to other objects/persons in the film.

That scene also reminded me of Syndromes because of the rapid tonal shift. The initial lathering of the Vaseline and plaster is actually pretty funny. Then Coppola cuts, and there's this creepy image of Johnny, mummified, and the heightened sound design of his breathing and swallowing. It's a quick change from humor to dehumanization and alienation that actively reminded me of Joe's film.

Nice post.

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dad1153
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#40 Post by dad1153 » Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:26 am

Just came back from a post-midnight screening (less than 10 people). As a huge fan of "Lost in Translation" I'm both disappointed and impressed by this film. Sofia is quickly becoming the most well-known and publicized director of a cinematic genre with little-to-no commercial appeal whatsoever (unless you get Bill Murray to star and give career-best work). Even if "Somewhere" didn't work for me as a whole movie (the ending cold-cocked me, the opposite of the knock-out opening scene even though both feature basically the same actor/prop doing similar things), there are many scenes that are quietly powerful and add-up. I love the aforementioned zoom-in during Johnny's prosthetic make-up and its equivalent bookend zoom-out when Johnny and Cleo are sunbathing by the pool (the latter landing on the movie's poster). Though not autobiographical you can tell Sofia is using personal observations of her life inside the showbiz bubble to feed the movie's believable moments; the midnight ice cream sampling while watching a "Friends" rerun dubbed in Italian (and the awkward morning-after breakfast between Johnny, Cleo and an Italian actress) is the type of perfectly-executed scene that didn't feel forced. As John Cope aptly described it above, Sofia's editing rhythm and decision to let scenes breathe far longer than they would in a normal movie (which in the skatedancing scene establishes both the intimacy of Johnny's relationship with his daughter as well as Cleo's normalcy) give Johnny's chaotic slice-of-life vignettes the poignancy of both a normal life lived but also wasted. Ironically the movie's final scenes in which Johnny breaks down and walks away from his car, to me, undermine the simplicity of the movie that preceded them. As good as Dorff is he doesn't sell his emotional breakdown well-enough to make me buy what he does at the end. Little Elle Fanning (whose breakdown while being driven to summer camp I completely bought) could actually score an Academy Award nomination from her portrayal of Cleo, she's that good and convincing as a showbiz daughter that (against the odds as portrayed in this movie) retains her normalcy and wits about herself.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#41 Post by Grand Illusion » Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:57 am

dad1153 wrote:Though not autobiographical you can tell Sofia is using personal observations of her life inside the showbiz bubble to feed the movie's believable moments; the midnight ice cream sampling while watching a "Friends" rerun dubbed in Italian (and the awkward morning-after breakfast between Johnny, Cleo and an Italian actress) is the type of perfectly-executed scene that didn't feel forced.
Good catch. In an NPR interview, Coppola actually said that the "ordering every flavor of ice cream" was something she drew from her own experiences with her father.

I, personally, bought Dorff's breakdown towards the end, especially in lieu of losing (temporarily) the one thing that grounds him as a human. But I do agree with you in regards to the last shot. It seems a tad overstated for how minimalist and underplayed the film is. I guess that, despite working as a metaphor, logical questions still remain, such as, "Where the fuck are you planning on walking to in the middle of the desert? Just get back in the car."

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#42 Post by dad1153 » Sun Dec 26, 2010 2:29 pm

^^^ Or, once Johnny gets to Cleo's summer camp (presuming that's where he's headed; the shots mirrored the same path from the trip to Vegas before), what is he going to do when he gets there? Tell the camp counselors 'I'm Johnny Marco bitch, set-up a cot in my daughter's cabin'? He can't drive the girl back to town (cabs I guess). And yes, I get that Sofia wants the last scene to symbolize Johnny's seriousness about turning a new leaf in life by walking away from the symbol of his wealth (loved the scene when Johnny and Cleo go shopping for camp supplies at some store with the Ferrari parked up front) in which he ran around in circles (real and metaphorical) when the film started. But man, it just doesn't work or click as strongly as "Lost in Translation's" final scene. I was also fully expecting "Somewhere" to end like Stone's "Talk Radio" from all the threats/nasty messages Johnny kept getting on his Blackberry (or the black SVU he kept talking to Cleo about seeing). Foolish of me, I know, but while watching the movie's last 5 minutes I was on pins and needles expecting SOMETHING BAD was about to happen to Johnny. Guess I should have realized that in the world of showbiz getting nasty messages and perceiving that you're being followed are as normal as gorgeous women flashing you or hotel waiters serenading you and your daughter with an off-kilter guitar tune.

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John Cope
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#43 Post by John Cope » Sun Dec 26, 2010 4:01 pm

dad1153 wrote:Little Elle Fanning (whose breakdown while being driven to summer camp I completely bought) could actually score an Academy Award nomination from her portrayal of Cleo, she's that good and convincing as a showbiz daughter that (against the odds as portrayed in this movie) retains her normalcy and wits about herself.
There was a time, not too long ago, in which I thought that too (and that was without having seen the picture). Having seen it, I have to admit that it doesn't exactly surprise me that there has been so little talk and such little momentum for it awards-wise. The Hollywood milieu, not to mention Coppola's particular insights, should have some resonance or impact on Academy members but the style of the film may convince many that there really isn't "a whole lot going on".
dad1153 wrote:I was also fully expecting "Somewhere" to end like Stone's "Talk Radio" from all the threats/nasty messages Johnny kept getting on his Blackberry (or the black SVU he kept talking to Cleo about seeing). Foolish of me, I know, but while watching the movie's last 5 minutes I was on pins and needles expecting SOMETHING BAD was about to happen to Johnny.
This is what made me think of 29 Palms. Well, this and the effectively used partial desert setting. But, yeah, it is just one element of the whole, one more dimension or defining detail. The tension we feel is, once again, something we bring to it in interpretation. Maybe Johnny should feel more tense with this then he does. How long can such a life be sustained? Then again, maybe it is just to be expected or maybe he knows something we don't and there is, of course, more than what we see.
dad1153 wrote:Ironically the movie's final scenes in which Johnny breaks down and walks away from his car, to me, undermine the simplicity of the movie that preceded them. As good as Dorff is he doesn't sell his emotional breakdown well-enough to make me buy what he does at the end.
I've got to tell you that this ending quite frankly thrilled me and it was for the very reason you're pointing to. Everything else (even a moment like the one at the beginning, racing around in seemingly metaphorical circles) can be understood as metaphor for those attuned but also can pass by just as effectively as sample life moments, building a more character based portrait. A lot of this really does come down to Coppola's delicate touch with the material, the way she lets those scenes linger for just a few seconds more sometimes than anyone else might.

But for me the evidence of Johnny's authentic breakdown is in this final passage. We see him taking some sort of stand--moving out of the hotel (impermanence to be replaced with something more definitive and substantial?) and having his stuff boxed up rather than simply stored. But then we get the long desert drive with the score building and, yes, emphasizing the scene's dramatic purposiveness or, perhaps, purely reflecting an ego. Even here there is still that nagging possibility that he is simply going to Cleo at her summer camp. However, unlike every other scene in the film the weight of emphasis falls heavily, maybe even solely, on a metaphoric move--but one made by the character. What does this mean? For me, it's indicative or at least suggestive of a psychic collapse or failure. It's a complete retreat, a refuge taken in non-ironic artifice, a formulaic grandstanding gesture; on its own it's a conventional melodramatic moment yet one expressed as a self-defining act of genuine liberation. But, as dad1153 points out, to what end? Well, an end unto itself. This final sequence has great power because it underlines the fact that Johnny too has a limited set of imaginative resources to draw from. He doesn't grasp what he's lacking and couldn't effectively realize it if he did. And it's Coppola's surrounding context that points to that and supplies Johnny's missing ironic self-awareness. Without it the scene might ring false and yet in a different film in which such a final gesture was more coherently integrated within the whole the walk away at the end might pacify us more. It would certainly be a familiar meaning-full move.

To put it another way, in a different kind of narrative Johnny's concluding gesture might be more than sufficient. It isn't in this one and Coppola knows that regardless of whether he does or not.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#44 Post by Alan Smithee » Sun Dec 26, 2010 6:10 pm

I too found the ending was the only thing I had any problem with.
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It feels a little heavy handed in a film with such a light touch. Almost like the ending of an aerosmith video from the nineties.In a film filled with iconic shots I would have preferred to just end on those beautiful shots of the ferrari driving away from the city from behind. If the point is to bookend the film with shots of him first "going nowhere" and then "going somewhere" I think it still would have worked. And it still would allow you to believe maybe he's going to get his daughter. As is he's still being selfish, going to find himself in the desert or whatever. "Journeys of self-discovery" can be the most naval gazing of all. That is of course assuming thats what he's up to. Which he very well may not be.

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Jeff
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#45 Post by Jeff » Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:01 am

Alan Smithee wrote:I too found the ending was the only thing I had any problem with.
That was my only real issue as well, not necessarily because of what happens per se, but because something about the way it's played doesn't really seem to fit the hypnotic tone of everything that came before. It's a minor quibble though. I don't have anything to add that A.O. Scott, Andrew O'Hehir, and our own John Cope haven't said better. Yes, it is apparently part of some sort of Celebrity Hotel Ennui cycle that Coppola is engaged in, but I never felt like it was a retread of Lost in Translation. Surprisingly, for me, the very best thing about the film is Elle Fanning, whose effortless charm carries the film's best moments and humanizes Johnny Marco. There isn't much dialog in the film, and Fanning has a small percentage of what's there, but she says more with a couple of cutting glances than other actresses would with reams of dialog. In a just world, she'd be the leading candidate for Best Supporting Actress this year. Harris Savides turns in more great work (after already lensing Greenberg this year). He used the old Zeiss lenses that Francis Ford Coppola shot Rumblefish with, and the film has a kind of hazy, washed look that feels timeless. I love how every shot goes on just a little longer than you think it's going to, giving the film its unique (by most contemporary standards) rhythm. The symbolism gets a bit heavy-handed at times, but I was so entranced by the mood and atmosphere, that I never really minded. Few of last year's films impressed me more.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#46 Post by swo17 » Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:26 am

I also had this post from domino in the Black Swan thread in mind when I watched the film (the part about hand injuries). Couple this with the opening scene of Dorff going around in circles and the ending obviously, and I thought it was all a bit much really, though on the whole, I did really like the film.

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Jeff
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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#47 Post by Jeff » Sun Jan 09, 2011 12:42 am

swo17 wrote:I also had this post from domino in the Black Swan thread in mind when I watched the film (the part about hand injuries). Couple this with the opening scene of Dorff going around in circles and the ending obviously, and I thought it was all a bit much really, though on the whole, I did really like the film.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the people next to me could actually hear my eyes rolling during the pre-credit sequence. I was afraid that I was going to be in for a cumulative project that Ms. Coppola was making for a semiotics class or something. It ultimately fit well with the other extended driving scenes though, so I didn't mind too much. I hadn't thought of the hand injury thing, but it makes perfect sense now that you mention it.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#48 Post by lacritfan » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:18 am

The cumulative effect the long shots and editing (and especially the face mold scene) had for me was "Stop, relax...and breathe" and I have to admit I left the theater somehow feeling calmer, almost more centered in a way.

And just to point out a technicality as a Southern Californian - I believe the daughter's camp is somewhere around Las Vegas (I don't think helicopters can go great distances and I think I saw Lake Mead in the background while he was in the air) which is northeast of Los Angeles. Going by the freeway signs at the end he is headed northwest, either toward Santa Barbara or the central valley, so if you take the geographic signs literally he isn't going to his daughter's camp. If they wanted to convey that I think they would've shot additional scenes in the desert. At first I thought it does form a sort of "fork in the road" but it doesn't make sense that he would choose the one that doesn't lead to his daughter.

As for the ending
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My first reaction when he got out of the car was he had decided to just "disappear" but a second later I realized he wouldn't leave his daughter with two absent parents. I think the key might be that in the opening scene the warning beep that you've left your key in the ignition stops beeping when he closes the door but in the end the music continues the sound, as if life was still warning him that he needed to change. I think he simply got out of his fast car so he could slow down, put his feet on the gound and figure out how he was going to ground himself.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#49 Post by knives » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:56 am

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The spaghetti is key to the end if you ask me. Food means there's a future for him. He'll keep walking down that road until he finds what he needs and leaving behind the emptiness his life had up to now.
Also thanks for pointing out the calming effect. I left the theater somewhat unsatisfied, but maybe I was looking for a feeling different from what I was getting. There does seem to be an intentional feeling of ambien to the film which would be her giving us a muted version of his experience throughout the film.

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Re: Somewhere (Sofia Coppola, 2010)

#50 Post by dad1153 » Fri Jan 28, 2011 10:36 am

I do recall leaving the theater after watching "Somewhere" with a sense of calmness, as if I had just come from a Yoga class that taught me to breathe differently. Then again, it was 2AM the day after Christmas and I had just seen three big movies ("Social Network," "The Illusionist" and Sofia's movie) in one night so maybe that's where the relaxation came from.

Since "Somewhere" scored zero Academy Award nominations it's commercial prospects have dimmed considerably. Who wants to go see this when there are a dozen movies out there with 'Nominated for X Oscars' publicity all over the place? Shame that this is likely to be Sofia's next in the ever-growing list of post-"Lost in Translation" movies that haven't been able to break out of the art house crowds.

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