Sofia Coppola's Auteurist style

 

         After reading the article Sofia Coppola as Feminine Auteur, I quickly learned that she has been heavily criticized her whole career, being the daughter of a very successful director, Sofia had to find her own unique style. Her father is known for making many films dominated by male characters and a ton of violence, but Sofia's films are quite the opposite of that. Sofia prefers showing powerful images on the screen rather than having the dialogue be the main form of expression. 

         In the article 5 trademarks of Sofia Coppola's, the first trademark is human connection. In lost in translation Bob and Charlotte are seen hugging each other, they whisper too each other but is unable to be heard. This is done purposely as Sofia wants you to watch the moment and don't get distracted by the dialogue. Next trademark is wide shots, many filmakers just use a close up to directly show the characters facial expressions to see how they are feeling, but instead Sofia shows them from far away and tiny making them seem lonely, helpless, hopeless, etc. The next trademark is that her films are female dominated, all her characters are mostly female which represents her and it is quite the opposite of most films as they tend to be male dominated. Next trademark, fashion is massive in her films, which relates to Sofia as she went to Paris to learn more about fashion. In Marie Antoinette the dresses and the hair is a huge part of many shots, in Bling Ring the characters are stealing clothes from celebrities, and in Virgin Suicides the dresses also represent an idea of their own. The last trademark is that her films include a ton of 80's music, and this also relates to Sofia as this was the music she grew up on in her teenage years. Considering all of these trademarks its beginning to be quite easy to understand how Sofia's films include cinematography and a mise-en-scene that is like no other. She always had to go above and beyond since the pressure of her father's success have impacted her, and being a female director her films include many characters and shots that express who Sofia is and her own experiences growing up.

       In the article Sofia Coppola on Pictures, a conversation with Philip Gefter, her films does have a coherent vision and cultural awareness. In this conversation Sofia explained how she liked design, photography, and film but never thought about doing film. When she struggled learning to paint she turned to photography where learned from a great photographer, and this led to her going to Japan to learn more about photography since girly snapshots were popular. She attended a lot of art fairs with her mother growing up, she was heavily influenced by 80's fashion magazines, and have been inspired by many novels that she read was has inspired her to make some films about. Based on all of this we can see that all her films have clear intentions, her films are not just coincidently made, she incorporates many experiences and ideas that she obtained as she grew older.

Cites:

Gefter, Philip, and Sofia Coppola. “Sofia Coppola on Pictures: A Conversation with Philip Gefter.” Aperture, no. 231, 2018, pp. 20–31. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26530829. Accessed 26 Feb. 2023.

Kennedy, Todd. “Off with Hollywood’s Head: Sofia Coppola as Feminine Auteur.” Film Criticism, vol. 35, no. 1, 2010, pp. 37–59. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44019394. Accessed 26 Feb. 2023.