Sofia Coppola: “I didn't want to turn Elvis into a villain”

There are those who dream all their lives of getting to the movies.

Sofia Coppola, on the contrary, was born in the seventh art.

When she debuted in front of a movie camera she was not even 10 months old: before she could talk and walk, she learned to act.

Something simple, yes: she had to endure a little water falling on her.

She played Michael Francis Rizzi, the baby baptized towards the end of

The Godfather.

She once said that her first childhood memory is “the jungle of the Philippines, during the filming of

Apocalypse Now

.”

And that, when she was little, she used to visit Akira Kurosawa's house.

At the age of three, in

The Godfather 2

, she played a girl on board a ship.

And now of age, in the third installment, she played Mary Corleone.

She has always said that the best teaching from dad Francis Ford and mom Eleanor, both directors, is “a life of creativity.”

Although, in her intensive course, she also soon discovered the darker side of her dream: in a recent interview she still remembered the cover of a magazine that accompanied her young face with the headline “She ruined

The godfather

?".

More information

'Priscilla': it is about love, but also about fear

An 18-year-old girl placed under the magnifying glass.

Criticized.

Intimidated by a powerful and masculine world.

When Coppola read

Elvis and I,

Priscilla Beaulieu's autobiography published in 1985, some time ago, she found a familiar place.

It was going to be a pleasant summer read.

It became his new movie.

“It is the story of a strong woman and her search for autonomy,” pointed out the filmmaker (New York, 51 years old) before a group of international journalists at the last Venice festival, where

Priscilla

debuted.

The fight for independence may be another point of contact between the two.

Coppola turned to the film after Apple withdrew from financing his series adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel

The National Customs

.

But, first, he left a public message to the platform: “The idea of ​​a woman who is not liked was not of interest to them.”

Just as he had no qualms about putting a stop to his father when he visited his daughter's first filming.

1999.

The Virgin Suicides

—another book that, by the way, made her fall in love with it to the point of filming it

.

The myth recommended to the debutante: “You should say 'Action' higher, from the diaphragm.”

She, as reported by the specialized website

Imdb

, thought: “Ok.

“You can go now.”

Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny in 'Priscilla', by Sofia Coppola.

Maybe today things have turned around.

And they ask Francis about Sofia more than the other way around.

She is, after all, the youngest filmmaker in history—and the first American—to compete for the Oscar for best director (for

Lost in Translation,

2003).

She is an artist fascinated by photography and fashion magazines, unafraid to claim that she can “be substantial and be interested in frivolities.”

From a symbol that inspires the imagination of teenagers or signs autographs for girls named Sofia after her.

From a creator capable of building, from

Marie Antoinette

to

Seduction,

through

Somewhere,

her own personal universe, always as she wanted and outside the “

mainstream

”, as she herself has highlighted.

A formula that returns in

Priscilla.

Along with the mission to illuminate another woman hidden under the shadow of a myth.

“It's all in the book, I didn't invent anything.

“I wanted it to be told through his point of view, to be seen with his eyes,” said Coppola in Venice.

That is, a girl who is 14 years old when a 24-year-old singer and soldier, already endowed with a certain fame as well as an irresistible attractiveness, begins to take an interest in her.

There are almost no movies or concerts in

Priscilla

.

Among other things, because the fund that manages Elvis's rights prohibited using her songs.

Another indication of Coppola's different approach.

It is about telling the human being who lived, rejoiced and suffered right next to us, during 15 years of relationship.

A story halfway between idyll and terror.

Although Priscilla Beaulieu, at the Venice festival, reiterated that Elvis was the love of her life.

The legend himself, here, passes through his wife's filter and becomes a man.

At times he is egotistical, insecure, angry, even pathetic.

“Certainly, the film doesn't leave him on a pedestal.

It was interesting to see the reality behind the myth.

And discovering how frustrated he was at not being taken seriously as an actor.

I understand that struggle.

I didn't want to judge him or turn him into a villain, but rather approach him sensitively and empathize with him.

This is her story,” Coppola described.

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson in a still from 'Lost in Translation'.

The filmmaker described the unprecedented feeling that the subject of her film was alive, present, and just a phone call away.

“One of her biggest challenges was finding a balance between respecting her, liking her and feeling represented, and what she wanted to do with herself as a director,” Coppola explained.

And she added: “I am moved by the stories of people trying to understand who they are.”

The veto on the use of the songs hardly mattered to him: he believes that it ended up being good for the film.

Furthermore, when she was young she was more into listening to another Elvis, Costello.

She, too, was not concerned by the fact that, almost at the same time, Baz Luhrmann was filming and releasing the

biopic

Elvis:

the other way around,

He believes that the renewed interest could benefit him in the long run.

But, compared to that blockbuster, Coppola's budget amounted to less than a quarter.

And, shortly before starting filming, he lost another million.

Hence, she was forced to contain the entire filming in a single month.

“It is one of the most difficult things I have ever done,” said the director.

Although Priscilla Beaulieu acknowledged that she had done “a fantastic job.”

In Venice, the protagonist, Cailee Spaeny, also won the Volpi Cup for best actress.

Which also recognized the meticulous

casting

of Coppola and Kirsten Dunst, his frequent collaborator.

The difference in size between the tiny Spaeny and the enormous Jacob Elordi, the Elvis of the screen, served as an added metaphor.

Just like the noise and chaos in the sequences with the musician, compared to the intimacy, at times claustrophobic, when the young woman is left alone.

And then, Coppola deployed his traditional millimeter attention to the staging, from the melancholic palette to portray Priscilla's stay in Germany, to the explosion of colors when she visits her beloved in the United States, to the moment in which she takes from the suitcase a toothbrush: “I love all those details.

They are what makes a film real.

When you start, part of the process is about how it looks and feels.”

From left to right: Roman, Eleanor, Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia, at a premiere in Rome in 2007.Getty Images

“Making a movie takes up so much time and energy that you have to really love it.

The only thing I'm careful about is avoiding something I can't throw my whole heart into,” Coppola noted.

At this point, the filmmaker maintains that she does not think about the audience, but instead pursues filming what she herself would like.

And she realized that

Priscilla

was also speaking to her in another way.

“I still see women in relationships where they let the men make all the decisions.

It was exhilarating to look at my mother's generation and see what has changed and what hasn't.

And, at the same time, talking to my two daughters who, when faced with certain things, responded: 'I would never allow a man to tell me what I should do.'

She also doesn't want to show the way to Romy and Cosima—both the result of her union with the musician Thomas Mars—.

Although the first, 17 years old, went viral a few months ago with a celebrated video on the social network TikTok.

Filmmaker wood?

Namely.

For now, the saga continues also thanks to the oldest.

Grandfather Francis Ford is finally preparing his long-awaited film

Megalopolis,

which he has been dreaming of for four decades.

At 84 years old, he is preparing to hold the camera again.

As in so many masterpieces.

Although none like the home video he filmed on March 14, 1971: Eleanor went into labor;

Francis Ford hit the “record” button;

Sofia came into the world.

And to the cinema.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_