"I think I got opportunities just because of my family, but I work very hard"
Jia Coppola is the granddaughter of Francis and Sofia's niece, but also a director in her own right.
"Mainstream", her second film starring Andrew Garfield and Maya Hawk, arrives on VOD in Israel and in an interview with Walla!
She explains why she feels like an alien and not like a princess
Avner Shavit, Venice
28/01/2022
Friday, 28 January 2022, 00:11
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on Twitter
Share on Email
Share on general
Comments
Comments
Trailer for the movie "Mainstream" (Venice Film Festival)
The Coppola family is a Hollywood aristocratic family - the cinematic version of the Banai family.
The best known and associated names with her are Francis Ford Coppola, who among other things directed "The Godfather", and his daughter Sofia, but in the family tree you can find several other cinematic anchors, including actors Nicholas Cage and Jason Schwartzman and actress Talia Shear.
In the last ten years, Jia Coppola - Francis' granddaughter and Sofia's niece - has also taken the stage.
In 2013, she directed her first feature film, "Palo Alto", which has a dream soundtrack and screenshots from which to this day star in various Instagram accounts.
Now comes her second film, "Mainstream".
It premiered about a year and a half ago at the Venice Film Festival and was distributed a few months ago in America, but has not been screened with us so far in any setting.
It can now be seen on HOT, Cellcom and yes VOD.
The film turns out to be a satire on viral culture. His young protagonists start producing successful YouTube videos, and become influencers, which ultimately adversely affects their lives.
I met Coppola at the time immediately after its premiere in Venice, along with a small group of journalists from across Europe. "I feel like an alien in the entertainment world, and usually do not like what's popular," she explains in response to a question about the meaning of the film's name. I do not understand contemporary culture. I do not understand why certain things go viral, so I made the movie to test it. I am not an authority, and I do not come to say whether the processes that are happening are good or bad. I just wanted to show how popularity can affect the egos of young people. I do not think you have to delete your Instagram, but it probably will not hurt. "
Where did the idea to engage with influencers come from?
"A friend of mine told me there was such a thing. I did not understand what it was, and she explained to me how it works and the importance of a large number of followers. I saw the content they produce. It confused me but also attracted me. The transition between eras also intrigues me, if it is The transition from radio to television or the transition to digital culture. "
More on Walla!
One Hundred Movies to Watch on Netflix: The Complete Guide
To the full article
"I do not think you have to delete your Instagram, but it probably will not hurt."
From "Mainstream" (Photo: Venice Film Festival)
The film stars two of the most prominent young stars in contemporary American cinema - Andrew Garfield, who now also stars in "Spider-Man: There's No Way Home" and later this year is expected to receive an Oscar nomination for "Tick, Tick ... Boom";
And Maya Hawk, herself a daughter of (Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman), who broke out in "Strange Things."
"I also work as a photographer, and I used to photograph Maya. We had a good relationship, because I do not know how to express exactly what I want, and she always knew what I was looking for without me having to say it," Coppola explains.
"Maya has the ability to say a lot with her eyes, and that's exactly what I needed."
"As for Andrew, what has to be said. I have always admired him and always wanted to work with him. He is one of the most talented actors in our generation. His character is completely mentally drained, so it was important for him to play a sweet actor like him.
Prince and Princess.
Maya Hawk and Andrew Garfield in "Mainstream" (Photo: Venice Film Festival)
Of course, at some point, a question arises as to Coppola's attribution.
"I did not get anything on a tray of money," she says.
"I had a very hard time picking up this project, and it fell apart along the way many times. People think I got opportunities just because of my last name, but the truth is I work very hard."
"I'm constantly being compared to my relatives, and this is not an ideal starting point. I suffer from insecurity, but this is already my problem with myself. I must not let all this bother me."
At the time you were directing your first feature film, so was your grandmother Eleanor, only she was already in her mid - seventies.
"She's an inspiring character to me. She's one of the most special women I know, and she's unstoppable."
"I'm constantly being compared to my relatives, and this is not an ideal starting point." Gia Coppola at the Venice Film Festival (Photo: GettyImages, Andrea Rosico)
The protagonist in the film dreams of becoming a director but earns a living as a bartender, and Coppola says that is also her story.
"After college I had to find a job, and I love manual labor, so I started bartending," she says.
"The world of restaurants is a fascinating world and has many similarities to the world of cinema - you work long hours and hard hours, and everyone behind the scenes has an important contribution to the quality of the finished product, whether assistant cook or chef, narrator or director."
As in "Palo Alto", here too there is a great soundtrack, and this time too you collaborated with the musician Dov Haynes, known as Blood Orange.
"I love him. He always knows the feelings of each scene and each character and he also knows how to amplify them. Beyond his music, it's all songs by artists I love and listen to on a daily basis. Working on a soundtrack is a process of trial and error. You have a list. Of songs you want to use,
We are talking in the midst of the corona and the threat it poses to the future of cinema.
Can you describe a world without cinema?
"No. I can not imagine a world without stories."
culture
Theater
Cinema News
Tags
Francis Ford Coppola
Andrew Garfield
Sophia Coppola