Sofia Coppola’s whole life prepared her to become an award-winning filmmaker
When his daughter was 6, Francis Ford Coppola decided to make a home movie starring his youngest child.
“Halfway through, my mom walked through the set, which was our living room,” Sophia Coppola recalled. “She said, ‘Just tell him you’re Wonder Woman.’”
The filmmaker laughed at the memory.
“That was the attitude when I was growing up,” she said.
“My parents always told me that I could make anything happen.”
Forty years later, Sophia Coppola is, indeed, making things happen. At 46, she is arguably more prominent among present-day filmmakers than even her legendary
father.
Her latest project, “The Beguiled” — written and directed by Coppola — will open Friday nationwide.
Based on a 1966 book by Thomas Cullinan, the Civil War drama is set at Miss Martha Farnsworth’s Seminary for Young Ladies, nestled deep in the woods of Virginia. At the height of the war, one of the girls finds a wounded Union Army corporal named John McBurney (Colin Farrell) in the woods, bleeding and near death.
Protocol dictates that the women turn him over to Confederate authorities, but Miss Martha (Nicole Kidman) decides to let his wounded leg heal first. The women take him into the boarding school — and, before long, Miss Martha is infatuated with him.
So, too, is a lonely teacher named Edwina (Kirsten Dunst) and an older student, Alicia (Elle Fanning).
McBurney ends up beguiling the ladies in different ways as he maneuvers to remain at the school and not rejoin the war. His mere presence sets the women against one another — but ultimately unites them.
A 1971 version of “The Beguiled,” starring Clint Eastwood as the wounded soldier and Geraldine Page as Miss Martha, wasn’t a hit, but it inspired Coppola’s first remake.
“After I did ‘The Bling Ring’ (2013), I did want to do something beautiful,” she said. “I was so tired of all the pop-culture references. Then a friend of mine told me about this film ‘The Beguiled.’ She said, ‘I think you need to see it and remake it.’”
The film fascinated Coppola.
“The premise was so loaded,” she said. “It said so much about the power between men and women constantly shifting back and forth.”
Inspired, Coppola found herself thinking about a new way to deliver the old story.
“The original movie was told from the male point of view,” she said. “It was this man who suddenly found himself in this women’s world. What I thought would be interesting was to go back in to tell the story from the women’s point of view.
“These women are living together in this isolated place, just trying to survive a war,” she said. “And then this man literally shows up on the doorstep and changes the dynamic of the place, while also shifting the relationships between the women.”
Coppola filmed the story in New Orleans, where she invited Civil War re-enactors to the set to talk to the cast.
“We had an etiquette teacher and a dance instructor and did Bible study,” she said. “We learned sewing. This is how these women spent their days.”
“The Beguiled” is Dunst’s third film with Coppola — following “The Virgin Suicides” (1999) and “Marie Antoinette” (2006).
“I would do anything to work with Sofia,” Dunst said. “I love her as a person, and I’ve known her since I was 16. We’re always on the same page on how to approach a story. We have this shorthand, too. We’re friends, and we understand each other.”
The film was Kidman’s first with Coppola, but the Oscarwinning actress was equally eager to be a part of it.
“I said to her: ‘It doesn’t matter what it is. You can give me the phone book, and I’m in,’” Kidman said. “Sofia puts out stories that I want to see.”
Though noted for her work with women, Coppola realized that the right man as McBurney was crucial to “The Beguiled.”
“I had to find a man who could handle these women who would objectify him,” she said with a laugh. “I wanted him to be masculine and exotic. Colin is a great actor but also brought the charm I needed. He found a way to connect with each of the women on different levels, while showing a dark side that was such a contrast to this feminine world.”
Coppola, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Francis Ford and Eleanor Coppola, was born in New York and grew up on film sets, usually behind the camera but occasionally in front of it: She is the baby in the baptism scene in “The Godfather” (1972) and had tiny roles in her father’s films “The Godfather: Part II” (1974), “The Outsiders” (1983), “Rumble Fish” (1983), “The Cotton Club” (1984), “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) and “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988).
She graduated to a leading role as Mary Corleone in “The Godfather: Part III” (1990) but drew hostile reviews — and has acted only occasionally since.
By that time, however, her interests were shifting. She had studied photography at Mills College in Oakland, California, and painting at the California Institute of the Arts, but an increasing interest in filmmaking prompted her to make some short films.
“I loved filmmaking because it combined so many of my artistic interests — including storytelling, photography and music,” she said.
Coppola made her feature debut with “The Virgin Suicides,” which won critical plaudits. Her second feature, “Lost in Translation” (2003), earned her an Oscar for best original screenplay and nominations for best picture and director. She went on to ‘“Marie Antoinette,” “Somewhere” (2010) and “The Bling Ring.”
Coppola, who is divorced from director Spike Jonze, lives in Greenwich Village in New York City with her second husband, musician Thomas Mars, and their daughters: Romy, 10, and Cosima, 7.
Juggling family and filmmaking, she said, has been easier for her than some might think.
“My husband and my mom help me when I’m filming. It’s so intensive when you’re shooting a film. My kids would come visit me, and I allowed them to yell ‘action’ a few times, which they love.”
Coppola is passionate about audiences viewing films on a big screen.
“I shot ‘The Beguiled’ on 35-millimeter film,” she said. “It’s meant for the big screen. I want people to feel the largeness of an atmosphere. It’s about a big frame and not watching it on your phone.”
Nothing compares with the experience of sitting in a movie theater, she said with a sigh.
“To really lose yourself in a film, once the lights go dark, is one of life’s true joys.”