INTERVIEWS: Sofia Coppola on Lost in Translation

Director Sofia Coppola is probably one of the hottest new directors in recent years, but she still has to prove that she's more than just the daughter of one of Hollywood's most famous directors, Francis Ford Coppola. Although she appeared in many of her father's films, she first gained attention in 1990 when she played Al Pacino's daughter in The Godfather Part III. Although some thought that she might take the acting route of her cousin, Nicholas Cage, she instead went behind the camera in 1998 for the small film, Lick the Star, followed in 1999 by an adaptation of the book, The Virgin Suicides. The latter featured early appearances by young stars such as Josh Hartnett and Kirsten Dunst, and it got her a lot of attention as well as becoming a bit of a cult classic among many film-lovers. Since then, Ms. Coppola has also directed many music videos, including a recent one with model Kate Moss for The White Stripes. For her latest film, Lost in Translation, Coppola took her camera to Japan to document the burgeoning friendship between two strangers who meet in a hotel: Bob Harris, a middle-aged actor played by Bill Murray, and Charlotte, a frustrated newlywed played by Scarlett Johansson.

Of course, most people will want to know what it was like for her to work with Bill Murray:

"It has always been a dream of mine to work with Bill Murray. I wrote the movie with him in mind for that part, so while I was writing, I was thinking, "What would Bill Murray do?" I really wanted him to be the character. He's also a great improviser, and he added a lot, which is part of why I wanted to work with him."

Some might remember Murray's co-star from her role in Ghost World, but what made Scarlett Johansson right for the difficult role of Charlotte?

"I remember her as a kid from that movie, Manny and Lo, and there was something that struck me about her. She's great at conveying emotions, and she had a quality about her that I liked, and a calmness."

How did the chemistry develop between the two stars?

"They met just a few days before shooting in Tokyo, so I was hoping they'd hit it off. We shot the film pretty much in order, and I was hoping that it would help the characters develop as they got to know each other."

What influenced her to shoot the film entirely in Japan?

"I spent a bunch of time there in my early 20's, and while I was there I thought "I want to do a movie here someday!" It felt foreign, and it had such a weird mixture of cultures. I had been there a year before wandering around, and most of the movie came from my own interests, meeting people and having friends there and them taking me around to all of these little places that I wouldn't have found or known about unless I lived there. I stayed at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, which has an incredible view, like Blade Runner, and the city was just so visually beautiful in its architecture. To me, it was just a great experience being there and that was what started the whole idea of shooting the film in Tokyo."

The locale and the desire to shoot the film in sequential order seemed like it might pose some problems.

"It was hard shooting with that sort of schedule, and it was physically very demanding, but I had a great producer, Ross Katz, who had a lot of experience with independent film. We were running all over, shooting all night and then shooting the day scenes in the morning. In the bar, we could only shoot from 1 to 3 in the morning, and it was kind of crazy. There was a point in the shooting where I thought we were never going to get it all done, and I thought we'd have to cut scenes. Luckily, my big brother [Roman Coppola, director of CQ] showed up to shoot second camera and helped get us back on schedule."

Since some of the scenes were taken from her own Japanese experiences, we wondered how much of herself she put into the character of Charlotte or her story.

"The movie is not directly autobiographical. I've definitely been in that situation where you're tagging along and you have nothing else to do, but I didn't have an experience exactly like Charlotte's. I found it interesting that when you're traveling, you meet people that you wouldn't normally know. I like the whole idea that you can have that sort of valuable exchange or have someone be a part of your life, and then you don't keep track of them after you part."

Coppola's last movie, The Virgin Suicides, was a popular coming of age story that struck a chord with many people young and old, so how did her experiences with Lost in Translation differ?

"A lot of people come up to me and say how much they have in common with [The Virgin Suicides]. When I was making it, I was just thinking about what I wanted to see and what I wanted to show. Having been a teenage girl, I understand what it's like, and so I tend to make stories about that. I think I try to be honest with my approach to it, and I don't think that's going to change because this is a different type of movie. It's a little bit scarier, because I wasn't making a movie based on a book, and you don't know if what you're doing is something that other people will want to see. For me, I felt that the material worked well, and you get to learn a lot by seeing Bill in that environment."

Music played a large part in The Virgin Suicides with French pop group, Air, providing the score. Lost in Translation follows suit, featuring a score by My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields:

"It was really exciting working with him, because the My Bloody Valentine album "Loveless" is one of my favorite albums. I was excited that Brian Reitzell [music supervisor and drummer for the band Air] approached Kevin to do it. After we shot the movie, I showed it to him to give him an idea about the picture, and he's such a sensitive guy that he already had this melancholic approach to it, which is what I wanted."

When asked about the movie's title, Lost in Translation, and its relevance to the lack of sub-titles, Coppola said that it came after shooting:

"I just liked the name because it felt like the title of a book, and I liked the fact that it had two meanings. I wanted the movie to be from the main characters' point of view rather than the Japanese, but Japanese audiences laugh at parts that I don't usually laugh at."

Has anyone taken issue with the way that the Japanese are depicted, since they speak so much bad English in the movie?

"Some people have mentioned it, but most people have a good sense of humor about it. We poke fun at the Japanese, but then a minute later, we make fun of the Americans, so I'm not worried about that being a problem."

One of the movie's funniest scenes involves Bill Murray doing a photo shoot for the Japanese liquor, Santori. He tries to understand the direction given to him by the Japanese-speaking photographer, but gets even more confused by the abbreviated translation he is given. Where did that come from?

"I was at the Park Hyatt doing promotion for the The Virgin Suicides with a translator, and I would answer the question with a very brief response, and she would translate and it would be five minutes longer, and you'd start getting paranoid that she was getting carried away. She explained that the Japanese use a lot more formality when they speak, and that's just the nature of the language."

Coppola is often asked about her relationship with her famous father, who is also the executive producer for her films, and whether that makes things easier for her.

"Maybe I got some kind of filmmaking gene from my father, but it's definitely not easy. People can think whatever they want. It's really hard work, and it's scary to work on your first film, and then try to get financing. You're working on a low budget, and shooting at all times of the day. Working with him has its advantages, because he's a filmmaker and I like the way he works with other filmmakers. He's very encouraging, and pretty much lets me do whatever I want to do, but sometimes I don't want to hear [what he has to says], because he's my Dad, and you don't always want to hear your parents' advice."

Lost in Translation opens in limited release in select cities on September 12. Look for a review here sometime before then.