This week, Sofia Coppola won the award for Best Director at the Cannes Festival for her film The Beguiled. She is now the second female director to win the prize in the festival’s 70 years (the first was Soviet director Yuliya Solntseva, who received the award 56 years ago with her 1961 drama Chronicle of Flaming Years).
The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 Western by Don Siegel, stars Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell, and two of Coppola’s favourites: Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. Set in the Civil War, a girls’ boarding school takes in an injured soldier (Farrell) and nurses him back to health. But as relationships develop between the soldier and three women, trouble ensues.
This is not the first time Coppola has won a prestigious award. In 2003, she received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation. Who could forget the unlikely pairing of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson?
Their characters formed a special bond when they were both at a crossroad in their lives and felt alienated in Japan. This movie also taught us that acting requires a lot of patience and intensity…failing that, there’s always Suntory Time.
Coppola also won the Golden Lion, the highest prize at the Venice Film Festival, for her 2010 film Somewhere. The film chronicles the relationship between a young girl and her famous-actor father as they hang out at a Hollywood retreat while he recovers from a minor injury. Elle Fanning, who was 12 at the time, gives a stunning performance as the daughter.
Also, in the film’s trailer, we are treated to a demo version of The Strokes’ song “You Only Live Once”. In the recording, titled “I’ll Try Anything Once”, Julian Casablancas’ vocals sound so bare without distortion, which goes perfectly with his piano accompaniment.
Coppola’s amazing use of sound and music in her films doesn’t stop there. Her soundtracks also include killer artists such as Air, The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Gwen Stefani, New Order, and The Cure, and her films almost always include a song or two by Phoenix, her French husband Thomas Mars’ band. Phoenix even made a cameo in her 2006 film Marie Antoinette, starring Kirsten Dunst.
But that’s not the only famous family she has. As her last name gives away, she is the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather (and many other films). This means she is in the crazy-talented Coppola family. Her cousins include actor and ex-drummer of Phantom Planet, Jason Schwartzman, and Nicolas Cage, who chose to adopt the surname “Cage” to avoid the potential industry perks of being a Coppola. Is that choice liberating or shooting yourself in the foot? Either way, crazy (good) guy.
In conclusion, Sofia Coppola is a boss at basically everything. Whether she’s screenwriting, directing, producing, acting, modelling, or being a good wife and mother, she’s always smashing it like a neckbeard smashes that subscribe button.
Give her all the awards!
