Sofia Coppola tells another story based on the alienation of ‘upper class’ life. After passing comment on a typically sterile upper class family in The Virgin Suicides, Coppola drew attention to the empty lives of the ‘itinerant’ celebrity world in Lost in Translation, before taking up a punk thread for her story of an aristocracy doomed to history in Marie Antoinette. In the case of her latest film Somewhere, she lures us into the world of Hollywood star Johnny Marco. If there is such a thing as ‘Hollywood alienation’, then Somewhere is the absolute embodiment of it. For this is the story of a ‘celebrity’ whose life revolves around drink, drugs, striptease girls, Ferraris and Guitar Hero. The hallmark of Somewhere is the Antonioni-esque flavour to its portrayal of what is in essence an intensely and uniformly banal lifestyle. In this way, Coppola locates an existential core to the despair underlying the ostentation of today’s show world. By incorporating Cleo, Johnny Marco’s adolescent daughter’s perspective into the film, Coppola merges her critique of the existential show world with a relatively poignant coming-of-age story. Winning the Golden Lion at Venice, Somewhere features a soundtrack that ranges from Phoenix to Kiss and the Strokes. All in all, with its cool narrative and subtly ironic sense of humour, the film could be considered a prelude to Coppola’s mature phase. Fırat Yücel
