Inside Sofia Coppola's Creative Brain

Bill Murray x Sofia Coppola on set of 'Lost in Translation'. [photo uncredited on Tumblr]

We have just about read every interview with Sofia Coppola as she's one of our longstanding favorite female directors and screenwriters of all time. In a profile story with Interview Magazine, Trey Taylor conversed with Coppola on the art of her filmmaking. Has she come a long way from (semi) actress to emerging film director albeit coming from a Hollywood lineage of filmmakers and actors? From my POV, I recall watching The Virgin Suicides for the first time and feeling totally enamored by her directing style. From one drifting scene to the next, cue the emo soundtrack, it filled up my visual appetite.

Through the years, her subject of films have diversified, yet all keeping in line with the theme of females in coming of age moments in their lives. (Okay, maybe Bling Ring strayed a bit from that) But, it is always there, chunks of nostalgia that Sofia so much loves and we crave it along with her. It is almost therapeutic, she hands nostalgia to us on our favorite baby blanket.  This interview is a nice insight on how she has grown into the director she is today and what her intentions are for the audience. 

Behind the scenes, 'Lost in Translation'

"That whole thing was about her not feeling connected and her isolation, and the whole movie was this rhythm between moments of her alone and connecting with [Bill Murray’s character], so it was a moment of her being small and high up in this huge city and her feeling of disconnect. I always try to use visuals to convey what the character is feeling so at that moment, she’s kind of small and overwhelmed in this huge cityscape."

- Sofia Coppola on 'Lost in Translation' scene; Charlotte sitting on the window ledge.  

Behind the scenes; 'The Beguiled'

Imagery is everything. Beautiful and captivating cinematic photography is the one ingredient all of my favorite directors are good at producing. It's what I believe to be Sofia Coppola's main specialty. (A 90's side gig as a photographer is a skill set that helps) These are some of our favorite stills from her films. 

(In order: The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring, Somewhere, The Beguiled) 

Her most recent film On the Rocks (starring Rashida Jones and Bill Murray) is set in New York City about a father-daughter bonding experience over drinks and capers. Within her catalogue of films, Sofia usually writes about things and people she knows or books that she’s loved, so this narrative seems like an intriguing one. This being the second father-daughter storyline, although it’s not as emotionally reckoning as Somewhere.

And for some lengthy soundbites, listen to Sofia’s podcast interview on Dax Shepard’s popular Armchair Expert, where she dived into what it was like to be on iconic film sets as a child and how filmmaking became the only natural thing for her to do.

*Originally published October 2017, updated August 25, 2022

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