what strange gifts the facebook stork brings

So... I'm friends with Sofia Coppola on facebook. And it actually appears to be...really her. She has like 190 friends or something. I could be wrong, but... I mean, whatever. Either way, I'm happy to call myself her facebook friend. I'd like to sit down with her and a glass of wine and ask her a few questions about The Virgin Suicides, (good ones, mostly. For the most part, I think she nailed it). And I'm one o the few people I know who strangely loved Marie Antoinette. (I know, I know! Like, I OWN it, love it. Yeah.) 


And of course there's Lost in Translation. Which, like all her movies, any flaws it may have are obliterated by a dead-on atmosphere. So many moments of that film captured the exact...well, mono no aware... of trying to live in Japan. Lost in Translation & her concern for Japan appears to be the reason she's become active on Facebook and her twitter, etc. Which I super applaud her for. 


I haven't seen Somewhere yet, as it's not out here, but even Schumann says it's brilliant-- all atmosphere, hardly any talking-- so I'm sure I will love it. The 90's child in me will always love Stephen Dorff and I'm a big fan of Fanning  The Younger. (The Door in the Floor, anyone? SO many feelings.)


I feel like I should just quote all of Schumann here:

Sometimes I think about what it must be like to be Sofia Coppola.
"But Daddy, I want to make a costume drama!"
"When I was in the front row at the Anna Sui show ..."
"I loved that song 1901, off my husband's last album."
It's easy to hate on Coppola, but perhaps that's because we all wish we were hollywood progeny, fashion icons, and indie rock wives. Also, that we could write delicate, minimalist screenplays and bring them to the screen with grace and visual splendor. That's just what Coppola's done with Somewhere, her best film since Lost in Translation (the less said about Marie Antoinette the better). It's easily her most minimal, defined by dialogue-less scenes, a rudderless narrative flow, and relationships are implied rather than stated. I love the ambiguity as well as apathy for traditional narrative propulsion. Stephen Dorff stars as a disenchanted hollywood star living in the famed, decadent Chateau Marmont. Elle Fanning (she of the Dakota Fannings) is his charming, precocious daughter. They interact, disconnect, go to Milan. Their relationship -- and Dorff's lack of relationships with everyone -- feels quintessentially LA. It reminds me of the line from Less Than Zero, "People are afraid to merge."

In general, I'm basically a loud over-stater. Every now and then, I'll have a moment of understatement I'm proud of.  Can you teach me more of that, Sofia? Maybe one day. And thanks for being my pal. I'm with you on Japan. Basically, I'm with you wherever you wanna take us.