Somewhere... In English

I am an incurable fan of Sofia Coppola's movies.
I love them for the pictures and for the fact that dialogues are something really rare. And obviously for the music. Maybe those are not typical Hollywood mega productions, with soundtracks that win all of the possible awards that could be won. But there is something captivating in this simplicity.
So feeling in my duty I finally decided to watch her latest movie "Somewhere". Film premiered here in the UK few months ago, but I needed some time to get round to watching it.

Unfortunately I got disappointed with the topic that Coppola chose for the main motif of her production. Incredibly well-worn, talked about in many movies in loads of possible ways which she still decided to approach once again. The main theme is a father (in this case a Hollywood actor, living stereotypical rock man's lifestyle) who doesn't really contribute to his daughter's upbringing. However everything changes in his life, when the mother of his child asks him to take care of their daughter before driving her to the summer camp. Quite predictably the time spent with a child has an incredible impact on him. After daughters' departure he goes through a minor breakdown and decides to change his life. Nevertheless we never get to know how the story finishes - and here is something I like most - open ending.

Despite this predictability and lack of any big revelations the movie is actually really good. I think that the whole production is saved mainly because of the fact that while watching we have to figure out most of the things ourselves. In very characteristic for her way, Coppola decides to almost complitely cut down on the number of dialogues and concentrate on the picture. Sometimes she "torments" us with very long scenes but thanks to this we can actually feel what she wanted to pass on to us. She reaches her aim and finishes everything in very artistic way.

When it comes to the soundtrack, obviously the French band Phoenix couldn't be skipped. It's difficult to be surprised given the fact that the vocalist is directors' husband. But here the idea of using their songs from the latest CD "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix" is a huge advantage. I can't stop wondering whether the electro sounds that dominated the LP inspired Sofia to the opening scene. Or maybe she accidentally decided to use this song that perfectly matches the dominating sound of the wholeness. This isn't the only scene when the bands' music highlights what's happening in the movie. In a sensational way the opening sounds of "Love Like a Sunset Part II" were used to show what may be happening in the main character's head. And afterwards, as the scene develops we are allowed to listen to the entire song.

I strongly recommend you to pick one day in the week that wasn't too tiring and spend the evening watching the movie. It definitely requires some energy and concentrating on it. Because the entire thing, despite this obviousness of the theme, creates really positive and interesting piece that in my opinion should be on the list of everyone who calls himself a good movies' fan.