SOMEWHERE – COMFORTABLY NUMB

January 3, 2011

Somewhere – directed by Sofia Coppola (2010)

As in Lost In Translation, Sofia Coppola is good at showing the comfortably numb circuit of boredom and isolation that comes with fame. Her movie Somewhere shows the emptiness of the pampered life while still managing to convey the glamour of a star actor’s lifestyle.

In the first shots here we learn everything there is to know about the actor Johny Marco (Stephen Dorff) without a word being spoken. We see him going round in circles in his black Ferrari on a race circuit. We see him at a fashionable party (when he falls and breaks his wrist). We see lying in bed being entertained in his hotel room by two blonde pole dancers – Bambi and Cindy!. We see him fall asleep before their ‘erotic’ show is finished. (These opening scenes made me think that it is not inconceivable that someone will actually a whole movie out of a character study like this where there is no dialogue).

Painting by Edward Hopper

For the movie’s stillness and minimalism the atmosphere is akin to the solitary lives depicted in the urban paintings of Edward Hopper. The slowness and long takes reminded me a lot of Jim Jarmusch, without really being in the same league.

Probably Coppola was also influenced by Italian directors like Michelangelo Antonioni or Bernado Bertolucci. I vaguely remember the former’s 1975 movie The Passenger, starring Jack Nicholson, having this similar slow-moving watching paint dry quality. I fell asleep in the cinema while watching that but at least Coppola’s movie kept me awake. I was interested enough to know how it would finish, although I wasn’t surprised by the deliberately ambiguous ending.

Marco’s is a life of ease and the luxury. Room service can attend to practically everything except emotional needs. When his car breaks down on the way to the airport, he has no need to worry. To make sure his daughter makes it to the summer camp on time all he has to do is hire a private helicopter and taxi. Money is no object.

She got her star Dorff to watch Peter Bogdanovich’s 1973 Paper Moon for the touching, and unconventional, father-daughter relationship (played by Ryan and Tatum O’Neal). The actor’s 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) is the most sorted out character in the movie.

Sofia Coppola probably drew some of the inspiration from her glitzy upbringing with her Dad. It’s hard to imagine her father being a philanderer on the scale of Johnny Marco although she must have had occasion to observe how stars succumbed to the temptations of the flesh that come with fame. It is surely the same in the world of rock. When you read Simply Red Mick Hucknall tell of his three women a day habit, you realise how accurate a portrait this is.

Hotels like Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont offer the chance to be miserable in comfort and allows the opportunity to get laid regularly. Dorff with permanent designer stubble looks a little like a younger Mickey Rourke and is convincing as the sex magnet. Women are always available and he is a guy who can’t say no. Despite the hot-ness of the women I can’t say I felt much envy.

The hangers-on, models, publicists and agents are really only interacting with the image rather than the person .So you understand why he reaches breaking point and tearfully confesses to his agent “I am not even a person”.

Ultimately, it’s hard to see Johny Marco as a victim or to feel much sympathy for him as Sofia Coppola presents us with a portrait of fame that actually makes the wealth and glamour look pretty boring.