"I didn't want to use pop songs as the score. I didn't just want something cool."
By Ryan Dombal, January 12, 2011 4:40 p.m. CT
Photos by Merrick Morton
Like Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette before it, Sofia Coppola's impressionistic new film Somewhere deconstructs fame to reveal a core loneliness. And, like in her other work, the film's music-- including songs by Phoenix, the Strokes, Foo Fighters, Gwen Stefani, and more-- is an integral part of the package.
But instead of using the soundtrack to amp up the emotions of a scene, Coppola aimed to use songs that her characters would actually listen to in the moment. So when action star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) plays Guitar Hero with his daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning), we hear them clicking along to the Police's "So Lonely". And when a couple of twins do an awkward pole routine for Marco in his Chateau Marmont hotel room, they dance along to a boom box playing Foo Fighters' "My Hero".
The film also features some original score by Phoenix-- led by Coppola's boyfriend Thomas Mars-- who mutated the widescreen synths of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix epic "Love Like a Sunset" for a few scenes.
Click on to read our Q&A with Coppola, who talked about her soundtrack strategy forSomewhere, her movie-music influences, and using pop songs to make things feel more real:
Pitchfork: How did you go about picking the songs that ended up in Somewhere?
Sofia Coppola: When I was working on the music for this I didn't want to just use pop songs as the score-- most movies do it and I've done it before. And I didn't just want something cool. Instead, I wanted the characters to really be listening to music, so I picked things that would be believable and suit the emotional side of the scene.
Pitchfork: At this point you're known for making cool soundtracks. Were you reacting to that idea with the use of music in this film?
SC: Yeah. Also, so many movies just have wall-to-wall pop songs, which is something I definitely indulged in for Marie Antoinette. But after that I was getting sick of how you get bombarded by so many songs in movies. With the whole style of Somewhere, I wanted to use music sparingly. So I tried to use as little music as I could, but it's still an element that I find important. So Phoenix did this minimal score, and I used songs intermittently instead of having them all the time. I wanted you to feel like you were alone with this guy and in their world. And hopefully it becomes more noticeable because there's not as much. You don't just tune it out.
Also, we never made a soundtrack album for this movie. I always try to make the soundtrack a good CD on its own and, with this one, I felt like the music worked with the movie but it would be kind of all over the place as an album.
Pitchfork: Whenever you're listening to music, is part of your brain thinking, "Oh, this would be really good for one of my films"?
SC: You know when you get into a song and listen to it over and over again? When I'm writing I get in a certain mood and the songs I'm listening to usually relate to the story or end up being in the movie. Like, I was listening to Bryan Ferry's [version of] "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" a lot when I was writing and it just had a mood to it that I liked. So we used it in the end credits.
But generally I just pick music that I like. That's the part I really enjoy: When I get permission for the songs I want and put them into the scenes. It's always hard when you're doing a low-budget film, so it's great when you can get all the music you want to get.
Pitchfork: There's a scene in the movie where one of the waiters in the Chateau Marmont serenades Johnny and Cleo. Does that guy really work there?
SC: Oh, Romulo. He's an old waiter who's been there forever. Years ago, he would get out his guitar and play songs. And it was always so sweet and such a contrast to the kind of showbiz people who stayed there. There's something so sincere and sweet about him. I remembered being jet-lagged and getting in late one night and him playing for me.
I asked a lot of people that work at the Chateau Marmont to do little parts in the movie because I was trying to make a portrait of the place and I felt like an actor wouldn't be as good as the real guy.
Pitchfork: Were there any soundtracks you listened to while growing up that made a big impact on you?
SC: As a kid, I remember hearing Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come soundtrack. I don't know if my dad was into it or what, but it's a strong memory.
Pitchfork: Do you have a favorite musical moment in the film?
SC: The sequence with the Strokes song ["I'll Try Anything Once"] is one of my favorites. I love that song and the mood it adds to that moment.
Watch the Somewhere trailer featuring Phoenix's "Love Like a Sunset" and the Strokes' "I'll Try Anything Once":
