Sofia Coppola's empathy for movie-star loneliness (Feature)

By Peter Mayer Sep 3, 2010, 17:51 GMT

Venice, Italy - Amid the parties, the fast women and the fast cars, the life of a Hollywood heart-throb can be a lonely one, Sofia Coppola suggests in her latest film, Somewhere, which premiered Friday at the Venice Film Festival.

Protagonist Johnny Marco, played by Stephen Dorff, is seen in the film's opening scene speeding round and round a track in his black Ferrari - apparently going nowhere.

For him, the supposed high-life revolves around his residence - a suite at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont Hotel, home to many an up-and- coming film star.

Similar to the casual sex he frequently indulges in and the pills he often pops, it is an existence seemingly devoid of any significance.

But the boredom - which the film accentuates with long camera takes of Marco doing little more than lighting and smoking a cigarette or drinking beer - is broken when his 11-year-old daughter, the spirited Chloe, played by Ellen Fanning, comes to stay with him.

As in 2003's Lost In Translation, which won the 39 year-old filmmaker an Oscar for the screenplay, Coppola sets a lot of the action in a hotel - a location which, she says, can capture the changes going through people's lives.

'We spent a lot of time going out, living in hotels when we were on (film) location with my dad,' Coppola said, referring to her childhood memories of her father, Francis Ford Coppola, famous for films such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.

'I always find when you are living in a hotel, it's like a world in itself,' she added.

Coppola was speaking at a news conference in Venice after a much applauded press screening of her movie.

Dorff said the film, which was also written by Coppola, realistically portrays the isolation felt by many high-profile actors, especially those tasting success for the first time.

Despite his relatively long experience in the limelight, the 37- year-old Dorff said he still feels a certain sense of loneliness when, as with the making of Somewhere, 'we all work together for three months and then it ends.'

For Marco, maturity comes through bonding with his daughter after she gets to spend a longer time with him than usual, due to her mother's unspecified absence.

This period is punctuated by a junket trip to Italy, where Marco appears as the guest of honour on a cheesy song-and-dance television awards show.

'The glitz contrasts with the relationship between Johnny and his daughter. He finds someone real in a world not made of real things,' Coppola said, explaining that from then on, Marco's life takes a new direction.

'It is about becoming a man,' Dorff added.

The Venice Film Festival runs until September 11.