Somewhere

Welcome to the Chateau Marmont, the notorious Sunset Boulevard hotel where stars have been escaping the world since 1931. Having practically grown up in such hotels herself, Sofia Coppola was granted an insider’s unique opportunity to film her 2010 feature SOMEWHERE on the premises. She bypasses the usual glitz to focus on the raw, languid boredom that lingers once the cameras stop rolling.

The film follows actor Johnny Marco, who, after a drunken tumble down the stairs, is forced to recuperate in his hotel suite. While Ferraris and pole-dancing twins fill his days, Coppola depicts a man so numbed by his own success that he nonchalantly falls asleep during his own private entertainment. It is a sobering portrait of existential emptiness: a life in a gilded cage where excitement has given way to total apathy.

Coppola drew from her own experiences as the daughter of THE GODFATHER director Francis Ford Coppola. Comparing her upbringing on film sets and in hotels to a traveling circus, she understands better than anyone how lonely such apparent luxury can be. With SOMEWHERE, she captures this alienation and forces us to ask what remains when the constant noise of distraction fades away. Is there anyone who can save the listless Johnny from his apathy?