American Zoetrope (USA): 21

Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, On the Rocks (2020) is an American comedy-drama film. Laura and Dean reside in Manhattan with their two daughters, Maya and Theo. Laura, a novelist, is struggling to finish her latest book while Dean, a successful entrepreneur at a burgeoning tech start-up, frequently travels for work and is surrounded by young and attractive colleagues. This leaves Laura in charge of their children. One night, upon returning from another business trip, Dean climbs into bed and passionately kisses Laura. However, when he realizes it’s her, he abruptly stops and falls asleep, leaving Laura ...

Sofia Coppola’s film The Beguiled (2017) is a Southern Gothic psychological thriller, based on Thomas P. Cullinan’s novel of the same name from 1966. It is the second adaptation of Cullinan’s novel, following Don Siegel’s 1971 film. Set during the Civil War in Virginia, it follows Martha Farnsworth who runs a girls’ school with only five students and one teacher, Edwina Morrow, remaining after almost everyone has left including the slaves. While searching for mushrooms in the woods, pupil Amy ...

The crime film, The Bling Ring (2013), was written and directed by Sofia Coppola. After quietly transferring to Indian Hills High School in Agoura Hills, California, Marc Hall is quickly befriended by Rebecca Ahn, who has an unhealthy obsession with fame. Despite his reservations, Marc agrees to accompany Rebecca on her thieving ventures, where they target unlocked cars for cash and credit cards. As they continue to hang out after school, Marc begins to view Rebecca as a sisterly figure. One day, she asks if he knows anyone who is out of town and he suggests a wealthy acquaintance currently in Jamaica. Persuaded by ...

Somewhere (2010) is a film written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It tells the story of Johnny Marco, a newly famous actor recovering from an injury at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. The opening scene features a black Ferrari speeding around a desert race track before coming to a stop and revealing Johnny Marco stepping out. Despite his rise to fame, he feels unfulfilled in his daily life as a recently divorced actor. He resides at the Chateau Marmont, nursing his broken wrist in a plaster cast. While he occasionally drinks and socializes with his childhood friend Sammy, also an actor, Marco spends most of his time ...

Tetro (2009) is a drama film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. On the week of his 18th birthday, Bennie, a waiter on a cruise ship, has a layover in Buenos Aires. He seeks out his older brother, Tetro, who he hasn’t seen in years and currently lives with Miranda. However, Tetro is a burnt-out case; he’s emotionally distant yet somewhat welcoming to his sibling. As they reconnect, Bennie uncovers pages of Tetro’s unfinished novel, which sparks their curiosity about their elusive father and the past that haunts them both. Despite Tetro’s reluctance to confront their family ...

Francis Ford Coppola wrote, produced, and directed Youth Without Youth (2007), a fantasy drama based on Mircea Eliade’s novella of the same name. The film follows Dominic Matei, a 70-year-old linguistics professor who is still longing for his lost love, Laura. He decides to revisit Bucharest, where they first met in university. Feeling like his quest for the origins of human language has been futile and solitary, Dominic plans to end his life after this final trip. However, as he crosses the street, he suddenly gets struck by lightning but miraculously survives. At ...

Sofia Coppola wrote and directed a historical drama film Marie Antoinett (2006) centered around the life of Queen Marie Antoinette. The youngest daughter of Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, fourteen-year-old Maria Antonia, is described as a beautiful, charming, and naïve archduchess. In order to unite two rival countries, her mother arranges for her to marry Louis-Auguste, the Dauphin of France. Upon arriving in France and taking on the name Marie Antoinette, she meets King Louis XV and her future husband. Their wedding takes place immediately upon their arrival at the Palace of Versailles. The couple is expected to ...

The American spy film, The Good Shepherd (2006), was both produced and directed by Robert De Niro. Following the disastrous end of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, suspicions arise about a potential ‘mole’ within the CIA. Senior officer Edward Wilson returns home to find a photograph and audio tapes that have been tampered with, leaving some details unclear. Flashing back to his time at Yale University in 1939, Wilson is invited to join the Skull and Bones fraternity where he reveals that he discovered but never read his father’s suicide note. His father, an admiral who had been considered for ...

Kinsey (2004) is a biographical drama film written and directed by Bill Condon, exploring the life of Alfred Charles Kinsey, a pioneer in the field of sexology. The movie follows Professor Kinsey as he discusses his sexual history, while also delving into flashbacks from his childhood and young adulthood. These flashbacks show the strict views of his father, a lay minister who believed modern inventions led to sin, and how this affected Kinsey’s upbringing. As a teenager, he faced humiliation for being exposed to cigarettes and later disappoints his father with his chosen career path. The adult Kinsey becomes a ...

Sofia Coppola’s romantic comedy-drama, Lost in Translation (2003), follows the story of Bob Harris, a fading American movie star. In pursuit of lucrative advertisements for Suntory’s Hibiki whisky, Bob finds himself in Tokyo staying at the luxurious Park Hyatt hotel. However, his stay is plagued by personal issues within his 25-year marriage and a midlife crisis. Charlotte, also an American and guest at the hotel, is accompanying her husband John who works as a celebrity photographer. As a young Yale graduate in philosophy, Charlotte too is struggling with disillusionment towards her marriage and concerns ...

Tim Burton’s gothic supernatural horror film, Sleepy Hollow (1999), is a loose adaptation of Washington Irving’s short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Set in 1799, the film follows New York City police constable Ichabod Crane as he investigates a string of brutal murders in the upstate Dutch hamlet. Among the insular town elders who receive him are wealthy Baltus Van Tassel, town doctor Thomas Lancaster, Reverend Steenwyck, notary James Hardenbrook, and magistrate Samuel Philipse. According to local beliefs, the killer is an undead headless ...

Sofia Coppola’s film, The Virgin Suicides (1999), follows a group of men in Grosse Pointe, Michigan as they reflect on their memories of the enigmatic Lisbon sisters. These five teenage girls are a point of fascination and longing for the neighborhood boys, who remember them from their youth. The Lisbon sisters, Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia, were unattainable due to their strict Catholic parents and were often the subject of the boys’ conversations and dreams. After Cecilia’s suicide attempt, her therapist suggests that she could benefit from more social interaction with boys her age. ...

The American legal drama film, The Rainmaker (1997), was both written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It is based on the 1995 novel of the same name by John Grisham. Unlike many other graduates from Memphis State University Law School, Rudy Baylor finds himself without a well-paying job and instead takes on part-time positions at a local bar. In dire need of employment, he meets the bar’s owner, J. Lyman ‘Bruiser’ Stone, who is known for being a ruthless but successful ambulance chaser. After hiring Rudy as an associate, Bruiser explains that ...

Jack (1996), an American coming-of-age comedy-drama film, was co-produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. At a costume party, Karen Powell unexpectedly goes into labor and is quickly taken to the hospital by her husband Brian and their companions. Strangely, Jack appears to be a full-term healthy baby despite being born in just the 10th week of gestation. Further medical examinations reveal that Jack suffers from a rare condition causing him to grow four times faster than average. By the time he is ten years old, Jack already has the physical appearance of a 40-year-old man. One day, some boys come to his house ...

Don Juan DeMarco (1995) is an American romantic comedy-drama film starring Johnny Depp as John Arnold DeMarco, a 21-year-old man who truly believes he is Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world. He dresses like Zorro with a similar mask, hat, and cape, and even goes by the name Don Juan. However, his passionate affair leads him to contemplate suicide. Psychiatrist Jack Mickler intervenes at the billboard where John plans to take his life by pretending to be Don Octavio de Flores. As a result, John is held for a ten-day evaluation at a mental institution. Without medicating him, Mickler conducts the evaluation before ...

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), an American vampire horror film, was produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and written by James V. Hart. It is based on Stoker’s classic 1897 novel of the same name. The story follows Vlad Dracula, who returns from a victorious battle against the Ottoman Empire in 1462 to find his beloved wife, Elisabeta, dead. He is told by a priest that her soul is condemned for committing suicide. Outraged, Vlad renounces Christianity and vows to avenge Elisabeta with the powers of ...

Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) is a biographical comedy-drama movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Detroit’s Preston Tucker harbored a passion for car-making since his youth. During the Second World War, he created an armored vehicle for the military and earned profits producing gun turrets for planes in a small workshop near his Ypsilanti residence. With the unwavering support of his extended family, especially his wife Vera, children Preston Jr., Noble, and Marilyn Lee, Tucker embarks on a mission to create the ‘car of tomorrow’. The ‘Tucker Torpedo’ boasts groundbreaking safety ...

The American epic war film, Apocalypse Now (1979), was produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It begins in Saigon, South Vietnam in late 1969 where U.S. Army Captain and special operations veteran Benjamin L. Willard has returned on another combat tour during the Vietnam War. He openly admits that he is unable to readjust to society in the USA and shares that his marriage has ended. In his room, he drinks heavily, chain-smokes, and experiences hallucinations alone until one day when he becomes upset and injures himself by shattering a large mirror. Soon after, two military policemen arrive to escort him to an ...

The American epic crime film, The Godfather Part II (1974), was produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Loosely based on the novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Coppola, it serves as both a sequel and a prequel to the 1972 film of the same name. In parallel storylines, one follows Michael Corleone in 1958 as he takes on his role as Don of the Corleone family after surviving an assassination attempt. The other delves into his father Vito’s journey from his childhood ...

The American neo-noir mystery thriller film, The Conversation (1974), was written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It follows the story of Harry Caul, a surveillance expert in San Francisco who specializes in wiretapping services. His latest client, known only as ‘the Director’, hires him and his team to eavesdrop on a couple walking through Union Square. Despite the challenge of background noise, Caul skillfully filters and merges the tapes to create a clear recording with an ambiguous message. He is known for being extremely private and guarded about his personal life and carries a heavy ...