Even if you haven't heard of the new movie Palo Alto, you probably recognize the name of its director, Gia Coppola -- the granddaughter of director Francis Ford Coppola, the niece of actress/writer/producer/director Sofia Coppola, and cousin of Nicolas Cage.
Based on James Franco's book of short stories by the same name, Palo Alto is Coppola's first film.
"I was sort of turned off by the idea [of directing]," Coppola says. "I didn't really want to go into my family's world like that. It seemed like too much pressure."
However, Coppola had been into photography for a long time, and filmography seemed like the next step.
"I got into short films because it was everything I enjoyed in one medium," Coppola says. "James set the tone so I could be free with it and work with my peers, and the pressure just kind of dropped away."
She adds that, "Movies are fun because they give you opportunities to experience new places and do research in fields that you never would have thought of."
Drawing inspiration for Palo Alto from Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused , George Lucas's American Graffiti, and Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show -- as well as from Coppola family-directed films -- Palo Alto is unique because of its vignette-style method of demonstrating teenage life, and also because of its eclectic mix of cast and crew.
The film's cast and crew features several very well-known actors -- such as James Franco who plays a cradle-robbing soccer coach in the film, and Emma Roberts, who plays the central character -- and also some newcomers, such as Jack Kilmer, who plays another central character, and of course, Coppola.
Coppola has known Kilmer since he was a child, and thought he was "just much more interesting to me than these child actors that I was meeting," she says.
Coppola and Franco met "really randomly," Coppola says. "I saw him at a deli in Los Angeles, and then I saw him at a party the same day, and we stayed in touch. I sent him all my photography and he really liked it, and we wanted to collaborate in some way, so I read the book with that intention."
The movie stays true to the book's dark vignette format by having almost every scene be like a separate story, as fleeting and random as the high school moments of partying and heartbreak that it portrays.
"I really loved the book because it captured what it's like to be a teenager in an authentic way, which I hadn't seen in a long time," Coppola says. "I was excited by the opportunity to be able to tell that story, because I felt like the teenagers in movies today are older and their hair and makeup and clothes aren't true to what its really like out there."
Franco's book is based on experiences he and his peers had growing up in Palo Alto, CA. Although Coppola grew up in L.A., her family is from Napa Valley, so she was able to capture the feeling of being a high school kid in a small town and transfer it to the screen.
"There are moments in [the book] that I didn't relate to personally, but I felt that they were very important stories to tell, and that it's important for me to challenge myself and figure out how to make it work for me creatively," Coppola says. "It's important not to be afraid of something that feels outside of your comfort zone, but to try to embrace it and figure out how to make it work within your range."
Palo Alto hits theaters on Friday, May 16.
Comments are closed.
