The daughter of the Academy Award-winning director Francis Ford Coppola was in Wine Country this week to host a special screening of “Lost in Translation,” but she wouldn’t tell what words were exchanged between the two main characters at the end of the film.
“That exchange will always be a secret between Bob and Charlotte,” Coppola said with a smile.
The screening was at Cameo Cinema in St. Helena Monday night, and Coppola partnered with St. Supery Estate Vineyards & Winery to host the fundraiser for St. Helena’s Valley Oak High School. The goal was to raise $10,000 to purchase computers.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the film’s original release, and you probably recall the plot – American movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is shooting a commercial in Tokyo while a fellow American named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband. Unable to sleep, Bob and Charlotte cross paths one night in the luxury hotel bar and a fast friendship develops. Together they ultimately discover a new belief in life’s possibilities.
Coppola said when she was growing up on location her father always made filmmaking so intriguing, but she was glad to ultimately create something of her very own. “I grew up with a lot of men making movies so it was fun to make a movie in a very feminine way,” she said.
The film was inspired by Coppola’s impression of Asia during her 20ies. She was developing a clothing brand with friends and spent a great deal of time there.
“I felt like I was in an entirely different world,” she said. “It was so different. It felt like the future … It was just a story I had in my head. I had no idea other people would respond like they did. So stick with what interests you and it will likely interest others.”
Coppola, now a mother of two young girls, said she’s currently working on a screenplay in-between parenting. No plans to join her father the vintner in winemaking just yet.
She fielded plenty of questions before the screening, but was decidedly tight-lipped about that secret exchange was between Bob and Charlotte at the end of the film. I guess when it comes to that raspy communique, we’ll just have to embrace the mystery.
