Sofia Coppola's personal experiences and intimate familiarity with the inner celebrity workings of Hollywood suffuse "Somewhere." Here, we provide a scene-by-scene guide to spotting specific Coppola family references that helped inform the action:
In the film's opening, Johnny tools around a racetrack in his Ferrari at top speed. And toward the end of "Somewhere," he drives daughter Cleo to Las Vegas for the night in the sleek vehicle, taking off the following morning — literally — in a helicopter to drop her at summer camp. Turns out those scenes were informed by Coppola's cousin Nicolas Cage's penchant for luxury autos and her father's love of the grand gesture. "I thought of the Ferrari because [Cage] had a bunch of sports cars, and I thought he'd have to take them to a track because you can't really just drive them around," the filmmaker said. "Renting a helicopter for a day is something my dad would do. He has that over-the-top sense of fun."
For a sequence in which Johnny impulsively spirits Cleo off to Milan, Italy, to attend the country's prestigious Telegatto Awards and promote his schlocky action blockbuster-within-a-film "Berlin Agenda," Sofia set the action in the same opulent suite at the five-star Hotel Principe di Savoia (complete with indoor swimming pool) in which she had stayed with her family. "I went to that hotel and awards show with my parents and brothers about eight years ago," she said. "It was so not like anything I had seen before — so over the top."
