It's impossible to imagine the world without the movies of Sofia Coppola, and I think that's a very good thing. Her work has such emotional power and nuance; I'm always happy to hear when she has a new movie out or something is screening.

Recently, she was at The Academy Museum in LA, showing The Virgin Suicides, which is an awesome movie that put her on the map.

But we may not have had that movie without one big risk.

Let's dive in.

Sofia Coppola's Risky Move

If you're ever in LA, you gotta go to the Academy Museum, it's an awesome spot to see movie history, and to me, it's the best movie theater in the world.

At the recent screening of Virgin Suicides, Coppola opened up about her career and the movie that launched it.

Coppola said that she didn't always know she wanted to be a director. She initially went to art school, exploring a variety of interests without settling on just one.

Her whole life had been spent on film sets, so she just got away from it all.

It wasn't until she made a short film that she realized filmmaking was the perfect medium to combine her passions for photography, music, and design.

But then she knew she had to make a feature...

The idea to adapt Jeffrey Eugenides' novel "The Virgin Suicides" came to Coppola after she fell in love with the book. She began writing a screenplay as an experiment, driven by a desire to see the story brought to life in a way that was true to her own vision of what was happening on the page.

She wanted it to be light and funny and also beautiful.

This experiment led her to a finished screenplay she thought was pretty good.

But she still didn't own the rights to the book. She approached the independent producers of the movie and expressed her interest in directing that movie, but her way. Coppola used a reference book filled with images that captured the aesthetic she wanted for the film.

Eventually, people bought in and helped her get the rights to the novel to make her vision come to life.

The film was shot in just 28 days on a shoestring budget.

Producers were concerned about the cost of film and having her as a first-timer, but she insisted on letting the camera roll to capture the perfect emotional tone for certain scenes, especially the ones shot in the bedroom.

She also credits her Director of Photography, Ed Lachman, for his support throughout the process of making her first feature film and for helping her find the look and feel that she wanted the whole time.

Summing It All Up

I love how Coppola bet on herself, even if the idea of adapting something you don't own is a terrible one. She had such a clear vision for the movie and was able to just will her version into existence. I find that to be inspirational.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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