Roman Coppola: Redefining the Romantic Comedy

Last summer’s Oscar-nominated hit Moonrise Kingdom is a perfect example of the importance of storytelling in film. How one tells a story determines how one makes a film, and Roman Coppola has spent the past few years mastering (and re-mastering) the art of storytelling, as he worked on the scripts for Moonrise Kingdom and The Darjeeling Limited alongside writer/director Wes Anderson. Interestingly enough, the illustrated Moonrise Kingdom script was recently released, and it offers a glimpse inside that unforgettable world of young love, adventure and fantasy. Although Coppola has written another script with similar themes, we can expect a completely different style of execution, since he will be donning the director’s hat in the effort. A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III is Coppola’s second feature film (CQ was released in 2001), and, in discussing his approach to this new story with Paste, he offers us a glimpse inside of his own mind, where fantasy meets biography (and often autobiography), and the romantic comedy gets a few new twists.

Paste: Everyone will have certain expectations of A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, and those expectations will be based on the work we’ve seen you do with Wes Anderson, and also what we’ve seen from actors like Charlie Sheen and Jason Schwartzman. How will the movie fit in with some of those expectations and how, do you think, it will deviate from them or surprise some of us?
Coppola: It’s an interesting question and a hard one to answer because expectations are so hard to anticipate. People have been asking me if the film’s based on Charlie Sheen. You know, it’s about a guy who’s dealing with a breakup. And Charlie very much embodies the role. I cast him for a reason. He’s got a lot of charm and wit, and certain qualities that were very much like Charles Swan. At the same time, the two men are vastly different. So I would say the film is more of an invitation. I invite people to see how much these things relate to the real Charlie Sheen or not.

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Also, in terms of what people can expect, my movie is kind of unusual. It’s a story of a breakup seen through this guy’s point of view, and this guy happens to have a wild imagination. It’s kind of kaleidoscopic. There are some fantasy sequences, time is slightly distorted, and it’s meant to resemble the sensation of breaking up with someone. It’s a little bit of a wild ride.

Paste: Last time Paste talked to you, when Moonrise Kingdom first came out, you discussed working with Anderson, and how it’s very pragmatic and very practical. Did you find yourself taking a similar approach with this project?
Coppola: With Wes, it’s awfully practical. With me, there was a bit more daydreaming. My script took me seven or eight years to really figure out. I knew I wanted to make a story about a really outlandish character who was sort of balls out and very imaginative, and also didn’t have his shit together [laughs]. I wanted it to be very free. If I wanted to have a dance scene, then there’d be a dance scene. If I wanted him to speak Portuguese, why not? That was sort of the preface—anything goes! But within that, you need to have a certain shape and form.

Paste: How did that style affect the development of this character, Charles Swan?
Coppola: I’d ask myself about the character—what kind of car would he drive? And I’d think, well, he’d probably drive an old Cadillac, a 1941 Cadillac two-door fastback. Great design! But being a graphic designer, would he just let the car be normal, or would he put some decoration on it? Well, he’d probably paint it. And what would he paint on it? How ’bout fried eggs and bacon? [laughs]

So I’d use this kind of free associative, daydreaming style. It’s less thematic and more about filling in the blanks using fantasy and free association.

Paste: I know that the movie was inspired by Charles White III, a sort of hero of yours. Will people who are familiar with his work actually see any of his influence in the movie?
Coppola: Definitely! His work actually appears in the movie, and the whole film is kind of in the style of his work. Anyone familiar with his work or that type of art will get the connection. He was more of a spiritual inspiration, if that makes any sense. He’s an iconic guy in the world of graphic design, and I love his verve, and his name is so cool, so I had to use that [laughs]. But it’s not really based on him as a person, it’s based on the imagery.

Paste: That makes sense. Now Jason Schwartzman’s character, Jack, in The Darjeeling Limited is a favorite of mine for a lot of reasons. I like that, as a writer, he shows us that there’s a thin line between what is familiar to us and what is fictional. Until the end of the film, he tries to convince his brothers that all of his characters are fictional, even though we know that’s not entirely true. When you’re creating—and perhaps being informed by your own familial relationships and life experiences—do you pay attention to the blurring of the line between your real life and your characters, or between what is autobiographical and fiction?

Coppola: With Moonrise Kingdom, people would ask Wes and me, “Did this ever happen to you?” and the answer was “No.” But we wished it had! We’d both been boys. You’re 12 years old, and you have a crush on a girl—what would you want more than anything? You’d probably want to be a khaki scout, and to go have an adventure with that girl. So a story can be autobiographical and very personal because it comes from your fantasy life and from textures and elements of your life. For example, yes, I would have a toucan, but no, I don’t in real life—I say this because my character now has a toucan [laughs].

A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III is about a breakup, and I have experienced a breakup. So yes, it’s autobiographical for me, but one also hopes that it will be the same for the audience.

Paste: Being set in the ’70s, I expect the movie might lend itself to a pretty sweet soundtrack. Can you talk a bit about the music of the film?
Coppola: The soundtrack is actually a huge part of the movie, and I’m glad you asked about it. It’s interesting because I’ve never said—or admitted—that the movie is set in the ’70s [laughs]. So there’s no precision as to when it’s actually set. But the soundtrack was made possible largely through the work of an artist named Liam Hayes. He’s an amazing talent, and he was very much a partner in this work. I wrote the movie to his music; his songs and lyrics were the sound of the movie before there was a movie, so I was very blessed to be able to work with him. I used a lot of tracks from his other records, and he also built new songs for the film.

Shannon Mariama Houston is patiently awaiting the debut of a Scorsese-directed film, written by Charlie Kaufman, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio … with a brief cameo by Lil Wayne. She looks forward to writing the review of said film (Gangs of Synecdoche, New York) from her home in Nyack, in between an obscene amount of diaper-changing and brownie-baking. (She will be sure to wash her hands before returning to her work as a freelance writer for Paste and full-time writer at Pink Is The New Blog).