In her film Somewhere, Sofia Coppola neatly conveys the ennui of the life of main character Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) just a few minutes into the picture when he falls asleep to the erotic pole dancing of twins, this wild fantasy neither stimulating nor satisfying him. The pole dancing identical duo Bambi and Cindy are portrayed by real-life twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon respectively and the humor of their brief scenes is a tribute to the wit of Sofia Coppola. In their first appearance on screen, the twins wear candy striper uniforms, admittedly a bit shorter than regulation issue as evidenced by more than a glimpse of their thongs, and they gravitate to "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters for even greater ironic effect. But the synchronized shimmy of the twins up and down their shiny poles is not enough to keep Dorff awake, even in four inch heels. I especially love that Sofia allows the camera to linger on the twins after they end their routine, packing their poles into identical gym bags, the nondescript sacks in no way suggesting their sexy content now stripped from the scene.
Later in the film, the twins return to Johnny Marco's room at Chateau Marmont for a repeat performance, this time dancing to "1 Thing" by Amerie clad in matching tennis whites complete with sporty ponytails and racquets. But again the scene exudes humor rather than sexuality. As ELLE noted in their Women in Hollywood Issue in November 2010: "Coppola's sense of humor shines through in all her movies. She's particularly witty about female sexiness. Think of the lushly pubescent Kirsten Dunst gazing at us obviously as she licks a Popsicle in Coppola's first feature, The Virgin Suicides; or the camera's slow survey of a horizontal Scarlett Johansson's cashmere-clad back and translucent pink panties in the opening of Lost in Translation; or Dunst in Marie Antoinette, eagerly climbing on top of her lover in her white stockings, fulfilling a real desire. But for outright hilarity, you can't beat the pole-dancing Shannon twins in Somewhere, who entertain action star Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), who's weathering a divorce at the Chateau Marmont. They're clad so scantily that they should come across as pornographic, but they're also so bright-eyed and beaming that their naughtiest move — flipping their bums up and down — looks less dirty than double-jointed. 'I wanted more of a cheerleader quality than the big-boob, supersexual thing,' Coppola says. 'I'm a bit of a prude, but the twins, they're gung ho. They were fun to have around.'"
When Sofia picked the bright-eyed and beaming but not (yet) big-boobed Shannon twins for their performance in Somewhere, they were living with Hugh Hefner at his Playboy mansion while starring in a reality show about the experience, The Girls Next Door. How did Sofia discover the twins? Kristina Shannon shared: "She just went on the computer and Googled twins and me and Karissa's pictures popped up. We're like the only hot twins out there besides the Olsen twins." Yet while the twins provide comic relief, it is not Sofia's intention to make them the butt of her joke but to attend to nuance in her own special way. Salon.com appreciates the director's gift for nuance as well: "Richard Beggs is Sofia Coppola's longtime sound designer (her dad uses him too) and the squeaking of the twins' hands on their portable poles is a very Beggsian touch. His sound design is always a thoughtful mix of the authentic and the poetic, and there's something about the prominence of that squeaking that makes me think he included it as more than just a realistic detail. It gives the twins some humanity. It calls attention to their hands. They're working. That sound makes it harder to objectify them, even though they're inviting us to do just that."
As for the songs that Sofia Coppola chose for the twins to dance to, she explained: "I wanted it to be music which was believable and had the right feeling — that they would bring, not something obscure. So, yeah, we had a boom box. The first song was Foo Fighters’ 'My Hero,' which I thought was funny because Johnny has broken his arm and they’re dancing as candy stripers to cheer him up. The second one, with their sassy tennis routine, was Amerie’s '1 Thing,' which had the right spirit to it." She also felt the Shannon twins had the right spirit: "I had the idea that Johnny gets twins, like room service, all the time. I met with a bunch of different twins, but the Shannon twins were great — so enthusiastic, with a cuteness to them. They would light up the room when they came in."
How did the twins feel about their experience filming Somewhere? Karissa Shannon exclaimed: "It was really good. Sofia made us feel really comfortable on the set. We definitely want to do more of it. It was a really good experience. It was great to work with Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning and a great director like Sofia, an Academy Award-winner… Sofia's someone I look up to, between her style and what she does with a camera. Sofia's movies are more pretty scenes, like a painting with content." In a strange twist, Sofia Coppola ended up hanging out at the Playboy Mansion and even did a cameo in The Girls Next Door as a result of casting the Shannon twins in her film! As she recounts: "We had to go to the Mansion when they were rehearsing. The staff told us, 'They’re filming the show [The Girls Next Door], so you’re going to have to be on it if you come see them.' It wasn’t a goal for me to be on that show, but… it was fun to visit the Mansion and see them in their element.'" Well played, Sofia Coppola.
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Karissa and Kristina Shannon photographs courtesy of instagram.com and American Zoetrope.
mercredi 1 janvier 2014 
