Roman Coppola assumes his position behind the camera this season with Happy Holidays, a short film for Montblanc. The short returns to the whimsical world that Coppola, along with his co-director Wes Anderson, conjured earlier this year in a feature-length film for the iconic pen company. In this solo endeavor, Coppola transports his cast (Rupert Friend, Waris Ahluwalia, and Joey King among them) to the enchanting Montblanc Observatory High-Mountain Library, where parcels filled with specialty Montblanc wares stand at the ready for a round of gift-giving.
Coppola sat down with CULTURED to discuss the project, the art of improvisation, and the art of asserting your own taste.
This is your third film in the Montblanc cinematic universe. How do you balance your own visual style with Wes Anderson’s very distinctive aesthetic?
Roman Coppola: It’s hard to describe. The work with Wes very much follows his style and structure: the short stories, the way the shots were framed, etc. The work I supervised for Happy Holidays was more loose and playful—short-form, with a sparkle of the unexpected. It’s less story-oriented, and there’s no dialogue. We wanted to evoke the spirit of a Christmas party—in a playful way—while making the most of the actors’ ability to improvise.
What was the feeling you were trying to evoke?
Coppola: We wanted a feeling of play, to explore the unexpected. The holidays are about celebration. Music, dancing, and gifting—these are all cues that, we hope, would be a wonderful, authentic way to tell our story.
The cast reunites familiar faces and adds new ones. What was the dynamic on set?
Coppola: I really relied on the actors to fill in the blanks—all of them came to the table with ideas. We played music, and it was quite a playful atmosphere on set.
in your life?
