This document discusses Gia Coppola's 2013 film Palo Alto, which is an adaptation of James Franco's short story collection of the same name. The film takes elements from several of the stories in the collection and weaves them together into a cohesive narrative focused on the perspectives and experiences of young female characters. While drawing inspiration from the source material, Coppola made adjustments to the stories, combining characters and events to create a single cinematic story rather than a series of vignettes. Direct references are also made to other films depicting adolescence.

1. Palo Alto (Gia Coppola, 2013)
Dr Steve Gaunson
Textual Crossings
RMIT University

2. Analogy adaptation — These are often
'inspired by' or 'based on' adaptations.
• Short Cuts (Robert Altman) working a number
of short stories into one coherent narrative
– Raymond Carver
– Character centered
– Characters lead the way
– Plot is based on character decisions
• The Short Cuts structure informs this movie

3. Celebration: Heavy reluctance to change the exact
words or sentiment of the source.
• “I read the book and loved it. So that’s the project we
decided to pursue together”
– Franco helped with direction of camera set-ups
– Acted in the film
• This eroded any chance of the film being critical of the
source material
• “One of the features of James’s book that really struck
me was how capable he was of conveying the young
female perspective—so often he was dead on”
– Female characters become central to the story

4. Adjustment
Adjusts, changes, and alters the source without losing the sentiment.
• “The “April” story really stood out to me. I loved the longing of the two
characters; they are people who can’t really express their feelings. Plus, it
was a bit of a longer story so there was more for me to work with. I also
loved the dialogue in the "Jack-O" story. I thought it would be a good way
to frame the whole piece with a beginning and end. While those were
the three main stories I took from, I did take elements from the other
stories. Unlike a novel, I had to take bits and pieces from all of Palo Alto:
Stories to make it for the screen”.
• “I Didn’t want a series of vignettes”
• “After I wrote each story in screenplay format, it was much easier for me
to see how I could combine characters and intertwine them into one
cohesive story”

5. Allusion: Directly alludes to many different
cultural contexts.
• Film was shot in the homes of Val Kilmer and Gia
Coppola’s mother
• Makes connections to other ‘serious’ adolescent
films
– The Virgin Suicides (1999): In April's bedroom, a
poster for the film can be seen on her wall.
– Where the Wild Things Are (2009): Teddy imagines
himself in this movie/book and is shown wearing the
costume Max wore and walking in the woods.