Stephen Dorff plays a faded star moldering in the Chateau Marmont, whose daughter turns up one day.

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Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) acts in movies he's not really proud of, sleeps with women whose names he often doesn't know and falls asleep during a private show given him by strippers he's ordered in. His not very fulfilled life is brought in sharp relief when his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) moves into the Chateau Marmont for more than just a weekend.

Whether jury president and close friend Quentin Tarantino really played a great part in awarding the Golden Lion to Sofia Coppola in Venice this year becomes a moot question once one has seen her new film Somewhere. Because the nonchalance and warmth with which she places in a new context familiar themes like loneliness in hotel rooms, unexpected relationships between two people and the banality of show business is unquestionably worthy of an award.