![]() Bob's petulance perfectly matches Charlotte's. It's she who has to tell him he's having "a mid-life crisis." The irony works as humor because Bob is played by Bill Murray, who is a good enough actor to even make fatigue seem funny. She finds a soulmate in Bob by recognizing his restlessness. Charlotte wears ennui like a wardrobe accessory?or more precisely, as a flimsy foundation garment. Lost in Translation sentimentalizes female dissatisfaction and avoids rooting its causes in politics or social customs. (If Coppola were any more erotically empathetic, she'd shoot in Smell-O-Vision.) Coppola achieves this regression of sexual politics in Lost in Translation by concocting a platonic May-December romance between Charlotte and Bob Harris, a cynical, bored, internationally known American actor also in Tokyo shooting a series of television commercials for Suntory whiskey.Ĭoppola understands that today's young females have no use for the old-fashioned feminist platitudes (thanks to Madonna and now Britney and Christina). It's hard to think of other filmmakers who tried this hard to make a virtue of privileged-girl petulance or other films by women that so evidently bought into patriarchy and the male point of view. "Get her!" would be the normal, sarcastic response, but Coppola obviously wants us to dig her?and take Charlotte's luxurious dilemma to heart.Īlthough I defend Sofia Coppola's performance as Mary, the cosseted Italian-American princess in the criminally undervalued The Godfather, Part III, her recent turns at film directing suggest that she wasn't really acting. As Charlotte, Johansson plays a 25-year-old into the second year of her marriage to a hip photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) she's accompanied him on a business trip to Tokyo, but there's nothing for her to do except feel lonely and look dewy. But below the surface is a soul in turmoil. (Her first film was the enervating, filigreed yet somber The Virgin Suicides.) That's Scarlett Johansson's rump we're invited to stare at, and the rest of the movie frames delicate close-ups of her lovely pale face, strawberry lips and sunset hair. There's no doubt that Miss Coppola has a self-serving interest in young women's soft spots. But what is it exactly about a delectable tush that gets lost in translation? Wouldn't it depend on who's doing the translating? And what is the correct meaning one is supposed to infer from such a shot? Perhaps director-writer Sofia Coppola is shrewd enough to know that this is exactly the trendy stuff that garners one hype as an "original" film artist. Stuff magazine couldn't have asked for more. The three sell words slowly materialize beneath a shot of a young woman's ass sheathed in pink pantyhose. Lost in Translation surely has the year's most puzzling title sequence. Or was there a method behind the madness? I'm willing to buy that it was a coincidence, but it seems interesting that Spike Jonze needed her in order to make the movie work.Lost in Translation Directed by Sofia Coppola Was the last minute addition of Scarlett Johansson just a complete coincidence? After all, she does have a very distinctive voice. Scarlett did most of her scenes while they were in post-production. But apparently, Morton did not have the right kind of chemistry that was needed for the role and Jonze decided to go with Scarlett Johansson instead. The part of Samantha was played by actress Samantha Morton, at first. Shortly after Her came out, it was discovered that Scarlett Johansson wasn't supposed to be in the film originally. She is the ultimate link between these two films and their directors. Her "appearance" in Spike Jonze's film is what made me think of Lost in Translation almost immediately. In Lost in Translation, she plays a much more passive, quiet character who does not get out of her shell until Bill Murray's character comes along. She manages to give Samantha so much personality and she's very crucial to the movie's success. Somehow, even though we never see her, her presence is most definitely felt whenever she speaks. We never see her face in Her, we can only hear her voice. In Her, she plays the operating system that falls in love with Theodore. In Lost in Translation, she plays Charlotte, a character who's most likely based on writer/director Sofia Coppola's experiences. Scarlett Johansson Here is the most obvious connection between both Lost in Translation and Her: Scarlett Johansson stars in both movies.
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