Lost in Translation

(Paperback)

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Description

Sofia Coppolas Lost in Translation (2003) brings two Americans together in Tokyo, each experiencing a personal crisis. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a recent graduate in philosophy, faces an uncertain professional future, while Bob Harris (Bill Murray), an established celebrity, questions his choices at midlife. Both are distant emotionally and spatially from their spouses. They are lost until they develop an intimate connection. In the films poignant, famously ambiguous closing scene, they find each other, only to separate. In this close look at the multi-award-winning film, Suzanne Ferriss mirrors Lost in Translations structuring device of travel: her analysis takes the form of a trip, from planning to departure. She details the complexities of filming (a 27-day shoot with no permits in Tokyo), explores Coppolas allusions to fine art, subtle colour palette and use of music over words, and examines the characters experiences of the Park Hyatt Tokyo and excursions outside, together and alone. She also re-evaluates the film in relation to Coppolas other features, as the product of an established director with a distinctive cinematic signature: Coppolism. Fundamentally, Ferriss argues that Lost in Translation is not only a cinema classic, but classic Coppola too.

Reviews

Ferriss finds precision amid ambiguity in her acute study of Sofia Coppola's second feature. . . . Sharp on the movie-wise banter between Bob and Charlotte, she's equally sensitive to the film's unspoken, unresolved feelings: in Ferriss' reading, Lost unfolds like a pop song, its fragments charged with lingering feeling. * Total Film *

Author Bio

Suzanne Ferriss is Professor Emeritus at Nova Southeastern University, USA. She has published extensively on fashion, film and cultural studies, and is the author of The Cinema of Sofia Coppola (2021). She is currently editing The Bloomsbury Handbook to Sofia Coppola.