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Discuss the fabulous movie Lost In Translation!

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#21 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:13 am

"Interview with "Lost in Translation's" Bill Murray

American actor Bill Murray stars as American movie star Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation." Set in Japan, "Lost in Translation" follows two strangers (Murray and Scarlett Johansson), both insomniacs, who meet in a hotel bar and strike up a surprising friendship.

BILL MURRAY INTERVIEW:

Q. What was the biggest challenge in expressing this character's issues?

We've seen a movie where there's a guy who's conflicted and he's married [and] he's away. The thing for anybody who's ever been married and away -- whether you're a man or a woman -- you're married and you're away, so what does that mean? Does that mean you don't meet people? Does that mean you don't talk to them? Does that mean you don't have interchange? Does it mean you don't flirt with them? Does it mean you don't talk to them? Is it wrong to be up in the middle of the night with someone that's not your spouse? Well, if you're 13,000 miles away, all of a sudden it's like what else am I going to do? It sort of comes to that. And then there's this moment where you kind of go, “Oh, we could sort of tumble down and end up complicating things more. Are we going to do that?” Then [it's] like, “Well, I don't know. It's not really on my mind. I'm just sort of lonely, really.” So you go a little further and you spend more time with someone.

As an actor, and as a writer/director, the question is is it going to be very noble here? [Is] this guy going to say, “I just can't call you. We can't share room service anymore?” Is it going to be like that sort of thing, or is it going to be a little more real where they actually get really close to it?

I think there's one interesting scene -- well, there's a lot of interesting scenes -- but there's sort of a tricky scene where they're in the same room and they're watching “8 ½” and they're talking about stuff. I've been in this situation before and I've seen people do it. I've seen other people do it in other movies. I know that you sort of want to, because you're so close to somebody… It's so promising. It would be so easy to do this right now and all I'd have to say is, “My wife is a bitch. My wife is a pain and my kids drive me nuts. I love them but they drive me nuts.” And that, to me, was the moment where, “Okay, how is this guy going to be respectable and not in a politically correct way, but in a way that I can feel like it's true?” It validates all the complication of it. It's going all the way and just saying, “Okay, and there's more to it than this. Even though you're with a beautiful girl and it's the middle of the night in Tokyo, you're never going to be one of my kids. Once you know that, now what are you going to do? Let's get that straight.” Instead of saying, “This is the end of the conversation. I'm not going to walk out the door and slam it or anything. It's just matter of fact. This is who we are.”

I think he's also a guy that ends up having too much to drink and he ends up with a crazy dingbat singer. These are the nightmares that people have. These are the nightmares that people live through. So it's not like he's flawless or anything, but he's trying. He picks his fights and he fights as much as he can, like anybody.

Q. Do you believe there is romance involved in friendship?

I think romance basically starts with respect. And new romance always starts with respect. I think I have some romantic friendships. Like the song “Love the One You're With;” there is something to that. It's not just make love to whomever you're with, it's just love whomever you're with. And love can be seeing that here we are and there's this world here. If I go to my room and I watch TV, I didn't really live. If I stay in my hotel room and watch TV, I didn't live today.

Q. How did you relate to the film's portrayal of celebrity?

It's not just being awake in the middle of the night and being anonymous. It's being awake in the middle of the night with yourself. Without your support, without your buffers, as we call them. Your comfort things, you're laying down. He didn't even have his TV stations. He was trapped. He didn't have his stuff, he didn't have his bedroom, he didn't have his booze, he didn't have his stuff, [and] he didn't have his world. It's just a shock of consciousness where all of a sudden you're stuck with yourself. You're stuck with yourself. That's sort of what Scarlett had, too. “I'm stuck with myself. I don't have my husband. He's off shooting this thing. I have my friends, I'm calling somebody on the phone here and they don't get it. I'm stuck with myself. And there's nobody here that knows me. There's nobody here that cares about me. So who am I when I don't have all my posse, my stuff with me?” That's what it is. When you go to a foreign country, truly foreign, there is a major shock of consciousness that comes on you when you see that, “Oh God, it's just me here.” There's nobody, no neighbors, no friends, no phone calls -- just room service.

Q. Did you improvise with the Japanese comedians?

They found some real oddballs over there. There are really strange people over there and they managed to get ‘em. There are certain rhythms that are the same, no matter whether you know what the words are or not. The inflections and the intention and tone are the same really. Even if you don't know the words a person is using, it's objective rhythms so if you know your rhythms, you can jump in and out. I got some great guys over there. That one guy in the hospital, wow. I should have his home phone number. It was really something else.

Q. Did you have any “Lost in Translation” moments in Japan?

I'd been to Fukuoka. I spent 10 days in Fukuoka with a friend of mine going to a golf tournament down there. We just had fun down there. They make fun of [people from Tokyo] down in Fukuoka. It's like being in the South. They make fun of Tokyo people like Americans make fun of New Yorkers. They're all so uptight. It was always fun down there. I liked being in a place where no one could understand me, the words. It was also nice to be in a place where people don't recognize you, so you have total freedom to behave and [act out] foul impulses that you can't [control]. I don't know if that's ‘lost in translation' or not.

Q. Your character whispers something to Scarlett's character in a crucial scene. Can we know what you said?

You never will.

http://romanticmovies.about.com/cs/lost ... lint_p.htm"
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#22 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:14 am

"Behind-the-Scenes of "Lost in Translation" with Sofia Coppola

Q. Did you always know you'd be able to shoot this in Tokyo? Could you have set it anywhere else?

That was really the starting point for the story. When I had spent time in Tokyo, I thought, “Oh I really want to film this. I love the way the neon at night looks.” That was really the starting point of the story. I never thought about setting it somewhere else.

Q. Why did you go to Tokyo in the first place?

A friend of mine was doing a fashion show and asked me to come help produce it. Then I met that guy Charlie, who sings 'God Save the Queen' [in the movie]. He had a magazine and hired me to do photos so I was going there working for him. It was exciting for me because I was getting to work as a photographer.

I met more people there and just always found it really stimulating, and an interesting place. I kept going back there to do this work over the past eight years, from my early to mid-20s. I go there once a year for the past eight years. As a little kid, I remember going to Japan with my parents. They were interested in Japan and took us to see the temples and all that kind of stuff. That was more of the traditional side.

Q. How does a 30 year-old woman get into the mind of a middle-aged guy going through a mid-life crisis?

I don't know why I wanted to write a story about that. There was something I just was really drawn to. I really wanted to do this story about this guy having a mid-life crisis in Japan where it's already so confusing. But I think that, you know, that early 20s kind of 'what am I going to do with my life?' crisis I felt was similar to the guy having a mid-life crisis. I just related to his character and allowed them to both be kind of going through similar things, but from other ends of the spectrum.

Q. Did you meet with any resistance when you decided to go into the family business?

Yes, but I don't think it was conscious. I think that I went to art school and studied painting… Everyone in my family is in the film business; I knew I wanted to be creative and it was important in my family to be artistic. But I was trying to find my own way [and I] kind of got into film after trying different things.

Q. Did the comedy elements come from Bill Murray improvising or were they in the script?

You know when I was writing it, there were certain situations that I thought were funny, like just misunderstandings, and so I guess that was what I found amusing or funny. And then definitely Bill Murray added a lot to that. Like the photo shoot, that was all improvised.

Q. What about his work on the exercise machine?

Actually that was his idea. When I was writing the script, I was seeing what kinds of things he'd be doing in the middle of the night. [I asked] him if he had any ideas so we could kind of collaborate. He said, "Well, what about the exercise machine?" And then I wrote the scene where he can't understand how to work it -- but that was kind of him going off. One of the things I love is how funny he is. I let him do his thing in that setting.

Q. Did you write that character with Bill Murray in mind?

I did. I was definitely picturing him and I definitely wrote it for him. I couldn't really think of anyone else.

Q. What did he bring to the role?

I think he's a great actor and I wanted to show his romantic side, and also his more sensitive or emotional side. I love his comedy so I wanted that to be part of it, too. I like seeing him in his quiet moments, alone, talking on the phone. [Those moments] are really heartfelt for me.

Q. How did you cast the Japanese actors? Did you write their lines?

Some of them I wrote. The director of the commercial, I wrote that and then someone translated it. A lot of the other stuff was just improvised with real people we found who are actors.

We had a Japanese casting director but also my friend Stephanie, who knows me and has the same kind of sense of humor and knows what I'm looking for, she would just help us by going out [and finding people]. [We needed] a little ancient man for the hospital and she went into a chess club and found that guy. The hospital director was a real hospital director that just looked like such a character, we just had him be in the scene. Everyone was really surprisingly not self-conscious. The character of Charlie who sings karaoke, that's just this guy I've known for years who has a fashion magazine. I asked him to be in it because I always love watching him at karaoke. A lot of people are just people we met and just asked them to be in it.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about casting Scarlett Johansson?

I first noticed her in “Manny and Lo.” I just thought she had a kind of a striking quality and that low, husky voice. There was something unique about her I liked so I wanted to work with her. When I was working on this I wanted to meet with her and see if she would play the part. Although she's younger, you know the character's in her early 20's, I think she pulls it off because she has a sort of maturity. She's not like a hyper kid. I just like the way that she's able to convey feeling without doing much. She' s subtle.

Q. You used Suntory for the commercial. Was that decision made for financial reasons?

No, it wasn't financial. Actually I just wanted to have a real product so it seemed more believable that it was a real commercial. When I was a little kid, my dad and Mr. Kurosawa did a Suntory commercial. I remember seeing a still from it and thought it was funny. That's just from that.

Q. You're surrounded by creative people. Who do you trust to show your movie to first?

When I finish a script, I always show my brother Roman first. We would bounce ideas off each other and have similar taste. I trust [him] completely and [we] like the same kinds of things, the same kinds of movies and stuff. But when I'm editing my early cuts, I like to show my dad. A lot of young filmmakers bring their movies to my dad because he always gives lots of good editing ideas and notes. He'd be a good film professor.

Q. Yes, he would. But since you're his daughter, can he really be objective?

Yes. I mean, on the editing, he's able to look at it through the structure. He has these little editing rules that he thinks are really important: “Clarify things in the beginning.” He has these guidelines that he really believes in. It's great to have an objective point of view because I've looked at it too much and I can't really tell what makes sense and what doesn't. I don't think the fact that I'm his kid [comes into it] you know, because he can brutal. I'll take some of [his suggestions] and then not the others that I don't agree with, because in the end, you just want to make your movie.

http://romanticmovies.about.com/cs/lost ... ofia_2.htm"
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#23 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:14 am

"Lost In Translation

By: Robert J. Layton

The premise of Sofia Coppola's "Lost In Translation" is simple enough: Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray, is a famous Hollywood actor who is in Japan to shoot promotions for a Japanese whiskey, much to his own shame. Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson, is a young woman in Japan with her busy photographer husband. Both are strangers in a foreign country, are unable to sleep and are unhappy with their lives, and this is what brings them together.

The basic synopsis of the film is just about the only thing that is easily communicated about "Lost In Translation." Furthermore, the plot itself doesn't sound all that intriguing. However, if there is one thing you come away from this review with, it is that you should not pass this movie up. You need to see it. This is truly a film that must be seen to be understood and appreciated.

The performance given by Murray is incredible. When people think of Bill Murray, they often think of his various comedic roles, whether it be from his run on Saturday Night Live, or the classic comedies he's starred in, such as "What About Bob?" and "Groundhog Day." This isn't to say that Bill Murray doesn't deliver some hilarious lines in the film, because he does. But with these lines comes a real depth that only serves to make the jokes funnier. In fact, Murray's performance is so deep that he doesn't have to speak to make you laugh. A simple raise of the eyebrow, a quick smile at the camera, and you're in hysterics. However, outside of "Rushmore," audiences haven't truly been exposed to the range and depth he has in a dramatic role. "Lost In Translation" is about to change all that.

Murray's character Bob Harris is definitely lost, and Murray brings this to life effortlessly. He's in Japan to shoot a whiskey commercial simply for the paycheck, and he's obviously ashamed of it; as he tells Charlotte in the film, he's making a quick buck when he "could be doing a play somewhere" instead. Furthermore, Bob's marriage is on shaky ground. Phone calls to his wife are riddled with passive-aggressive undertones, and Bob is either too tired or too in love to fight back. When Bob is alone, you can see how emotionally tired and worn out he is. However, when Bob is with Charlotte, happiness exudes from him, and you can see new life radiating from him. This is most certainly Bill Murray at his best, and his best is definitely Oscar-worthy.

Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of Charlotte, while not as much of a stand-out as Murray's performance, definitely doesn't fall into its shadow either. Charlotte, like Bob, is feeling lost and she is unsure of what to make of her life. Out of Yale with a degree in philosophy, she feels disconnected from her photographer husband, and is unsure how she feels about her two year long marriage to him. Johansson deftly plays the part of a young girl, outwardly confident and looking for life but not sure where to find it. Previously, Johansson was relatively unknown to those outside the indie film circle, but her performance is going to leave a lasting impression on anybody who sees the film.

It is the relationship that Bob and Charlotte have that is going to leave a mark on viewers, and furthermore, will have them questioning their own thoughts and values. Bob and Charlotte's relationship will mean something different to each individual. Was it romantic? Only friendship? Was it a completely non-sexual love, or was it a love stifled by their own hesitation? The end of the film pushes this even further, as Bob says something to Charlotte that the audience is not permitted to hear. Each viewer draws their own conclusion as to what was said, the true nature of the relationship, and what it meant to each character. What's more, many viewers, such as myself, will relate to the characters, and will question what it would mean to themselves if they were in such a position. Few films truly feel as open-ended as this film does, and that's part of why it's such a wonderful experience.

All rambling and praise aside, you must go see "Lost In Translation." Every section of the movie, from beginning to end, is brilliant and entertaining to watch. It is the best movie so far this year, and it deserves your attention. I've seen it three times already, and have no intention of stopping now.

http://www.jivemagazine.com/review.php?rid=349"
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#24 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:15 am

"Rites of Passage

By Andy Klein

Sofia Coppola has a new film, and, since the issue of her family connections inevitably comes up, let's just get it out of the way up front: No, she probably couldn't have made The Godfather; but, to be honest, it's no more likely that Francis Coppola could have made Lost in Translation. The kid -- and, since she's now in her 30s, “kid” may not be so appropriate anymore, either -- has her own distinctive voice.

In terms of story, Lost in Translation is reminiscent of two excellent recent French films -- Claire Denis's Friday Night and Claude Lelouch's And Now Ladies & Gentlemen. All three involve a man and a woman coming together in a chance encounter at what, for one or both, is a vulnerable moment. The first obvious difference is that, in Lost in Translation, the man is Bill Murray.

Murray plays Bob Harris, a middle-aged movie star who has flown to Tokyo to do a series of ads for a Japanese liquor company. In real life, of course, American actors who would never deign to do commercials in the U.S. frequently do them in Japan, with the proviso that they never be shown over here. The whole situation has such a built-in goofiness to it that it's surprising it hasn't been done before. Coppola emphasizes the comic aspect of the setup at first, while establishing her characters, but soon segues into something more substantial.

Despite the amenities of Bob's expensive hotel room -- and, in some cases, because of them -- he has a particularly bad case of jet-lag/culture-shock-induced insomnia. He's a stranger in a strange land and can barely communicate, even with his interpreters. He's there for a not-very-satisfying job, at a moment when his career may be on the decline -- this is never made completely explicit -- and his slightly troubled relationship with his family is exacerbated by his absence.

He is, in short, having a midlife crisis.

At the same hotel is Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), who is having a beginning-of-life crisis, or whatever you would call that scary moment right after college graduation, when you suddenly have to become … something. Fresh out of Yale with her B.A. in philosophy, Charlotte seems to have no clue what she wants to do with the rest of her life. At the moment, she's coasting, her identity defined mostly by her marriage to John (Giovanni Ribisi), a self-absorbed celebrity photographer, whose professional world she doesn't fit into.

In Japan on a job, John is busy with his work and oblivious to her. She has no clear reason to be there. In fact, at this exact moment in her life, she has no clear reason to be. As a result, she's having almost as much trouble sleeping as Bob is, and the two of them strike up a conversation in the hotel bar in the middle of the night. They are the classic two lost souls, helping each other to stay afloat.

Naturally, there is, from the beginning, a degree of sexual tension. He is a man of wit and experience, and a movie star, to boot -- though she seems so unimpressed by the latter, it's not even clear for a while whether she recognizes him. (She makes one brief reference to his career, way into the film.) She is a smart, beautiful woman, with an almost irresistible aura about her of being lost -- a damsel in nonlethal distress.

Of course, they're both married, and, while they don't seem entirely happily married, it would be a mistake to say they're unhappily married, either.

And perhaps most to the point: he's fiftyish, and she's presumably 21 or 22. (It should be noted that, in the reverse of most Hollywood casting, Johansson is playing older than her age. She's remarkably convincing, given that she hadn't quite turned 18 when the film was shot.)

The two grow closer and closer, and … something … develops between them. After it becomes clear that they're not going to just jump in bed that first night, the question of “Will they or won't they?” lurks behind every scene. It is the elephant-in-the-living-room of their relationship.

Nowadays, had a middle-aged male director built a film around this sort of May-September romance -- as Blake Edwards did more than once in the '70s and '80s -- it would have likelier been shown entirely from the man's point of view, thus coming across as a leering male fantasy. But Coppola gives almost exactly equal time to her two main characters. From the start she cuts between their two stories: We wait for their roads to intersect. But, even after that, she continues to switch back and forth, showing the audience each of them in private moments that the other can't possibly know about.

We get a stronger sense of Bob's inner life … or at least I did, which may well be a result of Murray's performance, or because Bob's problems are those of a more fully formed character, while the crux of Charlotte's problems are that she isn't fully formed yet. On the other hand, to be fair to Johansson, it may simply be because I have, for obvious reasons, an easier time getting under the skin of a middle-aged male than a twentysomething female. (Insert your own joke here.)

Since he stopped making big-budget blockbuster comedies, and since his most genuinely moving appearance (in Groundhog Day), Murray has given a string of fine supporting performances in films like Ed Wood, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums. Here, he returns with a lead role miles away from his early work. It was one thing to be a wiseass slob in his 20s and 30s; it would seem far less attractive now. Bob is, in ways Murray's early characters never were, an actual adult. It's as though the transition he went through in Groundhog Day was representative of a rite of passage in his real life. There is nothing to fault in Johansson's performance either, but, again, she has a role that is by definition more nebulous.

What really animates the film, aside from Murray's performance, is Coppola's particular, peculiar comic timing, which falls a lot closer to, say, Jim Jarmusch than the Farrelly brothers. That is, she knows when holding on a long, motionless shot will, in its very protractedness, make the moment funnier rather than dull. It could be argued that in the early scenes she tries to milk too many laughs from some venerable old translation jokes and from Japanese dialect humor. But she deemphasizes the broader aspects of the setup as soon as she brings the two characters together.

Lost in Translation. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola. With Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, and Anna Faris. In selected theaters.

http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=231"
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#25 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 11:16 am

"The verdict: Lose yourself in this extraordinary movie.

By Eleanor Ringel Gillespie

Sofia Coppola is definitely her famous father's daughter, but she definitely doesn't make her father's films. Francis Ford Coppola's movies tend toward the operatic -- big emotions, big characters, big stories. Hers have the quality of a tone poem -- fragile, understated, intimate.

Her astonishing second film, "Lost in Translation," is a wistfully romantic duet for two lost souls at sea in the neon pandemonium of Tokyo. Bob Harris (Bill Murray) is a major American movie star in town to pick up a cool $2 million for sitting in a leather chair, wearing a tuxedo, holding a glass of Suntory whiskey and uttering the immortal line, "For relaxing times, it's Suntory time."

These are not relaxing times for Bob. His career is still viable -- he gets recognized a lot and the fans' enthusiasm is genuine. Yet there's a sense that his work and his interest in it peaked several years ago. He has a family, but his 25-year-old marriage no longer holds his interest either. His wife, represented by an exasperated voice on the phone, is more concerned with redecorating her husband's study than she is in her husband. She FedEx's carpet samples to him with the affectionate note, "I like the burgundy. What do you think?"

Plus, Bob can't sleep. So he spends time in the chicly dark rooftop bar in his sleekly impersonal hotel. That's where he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson). She can't sleep either.

Charlotte is in Tokyo with her husband of two years, John (Giovanni Ribisi), a celebrity photographer who's getting a little too comfortable (for her) with the aimless chitchat and air-kiss energy of his subjects. She's no longer sure whom she married. Neither is Bob. He's at one end of that bewilderment and she's at the other, both sleepless yet sleepwalking through life.

They wake each other up.

What follows is a non-affair to remember, which maintains a delicate balance between friends, lovers and something ineffably greater than either. They are made for each other in a million ways, with sex being one of the lesser ones (though that tension is ever-present).

Their relationship -- sometimes tender, sometimes hilarious -- is the heart and soul of the movie. Still, many of the film's funniest scenes show them interacting with others. Murray's attempts to follow the directions barked at him in Japanese by a Suntory photographer is a comic masterpiece. He mimics various Rat Pack members, mining the subtle differences between Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and even Joey Bishop (whom his hosts have never heard of).

Meanwhile, Charlotte endures the weirdness of John's ?allow conversations with an essence-of-L.A. starlet (Anna Faris) who's overseas on a promotional tour for her new movie.

These close encounters with kiss-ups and idiots, plus the raucous cacophony of the city, are a jarring contrast to the whispered yet trenchant connection between Bob and Charlotte. The movie seems paced to Murray's famous deadpan, stronger on atmosphere and character than it is on story. Rather than moving in a straightforward manner, it's full of odd side trips: Bob at a strip club, saying thank you to a contortionist's inner thighs as he leaves (she's standing on her head); Charlotte soaking up the arcane and adrenalized artistry of a Tokyo games arcade.

This is Johansson's breakthrough role. She's been sensational in movies like "Ghost World" and "The Man Who Wasn't There," but here we discover her distinctiveness -- her still-evolving creamy beauty and her clear-eyed simplicity. There's a freshness in her uncluttered approach to acting. Still, the movie belongs to Murray. Coppola wrote the role for him and spent five months talking him into doing it. The patented smart-aleck persona that made him a box-office megastar in movies like "Ghostbusters" and "Caddyshack" has acquired the patina of middle age. The supreme ironist now recognizes the innate irony of youthful cynicism. He can still do more with a raised eyebrow than anyone since Groucho Marx, but he's mellower and sometimes slightly poignant. He's gentle with Charlotte, even courtly. In a sense, he's an emblem of a generation of middle-aged anti-establishment hipsters, grown older and somehow, almost in spite of itself, wiser.

This is a great performance, worthy not only of an Oscar nomination but, at this point in the year, of the prize itself.

THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION

http://www.lost-in-translation.com/"
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#26 Post by Congruous » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:05 pm

Nice thread
"Are there no more arrows left?"

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#27 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:42 pm

"Thank you [b:564c8bbc38]jml2[/b:564c8bbc38] and [b:564c8bbc38]Congruous[/b:564c8bbc38].
Some files I put on CD some time ago, so I'd bet half the links are "bad" now."
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#28 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:42 pm

""Lost in Translation" The fall's first essential movie.

By Lou Lumenick

Sofia Coppola's sublimely romantic and subtle "Lost in Translation" finally marks the end of a season of brain-dead blockbusters.

It's impossible to conceive of this ruefully funny entertainment without Bill Murray, who is nothing less than brilliant in a form-fitted role as Bob Harris, a middle-aged American movie star who's in Tokyo to shoot a whisky commercial.

Bob is no happy camper: His best days in Hollywood are a couple of decades behind him, his longtime marriage is fraying and a fierce case of jet lag makes it even harder to endure his endlessly cheerful Japanese hosts.

Still, he's getting $2 million for this gig. Unable to sleep and bombarded by faxes about decorating his home office by his wife back in California, he passes the evening in the high-rise bar of his swank hotel, where he meets another lost soul.

Charlotte (a fine Scarlett Johansson) is as adrift as Bob is in Tokyo, having been abandoned by her husband of two years (Giovanni Ribisi) while he goes off to photograph a rock band.

Though Charlotte is young enough to be Bob's daughter, they form an unlikely friendship that may or may not lead to something deeper.

Coppola -- Francis Ford's daughter, whose first movie was the beautifully shot but overpraised "The Virgin Suicides" -- gives Murray free rein to be funny as well as extremely touching in a series of leisurely but poignant vignettes.

During the commercial shoot, Bob struggles to understand his Japanese director, whose verbose commands are translated as a couple of words; he gently mocks a flamboyant TV show host; and in a late-night karaoke bar, he delivers a rendition of "More Than This" that's as moving as it is hilarious.

But Murray is just as good at toting up Bob's disappointments with his marriage and parenthood.

Initially, he acts paternally toward Charlotte, who seeks his help in defining her own identity.

But there comes a point where these two realize they're soulmates of a sort, and the film courageously departs from the usual Hollywood clich?about May-September relationships.

"Lost in Translation," which draws on Coppola's own experiences in show business, Tokyo and apparently her marriage (the photographer husband somewhat resembles Coppola's own, director Spike Jonze), doesn't go for the audience-pleasing ending.

It's more like the Bill Murray version of the bittersweet masterpiece "Brief Encounter," which is enough to make it a must-see for anyone who cares about grown-up movies.

Don't be surprised if this haunting tale finally brings the severely underrated Murray the Oscar nomination he deserved for "Groundhog Day" and "Rushmore."

NEW YORK POST

http://www.lost-in-translation.com/"
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#29 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:43 pm

"'Lost' actors give Sofia Coppola some masterful performances.

By Tom Long

His face is lined by a lifetime, hers has the vague haze of youth. She's concerned about the future, he's past concern. Neither can sleep though both can still dream.

The two characters who pretty much wholly comprise writer/director Sofia Coppola's textured, thoughtful and touching "Lost in Translation" are lost indeed, seemingly good souls at different stages in life, looking for the next step, the right direction, the right connection.

As played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson they are both somewhat stunned and saddened, but unable to give up hope, still able to wonder at the world around them even if they can't understand it.

And much of the time, they literally can't understand it, as the film takes place in modern Tokyo, a dazzling construct of gaudy electronic displays and pop-culture overkill offset by strict tradition and studied politeness. The sheer foreignness of the situation allows the characters to act as if they're in some surreal wonderland, an alternate universe where their unlikely relationship makes sense.

Murray plays Bob Harris, a washed-up film actor in Japan to earn $2 million by endorsing a whiskey. Johansson is Charlotte, a Yale philosophy grad wed to a rock photographer (Giovanni Ribisi) who's hanging out around their hotel while he goes off on photo shoots.

Bob has a 25-year-old marriage and two kids. His wife's idea of communication is discussing the color of the carpet for his new study. She sends him samples by Fed Ex.

Charlotte has realized there's an essential gap in her marriage, a chasm of missed connects. All is cordial, all is superficial, and suddenly she feels trapped.

Bob is at the end of a bad marriage, Charlotte is at the beginning of one. The two encounter one another in the elevator, the hotel bar, at the pool and sense each other's drifting. Eventually they team up to explore the gaudy environment and each other's lives.

The first third of this film often plays as a comedy, and the culture shock scenarios Murray encounters are indeed funny. Then again, Murray is funny just sitting on a bed in pajamas. Director Coppola -- yes, she's the daughter of "Godfather" auteur Francis Ford Coppola -- knows this and let's it play out for a while before going beneath the laugh lines.

Murray's performance turns into a controlled wonder, and when he smiles for a fan's camera toward the end of the film, the pain etched into his grin/grimace is heartbreaking. It's the performance of his career (yes, even better than "Stripes").

Johansson is more fuzzy, and appropriately so as the sheltered Charlotte has no clue what she wants to do with her life, she just knows she wants to have one. Casting Johansson -- who is actually several years younger than her character and thus brings reality to her snuffly innocence -- was a wise move.

But "Lost In Translation" is filled with wise moves. Coppola's use of Tokyo provides the relationship with an excuse to happen, and the culture clash that begins as humor turns into insight. She doesn't steer her characters or story too widely, keeping tight control while letting things seem natural. "Translation" may be a fluke or it may be notice that she's a major talent. Either way it's one heck of a movie. It ends with a kiss and a question. Questions we can understand. Kisses we can hope for.

DETROIT NEWS

http://www.lost-in-translation.com/"
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#30 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:43 pm

"Kindred spirits: Bill Murray shines in Sofia Coppola's dreamy and endearing romantic comedy

By Terry Lawson, Free Press Movie Critic, September 19, 2003

One of the most overused words in movie criticism is "magical," but there is real magic afoot in "Lost in Translation" -- the sort that is created not at the wave of a wizard's wand, but by the coming together of two wayward souls. They are Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray in a performance that should finally put him in Oscar contention, and Scarlett Johansson in a performance that should awaken the world at large to her special talent.

Together, they do the kind of acting that doesn't seem like acting at all, and sometimes "Lost in Translation" doesn't seem like a movie at all, something which may confound some viewers. (They are likely to be the same people who didn't get "Rushmore," the movie that reminded us how good Murray really is.)

Sofia Coppola has directed and written "Lost in Translation" with a delicacy that often makes it seem like a wispy dream, a quality she also brought to her debut movie "The Virgin Suicides." But that movie, set in Grosse Pointe and based on a fine novel by former Detroiter Jeffrey Eugenides, had a plot, however ephemeral, and a mystery at its center. The only mystery in "Lost in Translation" is one that anybody with a heart can solve.

Bob Harris is a weary and guilty American actor who is in Tokyo picking up easy money when, as he admits, he should be doing a play. Like many others before him, he's making a whiskey commercial for Japanese consumption only, which requires him to endure a hummingbird of a director whose translator keeps telling Harris he wants "more intensity" when Harris looks in the camera and says "Good times with Suntory." For this, he has missed his son's birthday, which has not helped his withering marriage.

Charlotte is in Tokyo expecting to tag along with her husband Giovanni Ribisi, a photographer of rock bands and celebrities. But mostly she is abandoned at their luxury hotel while he works. This allows her entirely too much time to concentrate on what she is doing there and what she will do with her life; she is in her early 20s and artistically inclined, but knows only that she wants to be more than the wife of someone successful.

Going out to explore, she becomes disoriented by her surroundings, in which one minute she is being barraged by electronic advertising images, and in the next she is in an ancient temple observing a Buddhist ceremony. She returns to a routine of bed and the bar and meets Harris in the latter, where he is smoking a cigar and coping with his isolation the traditional way; Suntory is not only good for good times.

What happens next is not exactly a love story, but Coppola doesn't avoid the immediate attraction and the affection that grows between the two, who team up for a prison break that will eventually find them singing karaoke at a small party. Anyone who has seen Murray's lounge singer on "Saturday Night Live" reruns know how hilarious he is behind a hand-mike, but may be surprised by the sweet sincerity of his off-key "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding."

Murray famously swore off dramatic roles after the failure of an adaptation of "The Razor's Edge," but Coppola, who wrote the unmistakably personal and poignant script, has given him a great gift with this quiet, endearing comedy, in which he is more "serious" than most actors playing someone dying from a terrible disease. Bob is quietly fading away, and though Charlotte is not a cure for his malaise, she is the energy source that renews him.

It's easy, of course, to see what Charlotte sees in him: It's the razor wit -- and understanding -- we all see. And he sees what we see in Charlotte, a beautiful young woman who probably loves her husband but knows she is too valuable to be an accessory that can be put away when it doesn't match the moment. With Bob, she sees Tokyo and herself in a new way.

Coppola's quick graduation from promising and impressive young filmmaker to one whose next film will be more than eagerly anticipated is comparable to that of Quentin Tarantino. "Lost in Translation" could have the same impact on today's twentysomethings that "Pulp Fiction" did on those of nearly 10 years ago. This is a movie they have never seen before, one with the hip and casual attitude of an independent movie but also the gloss and unabashed romanticism of a studio picture.

Beautifully photographed by Lance Accord, the score (attributed to Air percussionist Brian Reitzell) contains some gorgeous new songs from Kevin Shields, who has abandoned the fatalism of the songs he wrote for the British anti-pop band My Bloody Valentine to embrace the many and mysterious possibilities provided by love. After seeing "Lost in Translation," you may want to write a song like that, too.

DETROIT FREE PRESS

http://www.lost-in-translation.com/Kindred spirits: Bill Murray shines in Sofia Coppola's dreamy and endearing romantic comedy

By Terry Lawson, Free Press Movie Critic, September 19, 2003

One of the most overused words in movie criticism is "magical," but there is real magic afoot in "Lost in Translation" -- the sort that is created not at the wave of a wizard's wand, but by the coming together of two wayward souls. They are Bob Harris, played by Bill Murray in a performance that should finally put him in Oscar contention, and Scarlett Johansson in a performance that should awaken the world at large to her special talent.

Together, they do the kind of acting that doesn't seem like acting at all, and sometimes "Lost in Translation" doesn't seem like a movie at all, something which may confound some viewers. (They are likely to be the same people who didn't get "Rushmore," the movie that reminded us how good Murray really is.)

Sofia Coppola has directed and written "Lost in Translation" with a delicacy that often makes it seem like a wispy dream, a quality she also brought to her debut movie "The Virgin Suicides." But that movie, set in Grosse Pointe and based on a fine novel by former Detroiter Jeffrey Eugenides, had a plot, however ephemeral, and a mystery at its center. The only mystery in "Lost in Translation" is one that anybody with a heart can solve.

Bob Harris is a weary and guilty American actor who is in Tokyo picking up easy money when, as he admits, he should be doing a play. Like many others before him, he's making a whiskey commercial for Japanese consumption only, which requires him to endure a hummingbird of a director whose translator keeps telling Harris he wants "more intensity" when Harris looks in the camera and says "Good times with Suntory." For this, he has missed his son's birthday, which has not helped his withering marriage.

Charlotte is in Tokyo expecting to tag along with her husband Giovanni Ribisi, a photographer of rock bands and celebrities. But mostly she is abandoned at their luxury hotel while he works. This allows her entirely too much time to concentrate on what she is doing there and what she will do with her life; she is in her early 20s and artistically inclined, but knows only that she wants to be more than the wife of someone successful.

Going out to explore, she becomes disoriented by her surroundings, in which one minute she is being barraged by electronic advertising images, and in the next she is in an ancient temple observing a Buddhist ceremony. She returns to a routine of bed and the bar and meets Harris in the latter, where he is smoking a cigar and coping with his isolation the traditional way; Suntory is not only good for good times.

What happens next is not exactly a love story, but Coppola doesn't avoid the immediate attraction and the affection that grows between the two, who team up for a prison break that will eventually find them singing karaoke at a small party. Anyone who has seen Murray's lounge singer on "Saturday Night Live" reruns know how hilarious he is behind a hand-mike, but may be surprised by the sweet sincerity of his off-key "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace Love and Understanding."

Murray famously swore off dramatic roles after the failure of an adaptation of "The Razor's Edge," but Coppola, who wrote the unmistakably personal and poignant script, has given him a great gift with this quiet, endearing comedy, in which he is more "serious" than most actors playing someone dying from a terrible disease. Bob is quietly fading away, and though Charlotte is not a cure for his malaise, she is the energy source that renews him.

It's easy, of course, to see what Charlotte sees in him: It's the razor wit -- and understanding -- we all see. And he sees what we see in Charlotte, a beautiful young woman who probably loves her husband but knows she is too valuable to be an accessory that can be put away when it doesn't match the moment. With Bob, she sees Tokyo and herself in a new way.

Coppola's quick graduation from promising and impressive young filmmaker to one whose next film will be more than eagerly anticipated is comparable to that of Quentin Tarantino. "Lost in Translation" could have the same impact on today's twentysomethings that "Pulp Fiction" did on those of nearly 10 years ago. This is a movie they have never seen before, one with the hip and casual attitude of an independent movie but also the gloss and unabashed romanticism of a studio picture.

Beautifully photographed by Lance Accord, the score (attributed to Air percussionist Brian Reitzell) contains some gorgeous new songs from Kevin Shields, who has abandoned the fatalism of the songs he wrote for the British anti-pop band My Bloody Valentine to embrace the many and mysterious possibilities provided by love. After seeing "Lost in Translation," you may want to write a song like that, too.

DETROIT FREE PRESS

http://www.lost-in-translation.com/"
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#31 Post by jm » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:44 pm

"Frankly, Scarlett Johansson gives a damn

By Graham Fuller

Interview, September 2003

We live in a new age that needs new love stories, and new presences to tell them. Here is an actress born for these roles

A case can be made that Scarlett Johansson is the most exquisitely gifted young actress currently working in American films. After her fine adolescent performances in Manny & LO (1996) and The Horse Whisperer (1998), Johansson matured swiftly as the more conformist and sarcastic of the two teen provocatrices in Ghost World (2001) and as Birdy, the supposedly prim pianist in The Man Who Wasn't There (2001).

Now in two new movies, Johansson delicately pries open the souls of two very different girls falling in love with older men who reciprocate her feelings. in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, which opens this month, she is dreamily solipsistic as married Charlotte, who, marooned in a Tokyo hotel, is drawn to an equally alienated movie star, Bob (Bill Murray). In Peter Webber's Girl with a Pearl Earring, due later this year, she personifies restraint as the innocent but insightful maid who -- according to Tracy Chevalier's source novel -- inspired Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) to paint the eponymous masterpiece in a 17th-century Dutch household torn by domestic strife.

Johansson has the range, passion, and sensitivity of a great performer, but since she's only 18, it's a relief to find she's also a larky kid.

Graham Fuller: Hello, Scarlett. You're in New Orleans rehearsing for A Love Song for Bobby Long, right?

Scarlett Johansson: Yeah, though right now I'm very full of cheeseburger, and I just watched Willy Wonka. It's one of my favorite films.

GF: Has New Orleans cast its voodoo on you?

SJ: I've been a lazy burn and not done anything at all, except for sit around and paint my toenails. But I can definitely smell the majestic, thick air when I go out. All these big things are advertised -- big-a** beers and "bottomless dancers guaranteed" -- but I'd just like to go and hang with the alligators.

GF: You're extraordinary as Charlotte in Lost in Translation. How did she evolve?

SJ: Sofia [Coppola] knew she wanted Bill [Murray] and me to do the film and that she wanted to set it in Tokyo, which is a character in its own right. She didn't explain the complexity of the relationship -- just that these people were lost, and found themselves in each other. Then she sent me the first draft, which was about 75 pages -- pretty short. I figured it'd be [fleshed] out when we got there. And then Bill hopped onboard the Tokyo Expressway, and we were making the movie. I had no idea what to expect when I got there. It was so foreign, and I felt lost physically. And I suppose my state of mind was a little foggy

People have asked me if Charlotte is really Sofia. I would never say it's her. All I can say is that the story is close to Sofia's heart, and I hope that comes through in the character. Of course I realized when we were making the film that Charlotte and Bob are desperately in love. But if they had consummated their love, it would have left them with these complicated emotions.

GF: Was Bill tender toward you -- I mean in the gentlest possible way -- during filming, as Bob is to Charlotte?

SJ: Not really. Te key to it is tenderness, but our real relationship was a working relationship. Bill is like Bob in the sense that he's sarcastic and outgoing and puts on a big show for everybody. And I suppose I'm like Charlotte in the way I'm reserved with my own feelings. Not to say that I'm not a loud obnoxious crud on the set -- which I've been told I am -- I mean "reserved" in terms of my relationship with Bill.

GF: What does Bill say to you in that final shot of you together?

SJ: [laughs] I'm not going to be obnoxious and say, "You're a nosy journalist for asking, and it's for you to find out," although it really is. Bill said a lot of things to me, silly things. But whatever he said filled me with emotion. I was a mess; I didn't expect to get that sad.

GF: Much of Lost in Translation is about you moping in your room. What was going through your head in those scenes?

SJ: Different things, I suppose. Sofia would say, "You know when you're trying to cheer yourself up and you're kind of bummed out? And then something stupid happens, like you stub your toe, and you just sit there and cry and laugh at the same time because it's like you're such a klutz, but it fucking hurts so bad?" She would just lead me through it. It's great to see those moments captured on film because they're so familiar.

GF: I get the sense you're very serious about acting. The nuances you reveal are not those of an actor whose mind is on all the other stuff that goes with being in movies -- the self-image, the celebrity. You clearly lose yourself inside your characters. Is acting a vocation for you?

SJ: [pause] Being a movie star is a quality that somebody sort of embodies, and being a celebrity is something that people give to you. It has to do with being recognizable, as opposed to something that people recognize in you. I just hope to make good movies. I know that sounds simple, but it's true. I love everything about the process of making films: the rehearsing and performing and the messages you can convey -- not that everything has to have a message or that it's something I look for.

GF: Yor're demure in Lost in Translation, modest in Girl With a Pearl Earring. The Interview photographs, however, suggest you could have stepped out of the go-go 1960s. But is it better, especially for a young actress, to be reticent when it comes to sexuality onscreen?

SJ: I think it depends on what it is you're trying to portray. Sometimes you see young actors who always have this sexy face they make. No matter what they're playing, they're doing the sexy face. "Oh, look at me." When I see that, I'm like, "Oh, gross." Whereas, if you look at Goldie Hawn when she was in her heyday, she was so adorable and charismatic, and that's what made her sexy. If it's something you've got, you can't hide it. That doesn't mean I think I'm a big sexpot, but I've alway been very aware of my own sexuality. And I don't feel like I have any responsibility to be any way other that the way I am. Though if you're playing an assexual character, it can be hard to try to hide your sexuality. It's like trying to hide a lisp or something.

GF: Girl With a Pearl Earring derives its power from its restraint: Griet, your character, and Vermeer, simply can't act upon their feelings.

SJ: It would have tainted the relationship between Vermeer and Griet if someone on the film had suggested there should be a scene of Vermeer standing by a window watching Griet wash her breasts in a basin. Not that it's not sexual between them, but there's a time and place for everything, especially regarding that kind of sexiness. If I was doing a sexy project, I would never give everything because that's not interesting to watch. It's more interesting to wonder what you're not getting.

GF: Did seeing Vermeer's painting in The Hague give you fresh insights?

SJ: Not really. It was funny because there was so much pressure around me seeing it that when I did, I was like, "Okay, there it is." Some guy was giving me this Big Whatever about what's special about it. I hate that. Part of the reason I love going to the museum with my dad is because we look at the paintings and then look at each other and go, "Hmm, this is nice, isn't it?"

GF: Do you thing Griet loses her virginity when her ear is pierced by Vermeer or when she actually has sex with the butcher's boy?

SJ: A-ha! [laughs] I think she's taken with the piercing. Totally taken. Symbolically, I mean. There was no turning back after that point really, was there? One tear just came beautifully and everybody always asks, "Was that teardrop real?" Everything was magical in that moment.

GF: Did you draw on your own thoughts and feelings about love?

SJ: Absolutely. Though it's never specific. I'm not a method actor, but I think I subconsciously draw on my own experience and my own feelings, because otherwise it's just stale and doesn't work. I fell completely in love with the idea of the Vermeer character. There's one scene where Griet sees Vermeer stroking and kissing his wife. I was a basket case because, for whatever reason, it wounded me. It's a strange job to be an actor because you're emotionally vulnerable all the time when you're not grounded and don't have people around you who are seperate from your work.

GF: Are you happy in your personal life?

SJ: I can't complain. I've been in two very long relationships, and now I'm single for the first time since I started dating, and you learn so much about yourself. Being in a relationship is great because you compromise and make decisions together. But after doing that for so long, I felt I needed to be alone. I like to make my own choices.

GF: You've got plenty of time for love.

SJ: I know. You can't really search it out. I've met a lot of assholes. But I'm really happy that those assholes have helped me define what I want and what I don't want. [laughs] I guess you've got to meet a lot of different kinds of people -- people that are just plain wrong for you, people that seem great, people you have a crush on -- so that when the right person does come along, you know it for sure.

GF: You've got to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet the right prince.

SJ: Or kiss a lot of assholes before you meet the right guy. That's been my experience so far. [laughs]

http://www.scarlettjohansson.org/interview03.html"
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#32 Post by jml2 » Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:36 am

I shall add some from my collection when I have the time, and check that they haven't been posted yet

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#33 Post by jm » Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:27 am

"[quote:9ebf652757="jml2"]I shall add some from my collection when I have the time, and check that they haven't been posted yet[/quote:9ebf652757]
I fear that I may post a rerun or two, but it's too much trouble to try to avoid it."

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