As a quick debriefing, and as is my basic understanding of the situation, Spike and Sofia first met on a Sonic Youth music video set (of course), were soon married afterward, and four years later, divorced. Now before I get too far along, I must acknowledge that the use of quotes around “Sofia Coppola” in the title is imperative to the theory at hand. Which makes it impossible not to conclude that when he makes a film with the tagline “A Spike Jonze Love Story,” he has indeed just cast his famous auteur-ex as the female love interest in his newest movie, titled simply, Her. Spike Jonze, however, being the most self-reflexive (read: “meta”) working director in American cinema today with such existential art-house hits as the Academy Award-nominated Being John Malkovich and the Charlie Kaufman-penned Adaptation, makes it impossible not to make culturally commentating mountains out of every mole-hill that arises in his work as a postmodern commentary on (his) life as art. I am usually the first to acknowledge that there is rarely any time when gossip-style news should be discussed, let alone deemed “important,” especially in relation to art, whose definitive artistic motivations shouldn’t allow for any culturally-reflexive speculation to add further meaning to. The amount of deliberation and control on display in Her is a pretty big difference.Īll really minor quibbles though, LiT has one of the best endings of any movie IMO.If the above title sounds a bit too “National Enquirer”-y for you, I apologize. its great but it sort of implies that a lot of LiT was hobbled together. Don't get hung up on the fact that the majority of LiT is filmed in a few hotel bedrooms, and a lot of Bill Murray's improv is on display. However, I would say that Her is a more polished, ambitious product. LiT is a great film and I used to watch it all the time years ago. Like, did I like the film on its own merits, or did I not realize a big part of it was of her? Especially in the karaoke scene, you can see what her future looked like. There's also the fact that it was ScarJo before she blew up. The atmospheric music helps tremendously as well. Of course the story is fantastic as well, but LiT to me captures this feeling of 'wonder' you get from just being in a foreign, fascinating environment. This is what I remember connecting with the most. Just wandering all over town seeing the sights and the culture was just amazing. Said I was going to meet with some other navy friends up in Roppongi Hills (because of course, that's where all the expats hang out), but ended up in Shibuya. I used to take the train from the naval base in Yokosuka and wander around Japan. Hope this has been helpful at least a little bit!Ĭheck out some Jim Jarmusch movies, which, like Lost in Translation, often have a melancholic wandering outsider's viewpoint: Specifically: Broken Flowers (which also stars Bill Murray), Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, Dead Man, Night on Earth and even Only Lovers Left Alive. You should also delve more into the filmographies of auteurs like Jean Luc Godard, Wong Kar-wai, and even Francis Ford Coppola if you're interested in analyzing Sofia's filmmaking idols. This movie also deals with flawed protagonists, depression, life crises, marital issues, etc. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki depicts Tokyo and other parts of Japan and its beautiful scenery through the lens of an Italian filmmaking style, much like Coppola. This movie was heavily influenced by LiT) Garden State (similar take on love, depression, self-discovery, and coming-of-age. It is one of only three American movies to ever do so) Also, Somewhere won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the Venice Film Festival. Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette and Somewhere (many film scholars consider these two films to be part of a trilogy on depression and isolation that started with LiT. Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (Again, one of Sofia's biggest inspirations)Įternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Similar in tone, humor, themes of loneliness and melancholy, etc.) Jean Luc Godard's Breathless (another film that heavily informed Sofia's work in the early-2000s) Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love (arguably the most influential film for Sofia Coppola while she was writing/shooting LiT) Some of the movies that inspired Lost in Translation: From other posts on similar recommendations
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