I wrote an essay that ended up in my high school's film studies textbook about the Lost in Translation soundtrack!!! Beautiful movie (+ I agree with your reservations!). I think about LIT everytime I see Suntory in a liquor store
> The film spends an inordinate amount of time fixated on accents and linguistic misunderstandings for no good reason
It's easier to condemn this on the 1000th viewing, because you know the characters so well. But for the person who only views the movie once, isn't it necessary to establish that the characters are both (culturally) naive and out-of-place? There has to be an amount of jarring-ness to that, I think. If they (and the viewer's gaze) were all wise to these things, I'm not sure the movie would work as well.
This is the kind of thing that could be a lot less racist if Coppola had more time. If it was a TV series, the cultural differences could be elaborated over hours of different interactions. But movies are such a difficult medium because time is tight.
I think it’s “true to life” of the characters’ and director’s experiences and worldviews. However, I don’t like that worldview. It’s a view that’s western-chauvinistic, where when you’re in another country, cultural differences are interpreted as the other side being weird, rather than it being you that is weird.
Lost In Translation is an anchor piece to hang one's lossless love on. I call it lossless because in a way, the movie affords the viewer a sense of having gained love without loss, which is actually impossible. Not because you can't, but because gaining is incompatible with love.
I wrote an essay that ended up in my high school's film studies textbook about the Lost in Translation soundtrack!!! Beautiful movie (+ I agree with your reservations!). I think about LIT everytime I see Suntory in a liquor store
I thought you meant “lit” as in “it’s lit”, which would also be appropriate.
also surely true!!
> The film spends an inordinate amount of time fixated on accents and linguistic misunderstandings for no good reason
It's easier to condemn this on the 1000th viewing, because you know the characters so well. But for the person who only views the movie once, isn't it necessary to establish that the characters are both (culturally) naive and out-of-place? There has to be an amount of jarring-ness to that, I think. If they (and the viewer's gaze) were all wise to these things, I'm not sure the movie would work as well.
This is the kind of thing that could be a lot less racist if Coppola had more time. If it was a TV series, the cultural differences could be elaborated over hours of different interactions. But movies are such a difficult medium because time is tight.
I think it’s “true to life” of the characters’ and director’s experiences and worldviews. However, I don’t like that worldview. It’s a view that’s western-chauvinistic, where when you’re in another country, cultural differences are interpreted as the other side being weird, rather than it being you that is weird.
Lost In Translation is an anchor piece to hang one's lossless love on. I call it lossless because in a way, the movie affords the viewer a sense of having gained love without loss, which is actually impossible. Not because you can't, but because gaining is incompatible with love.
Hello:)