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Little Laura
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Location: On the trails with my dog
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 Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:07 am Post subject: "Lost in Translation" questions... |
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Just saw the movie for the first time last night. Didn't like it much, but am still thinking about it:
1. What do you think the movie was saying? That the girl's marriage became an environment she couldn't relate to?
2. What do you think Bob Harris whispered in her ear at the end of the movie? This has me stumped. What could he have said that so completely resolved the tension in both of them and made them both so happy with all that happened and the situations they were both left in? "We were meant to meet this week, and everything's going to work out for you. I love you." ? |
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flotsam
Joined: 28 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:13 am Post subject: Re: "Lost in Translation" questions... |
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| Little Laura wrote: |
Didn't like it much
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Apoplexy. (Sockaliscious) |
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crystal
Joined: 04 May 2006
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:24 am Post subject: |
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I never got the film either and was really disappointed after I saw it because a lot of people were raving about how good it was. Seems to be one of those films which you either love or hate. I for one hated it.
I saw it in German though so maybe something did get lost in the translation, but maybe not. There just wasn't enough happening in the film to keep me entertained. |
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Little Laura
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Location: On the trails with my dog
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:26 am Post subject: |
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sorry...see below
Last edited by Little Laura on Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:29 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Little Laura
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Location: On the trails with my dog
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:28 am Post subject: Re: "Lost in Translation" questions... |
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| flotsam wrote: |
| Little Laura wrote: |
Didn't like it much
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Apoplexy. (Sockaliscious) |
Huh? You're shocked that I didn't like it? I found it a bit boring. I couldn't get in the girl's head, and she was supposed to be a philosophy major. I just expected a bit more meaningful dialogue. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:37 am Post subject: |
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If I raised one eyebrow, squinted the other eye and tilted my head to look at you....would you be able to get into my head??
It was one of those films where the moments built on each other to show you something instead of telling you what it is.
I loved it. |
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Little Laura
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Location: On the trails with my dog
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 6:56 am Post subject: |
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| happeningthang wrote: |
| If I raised one eyebrow, squinted the other eye and tilted my head to look at you....would you be able to get into my head?? |
um...no. But if you talked to me about what you were thinking I might be able to leak through the unsquinted eye...
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| It was one of those films where the moments built on each other to show you something instead of telling you what it is. |
Ah. I think that's my problem. I never scored well on the non-verbal parts of tests. I do a lot better with words. That's why this movie has me thinking and asking for others to help supply them.
good...glad you liked it. Now, what did you like about it? And, any thoughts about my questions? (and stop squinting, please! It's so hard for me to get in when people squint.) |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:36 am Post subject: |
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Fair enough ....
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| 1. What do you think the movie was saying? That the girl's marriage became an environment she couldn't relate to? |
Yeah that - and that people lose connection between what they feel and what they do and end up drifting through life, alone, without a sense of purpose.
Both the girl and the Bill Murray's characters are disconnected from people - Bill's wife is distant literally and figuratively (disembodied voice on the long distance line). He doesn't understand his job; what value does it have? It impresses some guys at the bar, he gets paid a fortune to grin and promote some crap whisky, the director, translator, game show host don't talk to him as a person. The girl's starting married to a d*ck who's only superficially concerned about her and just leaves her alone all the time. She doesn't have her own (innane) ambition (as the movie puts it - rock star photographer concerned about scarves, idiot actress, self involved DJ) so she's looking for purpose. So they're both essentially alone the girl just starting out in a married life where this isolation is de riguer. So movie message is (it's original) 'There's more to life than this'. The two get to spend time have a laugh, be open, close and real with each other, live a life together however briefly.
| Quote: |
| 2. What do you think Bob Harris whispered in her ear at the end of the movie? This has me stumped. What could he have said that so completely resolved the tension in both of them and made them both so happy with all that happened and the situations they were both left in? "We were meant to meet this week, and everything's going to work out for you. I love you." ? |
I think it was more that the tension between them that they'd shared something between each other and they were going to deny it by freezing up on each other was resolved. You're right there was nothing that could be said that wouldn't dissapoint one way or the other - it would be cheesy whatever he said. But as long as the connection is acknowledged then it's ok.
The whole movie set itself up to be a light hearted tragedy with the story starting out with the characters in slightly sh*t situations, they meet things get better, get better then 'hey life could be alright' then it goes wrong and things head downwards with possibility that life could turn out to be as crap as ever - until - 'hey, whispered words it was all for the good' .... happy ending. People go home smiling. It's nothing new but if you enjoy that sort of thing then you're going to like it. |
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Little Laura
Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Location: On the trails with my dog
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:56 am Post subject: |
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| Mmm. Thank you; that was helpful. (Don't blink - I'm jumping out now.) |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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| happeningthang wrote: |
It was one of those films where the moments built on each other to show you something instead of telling you what it is.
I loved it. |
Ditto. |
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whitebeagle
Joined: 09 Feb 2003
Location: UK
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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| It was boring and pretentious. 97 mins of middle-aged-guy-sexual-fantasy. Great. |
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TheFonz
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Location: North Georgia
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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| I found it boring and uneventful. Scarlet Johanson is overrated. Her acting ability is sub-par and her personality seems about the same in every movie I have seen her in. This movie had the potential to be decent, but the story was too mellow for me. I would of much rather spent my time reading a book than watching that blah movie. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.lost-in-racism.org/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1130137,00.html
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Film reviewers have hailed Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation as though it were the cinematic equivalent of the second coming. One paper even called it a masterpiece. Reading the praise, I couldn't help wondering not only whether I had watched a different movie, but whether the plaudits had come from a parallel universe of values. Lost in Translation is being promoted as a romantic comedy, but there is only one type of humour in the film that I could see: anti-Japanese racism, which is its very spine.
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There is no scene where the Japanese are afforded a shred of dignity. The viewer is sledgehammered into laughing at these small, yellow people and their funny ways, desperately aping the western lifestyle without knowledge of its real meaning. It is telling that the longest vocal contribution any Japanese character makes is at a karaoke party, singing a few lines of the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen.
The Japanese half of me is disturbed; the American half is too. The Japanese are one-dimensional and dehumanised in the movie, serving as an exotic background for Bob and Charlotte's story, like dirty wallpaper in a cheap hotel. How funny is it to put the 6ft-plus Bill Murray in an elevator with a number of overly small Japanese? To manufacture a joke, the film has Murray contorting himself to have a shower because its head isn't high enough for him - although he is supposed to be staying in a five-star hotel. It's made up simply to give western audiences another stereotype to laugh at. And haven't we had enough about the Japanese confusing rs and ls when they speak English?
While shoe-horning every possible caricature of modern Japan into her movie, Coppola is respectful of ancient Japan. It is depicted approvingly, though ancient traditions have very little to do with the contemporary Japanese. The good Japan, according to this director, is Buddhist monks chanting, ancient temples, flower arrangement; meanwhile she portrays the contemporary Japanese as ridiculous people who have lost contact with their own culture. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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| whitebeagle wrote: |
| It was boring and pretentious. 97 mins of middle-aged-guy-sexual-fantasy. Great. |
What!! Where's the sexual fantasy in this movie?? The only sex was with the middle aged cabaret singer. |
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pocketfluff
Joined: 30 May 2006
Location: Washington, DC (school) and Los Angeles, CA (home)
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| Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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Boring and pretentious indeed. Same with Ms. Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides," and with what I imagine to be "Marie Antoinette."
I've said it before, I'll say it again: I really hate movies that try to portray the female sex as something mysterious never to be understood. |
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