Two people who are lost in translating their thoughts

Rating: 10/10 (29 May 2006)

It seems that Hollywood wants movies to be big and extensive, complex and in a way exhausting. The big movies are rewarded and paid attention to, they are shown in cinemas around the globe and become famous beyond belief. And in this stream of long, elaborate movies only some quiet and unobtrusive, somehow reserved films succeed in entering public attention and approval: Sofia Coppola's masterpiece "Lost in Translation" is one of those seemingly small productions that are nearly as much rewarded as they deserve to be. But this picture, having a clever and soft plot, a story that makes you expect the worst, is very big - concerning its contents and the beauty of Coppola's very personal language. We are plainly shown how two Americans that are on the surface totally different from each other - which is summed up in the difference of age that obviously is unmasked as fully unimportant in the course of the movie - get to know each other in a strangely speechless Japanese city. Technically this is reflected by a sound-mixing that seems to stress that all the Americans perceive is either quiet and hard to hear at all or loud and indistinct. The two Americans do not experience any real speaking, conversation, communication with the Japanese. And as the title already hints at it, this superficial problem of not being able to communicate properly in a culture that is entirely strange to them is the topic of the movie. But the state of being lost that seems more vital to the meaning of the picture is the incapability of the protagonists - a young newly-married woman who wants to be a philosopher, staying in Japan because her weird husband, a photographer, has to work there, and a comparatively elderly former movie star who produces commercials in Japan - to speak things out, to say what should be said, to change what obviously needs to be changed. Only in the end does this problem suddenly seem to change, for Bob obviously says something wonderful and significant, but inaudible in Charlotte's ear - though this is not sure and just one possible interpretation of the open ending. It is a sociological, psychological and very personal view that we are given at the same time. An unequal couple that develops something that is - up to a certain point when there should be some words - beyond sex or words, relationship or marriage. It is an adventure in this place where everybody is somehow lost and alone, a joyride through the possibilities of the night in this anonymous city. They come closer and closer without clearing their relation, without any need of it. And when they are lying in bed - a decent and typical distance of a foot or so between them - Bob simply touches her injured foot, saying nothing. And this is the magic of the story: The protagonists do those little things that can change a life, those trivial and small movements, faces and gestures. And Sofia Coppola emphasizes them very indirectly, subtly by showing us pictures without words, sequences in which the distracting sound of the people is faded out and all that is left is this wonderfully emotional rock music. She seems to know what it is like to be part of a flush of feelings and activities, to lose oneself in wild adventures with people, music and looking at each other. And so she takes her time to let those two Americans come closer, making the viewer fully understand why a relation like that is possible, why it is so much better than being married to the young and agile photographer, or being rich and famous. She knows her thing and spends a whole film on a development that other directors would have spent minutes on - to finally deal with something more captivating than just human interaction. And this is what makes this film an unbelievably splendid piece of art: It stresses a thing that is so normal, so average and mediocre: falling in love with the wrong person, not being able to maintain something you truly need, losing yourself in a place and a person for a short and unforgettable time of your life. And it tells a story that is unlikely and interesting, exciting and entertaining: a mature man and a girl being so close and falling so passionately and quietly for each other. It is a lovely, patient, authentic and fantastic film that teaches us what the best and most thrilling moments of your life can be and how fast they are over - but something always remains: the memory of having lived in those very moments that form you more than years can do.