A Subjectively Realistic and Classical Love Story: A Critical Essay

Rating: 9/10 (22 May 2015)

The late 1920s to the early 1960s was a significant era that the American film industry experienced, which is called the "Golden Age of Hollywood". During, there was a very distinctive cinematic form established in the way films were directed artistically and the actual narratives that were being presented. Rudimentary to the classic Hollywood film is the utilization of all stylistic elements to enhance the understanding of the narrative, which is accomplished through the practise of continuity editing. The classical narrative is a three-act structure which advances through the film as a result of tight cause-and-effect events fuelled by the actions of ambitious leading characters. In contrast to the Classical film rose the art film, in which the director is self-consciously expressive and tells a story through a realistic approach. As a result, the art film seeks to solve a problem through ambiguity and the cause-and-effect linkage of the story is loosened. In Lost in Translation, Sophia Coppola starts the movie using a unified classical Hollywood style to direct the narrative, but she also deviates from that which can be seen as authorial expressivity. On the other hand, the narrative that is being told can be viewed as totally one of an art film; the events lack strong causality, and is both objectively and subjectively realistic. The combination of differing style and narrative allows this film to be a hybrid of both an art and a classical cinema.
In Lost in Translation, a narrative defined by art cinema emerged, rather than one of a typical classic. Charlotte, is alone in her hotel room and makes a phone call to a relative/friend and expresses that she is questioning if she really knows the man she has married. Charlotte becomes emotional during the conversation and the call soon ends when the recipient is too busy to recognize and address the problem that has become apparent. This reveals to the audience that Charlotte has a complex psychological problem that is expressed to her friend, but remains hidden from everyone, including her husband —part of whom is the problem —and it does not become resolved. Charlotte, a main character, is upset over whom she married and begins to question her love for him, yet she fails to demonstrate any action or goals to change her situation. She is shown immediately in the proceeding clips reapplying make-up and talking casually to her husband as if everything is fine. This demonstrates a realistic narrative which is objective through the situation Charlotte is in, and subjective in her inaction which causes the loosening of the cause-and-effect events throughout the film as she continues to drift aimlessly from one situation to another. This causes ambiguity in what Charlotte will do to solve her relationship problem with her husband and with her newly-found, chance friendship with Bob Harris. The audience is left with an awareness of an authorial presence from the purposely open ended conclusion that generates many questions to fill with subjective interpretations.
In order for a classic Hollywood story to be told in the most effective way the style of the cinematic representation must be unified and 'invisible'. In distinction from classical cinema, the art film defines itself against all of the established normality's in the narrative and in result, style. The art films loosened cause-and-effect events and episodic narrative structure allows for a less strict approach to cinematic style than the classic. "The art film requires the classical background set because deviations from the norm must be registered as such to be placed as realism or authorial expression" (Brandy and Cohen 781). Lost in Translation demonstrates a hybrid of both classical and art cinema style. The opening scenes and on many other occasions, the style by which Coppola chooses to convey events is of a classical Hollywood style; establishing shots, the 180° rule is abided by, shot-reverse-shot and three-point lighting is used when they the protagonists converse. Not long after the first scenes continuity editing is disrupted and a more stylistic approach is taken to the devices. The jump cut, rack focusing to a fully out-of-focus frame, and lack of three-point light are all used to create an authorial presence as the techniques draw attention to themselves and draw from the story. One scene that demonstrates a style of an art film starts off as a jump cut to a low-angle shot of Bob Harris in a pool with diegetic energetic music playing. The manipulation of the filming through the camera angle, movement, level, speed of motion, and sound are all used in the proceeding shots. Bob and other swimmers are shot in a slightly slower rate, the camera is beside and tracking Bob in the water, with the music muted (as if underwater), and is constantly breaking at the top which then allows the audience to again hear the music clearly. Formal features associated with classical and art film are both evenly used to tell the narrative.
Through unique manipulation of the filming and with the occasional use of a classical approach to style, the film studied can be seen a hybrid of both an art and a classical Hollywood film. Coppola becomes notably authoritatively expressive as her 'invisible' style fades to a more noticeable one to the audience. The loosening of the cause-and-effect events and the apparent ambiguity of an art film standout in the film's narrative as it lacks the three-act structure and the goal-oriented protagonists of a classical Hollywood film. Lost in Translation is a motion picture which tells a subjectively realistic love story as a man and a women see desire for each other, but remain in their current relationship. The location and time the characters spend in Tokyo, Japan is rather objectively realistic, as it is not a fantasy land that is depicted in a typical classic. The realistic and authorial expressive motivations behind the narrative can only lead to one fate of Bob and Charlotte's relationship, one that does not have proper closure.