Brilliant!

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Lost in Translation (BFI Classics) by Suzanne Ferriss     

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


‘Lost in Translation’ is one of my fave movies. I watch it at least once a year and never tire of it. Ferriss’ superb analysis gives gravitas to my many reasons for admiring it.

Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson are just ideal in their portrayals of two people who accidentally meet in Tokyo.

The improvisational tone of the movie, the talent of Murray and Johansson is noted.

Sofia Coppola’s genius is applauded—her focused application of what she determines will work, coupled with her intuitive understanding.

As Ferriss posits,

“Lost in Translation ingeniously and inventively manipulates cinematic conventions. This is the key to Coppola’s originality and to the film’s designation as a classic.”

I love this summary, “the film represents [Charlotte and Bob’s] unsettled emotional states as geographical and cultural dislocation: they are lost, physically and psychologically. [They] develop an intimate connection during their stay at the Park Hyatt hotel and shared experience of Tokyo nightlife. It could be a travel film, perhaps of the ‘brief encounter’ variety, or a May–September romance, or a romantic comedy.”

I seconded a further observation,

“The film’s opening is a bold assertion of cinema’s status as an art, like the painting it references, or literature, which similarly relies on the audience’s imaginative engagement to find meaning – to connect scenes, to make sense of disconnected fragments of information, to link them through memory.”

Ferris’s takes us on a trip, a traveling along the same route that Coppola took in the filming. Exciting!

Her treatise is just so filled with discerning insight about the movie that as I underlined quotes, I realized I was in danger of selecting the whole book.

A “must” for anyone who feels an appreciation for Lost in Translation. A pathway to further discoveries and a fascinating read.


A Bloomsbury ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

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