Just saw it for like the fifth time. Definitely one of my favorite movies, it keeps growing on me.
I hope there isnt another topic already on this movie.

Well, what are other people's thoughts?

I love Lost in Translation, it's sweet, very funny and unique. Deinitely one of the best romantic comedies I've ever seen. Bill Murray is at his deadpan best and Scarlet Johansson is...(*turns and looks at his oversized Scarlet Johansson oil painting*) well, she's just the cutest little thing ever, isn't she?. Sofia Coppola deserved her Oscar and she has produced a film that's a pleasure to watch again and again. "A ring a ding ding"

I don't want to be an asshole, but I just really really detested this movie and A) I love Bill Murray, B) think Scarlett is flaming hot. the script and direction are so self-centered and pretentious, it takes itself so seriously (despite random funny moments) I want to gag, not to mention nothing ever happens. I don't even mind staid drama if the writing's good but the movie is boooooooring. it's a pretty thin disguise of Sophia coppola's fading marriage

This movie has been discussed plenty elsewhere and has stirred up long controversial and hotly disputed arguments about the quality of this movie. This movie has probably been discussed a length on this site somewhere in the past, it's pretty old considering cyberspace.

Anyway, I'm one of those audience members who has placed this movie in my top favorite movies of all time list. I understand that for a number of critics and viewers this movie was boring and seemingly nothing every happens. Yet, actually experiencing this movie twice, I gain more and more appreciation the second time as I saw and sensed things I hadn't before. This movie isn't about action, about storyline with some twist and deep meaning. Instead this intelligent, sometimes brilliant acting performance by Bill Murray is just about sensory experience, a travelogue so to speak about being an different culture and having to go through the motions of a job that really doesn't appeal to someone. It is the silent facial expression, the understated humor, the feeling of actually being aware of this total environment of Japan in an American way. This is a movie for those who enjoy the sights and sounds, the carefully edited and staged performances of just being (very Zen) instead of doing as Americans are so used to.

I absolutely love LIT. I used to have a job where I had to travel extensively, usually alone, all over the world but many times to Asia. This movie did such a fastastic job of capturing the essence of what that's like. The lonliness, the culture shock, relationships with people you know you'll never see again. If you've never been in the situation, I can see where it might seem boring, but to me it's one of the best American films in recent years.

Yeah, and you gotta love the very first shot of the film, hehehe, you guys know what I'm talking about...

Not only was it extremely funny, but it was deep and touching as well. I sometimes feel like i want to cry during this movie.

Great movie. The movie is in the upper echelon of watchability. It's hyperwatchable. Bill Murray is awesome. Scarlett Johansson is pretty as fuck. Tokyo looks so good. There's some great music choices (MBV in the ride back to the hotel, Air in Kyoto, Squarepusher at Charlotte's hotel window, JaMC on the freeway to the airport).

I guess you could describe the movie as mediocre but having its great moments. The thing about it is that its great moments take up a majority of the movie.

"not to mention nothing ever happens"

Wow, that kind of sounds like my life...

quote:

quote from CrazyDave "not to mention nothing ever happens"

.

Some of my best memories in my life are of moments where nothing seemingly happens. Sitting on the ledge of a huge cliff overseeing a forest of trees. Lying on an a vast expanse of rock having climbed up several hundred feet or on a vast expanse of sand having practically waded through and up to the top of a sand dune. Sometimes, the richness of experience is not the cognitive complexities of plot twists but in a person's interaction with one's environment. What is happening in Lost in Translation is composed of the fascinating emotional experience observed in this movie not the mental mystery of trying to ascertain some deep meaning of interpersonal ego demons. The emotional displacement in finding oneself in a different culture, of attempting to follow directions in a foreign language, the whole alien landscape and finding something familiar in another human being at the same time makes Lost in Translation an innovative filmmaking experience for many.

quote:

Originally posted by tabuno:

quote:

quote from CrazyDave "not to mention nothing ever happens"

.

Some of my best memories in my life are of moments where nothing seemingly happens. Sitting on the ledge of a huge cliff overseeing a forest of trees. Lying on an a vast expanse of rock having climbed up several hundred feet or on a vast expanse of sand having practically waded through and up to the top of a sand dune. Sometimes, the richness of experience is not the cognitive complexities of plot twists but in a person's interaction with one's environment. What is happening in Lost in Translation is composed of the fascinating emotional experience observed in this movie not the mental mystery of trying to ascertain some deep meaning of interpersonal ego demons. The emotional displacement in finding oneself in a different culture, of attempting to follow directions in a foreign language, the whole alien landscape and finding something familiar in another human being at the same time makes Lost in Translation an innovative filmmaking experience for many.

For many, I agree with you. For me, no. I'd much rather be out on the cliff or in upper Mariposa Grove or in Canyonlands than watching Lost in Translation. If you love it, good for you, but please understand that I'm not one of those who thinks that it's worthless, boring tripe. I just think that I expect something more from a movie. A story would be nice, maybe even a plot. I've got home movies which are five times more artistic and evocative than Lost in Translation, but I don't expect you to watch them. Then again, if my last name was Coppola, maybe I would.

Some of us, in fact many of us are not so fortunate to have an opportunity such as you and I (you maybe even more so) to experience real life in a fashion that allows us to go beyond the sheer magnitude of our ordinary lives. None of us will have an opportunity to go to another planet nor to the bottom of the sea. There are many inner city children who have never been to the mountains or see a real cow.

"Lost in Translation" allows for many who are willing to experience in an artistic, edited, and brilliant and subtle performance to experience Japan and the American perception of it in ways that I haven't seen in other movies. The ability of this movie to help the viewer move beyond the action and the plot into something more vicarious, feeling, emotional without the more black and white love and hate mentality, than this movie confirms its greatest to those who experience in this other way.

I would agree with the idea that a movie can never replace the actual experience and it's not meant to. But it allows us to go beyond most other movies who focus is more on tintillation, deep strong thoughts and emotions - yet it is in the more simple, nuanced ripples that a great movie can be found. Drama is so much easier than the more mundane reality of real life that Lost in Translation seems to focus on.

love it or hate it its just a chilled out film with good performances and a few very funny moments

"lip my stockings!"

quote:

Originally posted by thommy thom:
love it or hate it its just a chilled out film with good performances and a few very funny moments

"lip my stockings!"

The phrase 'damning with faint praise' comes to mind.

Personally I love the film and think it is a masterful mood piece - specifically loneliness and longing and how relationships create meaning for us and their absence removes meaning. I have no time for those stereotypically French films that meander around in a beautiful haze but this is because they are often uncertain in mood or have little mood to speak of. I find LIT to be very direct and tightly structured re the moodmaking I described above - unlike I suspect those home movies Mark F mentions

I'm in the minority that hated it. I think a film can be touching and sweet and expose us to a different culture and still give us something remotely resembling a plot or a storyline or character development. I found it pretentious, snobby, and boring. And like the previous poster, I, too, love Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson is one of my favorite actresses.

quote:

Sunsplashed Know-It-All
Posted 13 April 2007 07:57 PM

I'm in the minority that hated it. I think a film can be touching and sweet and expose us to a different culture and still give us something remotely resembling a plot or a storyline or character development. I found it pretentious, snobby, and boring. And like the previous poster, I, too, love Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson is one of my favorite actresses.

As one in the majority who loved the movie, I can respect your opinion. The movie didn't have the usual convoluted/simple plot outline of most normal films nor really characters who become transformed in a big way. As I've mentioned before, this is a slice of life - more a dramatic travelogue than movie that is more about the experience than the thinking, breaking apart, action, drama movie. Yet, I understand that sometimes this movie can just be a bore because nothing typical of a movie really happens. As to snobby and pretentious, Bill Murray seems to have succeeded in depicted some of his film character onto the audience. But, nevertheless, I can't argue with how this movie can strike you as pretty lame.