Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” turns twenty years old this year, the arthouse classic still considered her best work by various critics and one of the defining films of that year.
The movie focuses on two American characters in Tokyo who never met until the events of the film – a fading American movie star (Bill Murray) in a midlife crisis, and a young college graduate (Scarlett Johansson) accompanying her husband for work.
Both are disenchanted, lonely and anxious about their future, all whilst dealing with jet lag and cultural displacement in Tokyo. They end up bonding as they hang out together over a few days. Ultimately they have to go their separate ways, but not before a memorable whispered goodbye in the street.
The film was acclaimed for dismissing narrative conventions about relationships, offering a nuanced and rarely-seen story about the intimate connections people can have, even fleetingly, without it being physical.
In the social media age however, the film has also been subject to debates about the age gap of the characters (he was 52, she was 17). In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Coppola revealed that watching the film with her children provoked a different reaction than she expected:
“I showed it to my kids a few years ago when we were going to Tokyo and staying at the Park Hyatt, and that was the first time I’d watched it in a while, and they were like, ‘Why is she so young and he’s so much older?’. I had made it when I was closer to Scarlett’s age and didn’t think that much about it. That was something that they noticed the most.”
Coppola also says she isn’t interested in negotiating the morality of the film but did discuss.
“I did notice that watching it with my kids, because they’re teenagers and they were like, ‘What’s going on with that?’ But Bill is so lovable and charming. Part of the story is about how you can have romantic connections that aren’t sexual or physical. You can have crushes on people where it isn’t that kind of thing. Part of the idea was that you can have connections where you can’t be together for various reasons because you’re at different points in life.”
The film was a major critical and commercial success, taking in $118.7 million at the box-office from a $4 million budget. It won the Oscar for Best Screenplay (Original) and was nominated for three others including Best Picture.
