Lost In Translation

odt

School

Oakland Community College *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

1900

Subject

Arts Humanities

Date

Oct 30, 2023

Type

odt

Pages

Uploaded by GeneralInternetBuffalo7

HUM1900-A1204 November 12, 2020 Lost in Translation (2003) The 2003 romantic comedy-drama, Lost in Translation , written and directed by Sophia Coppola, features Bill Murray as Bob Harris, a middle-aged American actor in a mid-life crisis who travels to Tokyo to promote a whisky product. Over a long weekend, Bob Harris befriends another American, Charlotte played by Scarlett Johansson, who is a recent college graduate traveling with her photographer husband. Bob and Charlotte form an unusual friendship that eventually leads to them falling in love and challenging their unfulfilled lives. The concept of realism is generously represented in Lost in Translation as the film uses it to define the isolated and depressed lives of both main characters as the director centers in on them throughout the film. Bob and Charlotte are first introduced to each other unremarkably in the hotel elevator and only eye-contact is made (at the eye level POV) but little else, exemplifying the use of minimal dialogue throughout the film and the use of realism that aids in showing the likeness between the characters in terms of isolation and depression. Coppola seemed to purposely create this encounter of existentially isolated Bob and Charlotte to set the tone of the film as Bob sees his family is in shambles and Charlotte feels neglected and unfulfilled with her current situation. These feelings of isolation are paramount to the character's development in the film as they both feel “lost” in their own way and show how they bond with one another over this common theme. Throughout Lost In Translation Bob and Charlotte develop a sort of opaque romantic friendship with no overt sexual gestures, which is unusual for Hollywood. This exemplifies the directors use of realism as the audience is invited to see a believable bond that transforms the lives of two very different people far away from home: their everyday lives, their struggles and growth, the engaging stories that are told between-the-lines as the script offers little compared to form.

Through the use of realism one can relate to the characters in Lost in Translation because they are presented as “lost” souls who are isolated, depressed and longing for a new purpose - and in real life not everyone is fulfilled with the direction of their lives. Lastly, the fact that the characters did not live happily-ever-after as the cliché goes, is another example of realism because in real life not everyone is so lucky, and sometimes the end of the story doesn't always reconcile with the audience as they doesn't really know what will ever happen to Bob and Charlotte.

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