Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation was wonderful. Ditto Bill Murray. Ditto Scarlett Johansson. Ditto the soundtrack. It's my favorite movie of the year thus far.
Brought back memories for me of the time I was sent to Hong Kong for a week by a consulting firm to meet with people in their branch office. They wanted me to consider transferring there to help start an industry practice. The firm put me up for the week in a posh hotel with a window view from up on high of the harbor. I didn't know anyone and spent the week wandering around the city streets, feeling like an alien. Many things do, as they say, get lost in the translation, and many of the events in the movie reminded me of incidents from that visit.
I couldn't shake that feeling of loneliness and alienation I felt during my stay, and a week or so after I returned to the States I turned down the offer.
Other things in the movie that rung true. How sometimes, it's easier to talk about your problems with complete strangers than it is with friends and family. How you meet someone in a foreign country, and shortly thereafter you're spilling your guts to each other, and how that's all facilitated by sexual tension. And that moment when you have to say goodbye, how it comes too soon, and how awkward that can be because the moment is overloaded.
Go see it!
Brought back memories for me of the time I was sent to Hong Kong for a week by a consulting firm to meet with people in their branch office. They wanted me to consider transferring there to help start an industry practice. The firm put me up for the week in a posh hotel with a window view from up on high of the harbor. I didn't know anyone and spent the week wandering around the city streets, feeling like an alien. Many things do, as they say, get lost in the translation, and many of the events in the movie reminded me of incidents from that visit.
I couldn't shake that feeling of loneliness and alienation I felt during my stay, and a week or so after I returned to the States I turned down the offer.
Other things in the movie that rung true. How sometimes, it's easier to talk about your problems with complete strangers than it is with friends and family. How you meet someone in a foreign country, and shortly thereafter you're spilling your guts to each other, and how that's all facilitated by sexual tension. And that moment when you have to say goodbye, how it comes too soon, and how awkward that can be because the moment is overloaded.
Go see it!