Interiors (08/2012) Film: Lost in Translation (2003) Director: Sofia Coppola Sofia Coppola’s first two films, The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Lost in Translation (2003), can both be considered companion pieces. The female filmmaker explores city spaces with both films. In her sophomore film, Sofia Coppola transplants her audience from the Detroit suburbs to the urban Tokyo. Lost in Translation introduces us to the character of Charlotte (Scarlet Johansson), a young wife of a celebrity photographer on assignment in Tokyo, with an image of her resting in bed, wearing transparent pink underwear. The character of Bob (Bill Murray), an aging film actor, is introduced in a cab. Bob and Charlotte, like the director of this film, are tourists in this city; as a result, we are introduced to the city of Tokyo through the lens of a tourist and as visitors of this space, rather than native citizens. Sofia Coppola’s fascination of a city covered in neon lights is evidenced throughout a number of scenes. Bob and Charlotte navigate the spaces of an unfamiliar culture, and the impressions we are left with of Tokyo, as an audience, are impressions created by a foreigner to the city. The adventures Bob and Charlotte go on (restaurants, clubs, karaoke bars) are all presented from the perspective of an American. Sofia Coppola romanticizes Tokyo and her film is an idealization of this space. The Park Hyatt Tokyo serves as the setting for the film. The hotel occupies the top fourteen floors of the Shinjuku Park Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Sofia Coppola has described the hotel as one of her “favorite places in the world.” The Shinjuku Park Tower consists of three sections; floors 1-8 are retail stores, floors 9-37 are office floors and floors 39-52 belong to the hotel. The hotel itself combines worlds and cultures together with its offerings in dining and entertainment. The hotel consists of French and Japanese restaurants, Girandole and Kozue, respectively. The New York Bar serves as the meeting location for
Bob and Charlotte. The hotel is considered a prime destination for visitors to the city, primarily celebrities, and the fact that Sofia Coppola sets her film in such a modern, popular hotel is further evidence that she is interested in spaces that interest her as a foreigner. The fact that the hotel is considered an “elegant oasis of space” also shows us that she is interested in actual locations as opposed to constructed sets. Lost in Translation was born out of her desire for wanting to make a “love story without being nerdy.” The film explores the “spaces” of relationships, focusing on moments of connection that are created when Bob and Charlotte run into each other throughout the hotel. The diagram we have presented focuses on a scene in the film when Bob and Charlotte watch La Dolce Vita (1960) together in Bob’s hotel room. This scene shows their eventual transition on the bed as Sofia Coppola explores the proximity of Bob and Charlotte’s bodies. Bob begins this scene by lying down on his stomach at the foot of the bed, drinking sake with Charlotte, who sits on the floor on the left side of the bed. The following shot of the film is of Tokyo, as seen through Bob’s hotel window. The camera pans and focuses on Bob and Charlotte’s reflection. In this shot, Bob is still lying on his stomach, whereas Charlotte now sits on the bed. Charlotte comments that neither one of them should visit this city again because doing so “would never be as much fun.” The final shot of the scene consists of both characters lying on their backs together in bed. Sofia Coppola explores feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. In Charlotte’s case, it’s the absence of her husband that creates doubt in her life. In Bob’s case, it’s the unhappiness of his routine life with his family. These characters, in some sense, complete each other and fill each other’s voids, but at the same time, restrain themselves from going past the point of no return. Charlotte questions Bob on life and marriage in bed and immediately says, “I’m