Lost in Translation
The Rusters asked me to recommend an in-flight movie from the menu and I chose one of my favourite films set in Tokyo – Lost in Translation. It is the first film directed by Sofia Coppola and featured memorable performances by Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray.
Bill Murray born in Chicago and a late joiner of Saturday Night Live, the brilliant comedy vehicle of John Belushi and Chevy Chase, who already made his name in Caddy Shack, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day.
Sofia Coppola only wanted him in the role of an ageing actor jet-lagged in Tokyo to film a whisky and drawn to the not-so-happily married younger Scarlett Johansson.
Casting Bill Murray for the film was no easy matter as he had neither agent nor publicist, just an out of date answering machine.
Her persistence paid off and he accepted the role.
His relationship on screen is platonic. The two explore the mad freneticism that is Tokyo – together and finally part – in the streets with a hug and words from Bill Murray we never hear.
It rather reminded me of the man who visits the brothel in Belle de Jour who shows his strange box but the viewer never gets to see the contents. Bill Murray delivers a performance of humour, pathos and above all a person stuck in a weird city who cannot sleep.
Scarlett Johansson is charming in her role: no conventional glamorous beauty but exuding sex appeal.
As Hollywood took its course of special effects, violence, branded movies and the Me Too movement Lost in Translation is a touching tale of two people making a connection in the most improbable of places and circumstances.
