Lost in Translation

Stephen Nomura Schible

Film · Tokyo Stories: Japan in the Global Imagination

Tuesday, November 19, 7 PM

With an introduction by co-producer Stephen Nomura Schible

Nearly two decades on, Sofia Coppola’s early aughts classic about loneliness, ennui and brief encounters abroad continues to be a touchstone of 21st century Western representations of Tokyo on film. Beginning with the desire to set a story in Japan’s busy capital, the American director drew upon personal experiences to craft this finely-tuned feature about an aging movie star (Billy Murray) who develops an unexpectedly intimate bond with a young newlywed (Scarlett Johansson) while they are both staying at the Park Hyatt Tokyo in Shinjuku. Distinguished by a dreamlike mood mixed with bemused humor derived from (largely exaggerated) cultural differences and Murray’s uniquely droll persona, Lost in Translation paints a compelling portrait of the isolating and enthralling experience of being a stranger in a strange land.

2003, USA/Japan, 102 min., 35mm, in English and Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Sofia Coppola. With Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris.

“One of the purest and simplest examples ever of a director falling in love with her star’s gifts.”

—The New York Times

Part of Tokyo Stories: Japan in the Global Imagination

Tickets: $14/$11 seniors, students & persons with disabilities/$10 members

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