Sofia Coppola may be known as the daughter of revered Godfather director, Frances Ford Coppola, but she herself has made a name for herself in the directing world. Having directed 4 critically acclaimed motion pictures, receiving 3 Academy Award nominations for Lost In Translation, and actually WINNING the Best Original Screenplay award Coppola has proven herself to not only be one of the elite female directors, but one of the best directors of today.As Lost In Translation is Coppola's most successful films, I will examine that piece of work. She wrote, produced, and directed the film. With those credits, it's already quite apparent that she is the ultimate auteur. Throughout her interview with Charlie Rose, we (the audience) learn the style of the director and writer Coppola is. The movie started as a setting she was influenced by: Japan. Then the characters took shape. The movie about two people in very different stages in their existence, but still Coppola describes them as "lost in life." Some could call this a romantic comedy, but it is so much more. It's an examination of how brief moments can be life-changing or unforgettable. Though the movie is told through Bill Murray's perspective, his female counterpart, Scarlet Johansson (who was only 18 at the time the movie was filmed) plays just as huge of a part, as they both pine for self-definition in a completely foreign country.
The film was lauded and received rave reviews, just as it should have because it rules. As stated before, it even won Coppola an Academy Award. With a $4 million budget, the movie has grossed over $119 million worldwide, which is ridiculous.
Humm, Maggie. Author/Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1997. 96. Print.
"A Conversation With Sofia Coppola" Interviw with Charlie Rose: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/1804
Roger Ebert's Review of the movie: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030912/REVIEWS/309120302
I watched her movie, Lost in Translation, in my other class. I actually got confused a lot. I could not get what this movie was about at the first time. So I watched it again, and I understood a little better I guess. I think the reason why I did not get the concept of this movie was because "I can understand Japanese." The thing Coppola was trying to do here was to make audience "lost" in this movie. I noticed there was no subtitles what casts were speaking in Japanese. For example, there was a scene where Bill Murray was making a TV commercial. The director tried to tell what he wants Bill to do, and interpreter translated what he said. But the interpreter did not translate most of the part the director said, so that make Bill lost in translation. I thought this movie was interesting to watch from Japanese perspective because there were a lot of stereotypical aspects.
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