2837_Anita_MovieAnalysis

Film：Lost In Translation
Name：Anita
Student ID：2837
Date：2010-4-18

The movie Lost in Translation is a 2003 American movie written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is one of the most well-known movies that Sofia Coppola directed. Sophia has its own particular view of live and she is a genius in directing movies. All this conditions make her film career successful.

Lost in Translation (2003) is Sofia’s second feature film. It is so successful owing to its good actors and actresses, beautiful pictures, flowing and smooth plot, unusual screenplay and extraordinary sound effect. The film went on to be nominated for four academy awards which includes Best Picture, Best Actor for Bill Murray, and Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Sofia Coppola.

This article will simply present how Sofia organizes all the elements to show a successful movie to audience.

In the beginning of the movie, we hear the sound of a plane landing. Then Bob Harris who is an ageing American movie actor arrived in Tokyo to make a commercial shot. The camera turns to Bob, leaning to the car window, tired and dull. He is on the way to the hotel. The camera cuts between Bob’s tired and depressed face and the night view. However, there is a strong contrast between the background music and picture. The night view in Tokyo is prosperous and busy while the background music is dismal and sad. This indicates that Bob is numb about his career and life. And at the same time, this leads audiences into silence and makes them immersed in the atmosphere.

A wide shot presents Bob sits on the end of the bed in a too small hotel kimono and he does not know what to do. The room is big and the light is a little dark. All this settings gives us a lonely feeling. The small hotel kimono shows it does not suit Bob. This detail indicates the theme of different culture in this movie.

On the other side, a wide shot presents Charlotte who is the young wife of a visiting photographer sits at the big window at midnight. She holds herself in her arms. Through the window, we can see the busy streets and we can even feel the noise outside the window. However, inside the room, Charlotte is lonely and insomnia. Besides, when Charlotte is wandering in the streets, she is quiet. She seems to find someone whom she can speak to. She always tries to understand what the Japanese said and did. However, she failed. She feels extremely lonely when she is in the crowds.

When Bob stays in Tokyo, he totally lost himself in Tokyo. Bob suffers confusion in Tokyo because of the cultural and language differences between himself and the Japanese. When he takes a shower in the hotel, he finds the shower nozzle is lower than his height. He can not get the information from the Japanese TV program. In addition, he is not used to have lunch with chopsticks. All this details in his life shows he leads a hard life in Japan. What’s worse, He has a problem in communication with the Japanese director. Although there is a translator, he can not really understand what the director wants him to do. For example, the director speaks a few long sentences with passion in Japanese; however the interpreter just translates into a very simple and short sentence without any details. A medium close up shot shows Bob wonders whether she is leaving out or if that is the way it works from Japanese to English. He is completely confused.

In the movie, there is few shots show Charlotte goes to the temple. Temple is a place full of peace and quiet. However, Charlotte who is in her mid twenties visits the temple alone. Actually, this is a good arrange to reveal Charlotte’s personality. This is because she is confused about her life. She is wondering the purpose of life. She is always left alone in the hotel by her husband. She is bored with her life and she tries to make herself busy with the decoration of the room. All this shows her life is boring. Moreover, the director sets a good position of the object and has a good control of the camera. She can make a good combination of the environment and the object. Thus the pictures appear in a beautiful vision. This is why Lost in Translation can achieve the award of Best Picture.

The movie use good editing. The movie editor can always make two different things continue naturally so that the story can move smoothly. For example, Charlotte can not fall asleep at all and she turns on the television and watches a crazy local TV show. Then camera focuses on the television screen. The following scene is Bob watches the same channel and he flips the channel after a while. These few short scenes combine very technically without repeating. At the same time, it shows clearly of the drama based on the timeline.

Bob and Charlotte, both suffer insomnia meet each other in the bar of the hotel. And they share the information about themselves with each other. Although they are strangers, they look like old friends. From now on, their live in Tokyo change suddenly.

Charlotte is going to meet her friends in Tokyo and she invites Bob. They go out eating, drinking and singing. From this part of the movie, we can find out that both of them smile. They act as themselves. And when they go back to the hotel, the background music is rapid and active. In contrast, the background music here is completely different from the beginning of the movie. Here comes the high tide of the movie. Two strangers run to each other because of the loneliness. From now on, they become friends. For example, Bob and Charlotte always go out to have fun together. They go to the Sushi bar to have food and Bob takes Charlotte to go to see a doctor. All these things make them closer and closer and their relationship becomes more and more complicated.
They watch movie and talk together. And then they lay on the bed without any sex. They become soul mate rather than friends or lovers.

The movie also has lots of short shots showing Bob talks with his wife on the phone. He is alienated by his family. He has no idea when he is talking with his wife. They even have quarrel on the phone. And his daughter refuses to answer his phone.

The fire alarm in the hotel booms in the last night of Bob’s departure. The hotel guest and staff hurry out of the hotel and Charlotte finds Bob in the crowd of the hotel guest. Charlotte gets the news that Bob is leaving tomorrow. In other words, the fire alarm reminds that their life in Tokyo comes to the end. At night, they meet in the bar again. There is a new singer. He sings “Where or When” with all his heart. “It seems we stood and talked like this before, we looked at each other in the same way then, but I can’t remember where or when…” “Some things that happen for the first time seem to be happening again and so it seems we have met before, and laughed before, and loved before, but who knows where or when…” Actually, the song is the review of their life in Tokyo.

At the end of the movie, a medium close up shows the farewell between Bob and Charlotte. Bob holds Charlotte close to him and whispers in her ear. A close up shot shows Charlotte’s extremely sorrowful eyes. Finally, they have a kiss and Bob leaves to reach his car. The music swells. Charlotte walks in the crowd and Bob reaches his car. They head to the opposite direction and go on their way.

From my point of view, all the loneliness and alienation are caused by the lack of communication. Because go through the whole movie, although Bob and his wife have communication, they are not willing to talk with each other. Charlotte does not talk much with her husband. Because her husband is busy with his business and Charlotte is always left alone in the hotel. They are lack of communication. However, Bob and Charlotte talk a lot and go out eating, drinking as well as having fun. Moreover, they treat each other as a good friend and they share things with each other. Finally, they get along well with each other.

In conclusion, all the elements in the movie make Lost in Translation outstanding. Seen from the whole movie, the theme is obvious: loneliness, alienation and culture difference. The loneliness and insomnia drive Bob and Charlotte together. The alienation makes Bob and his family lack of family love. The culture difference makes it hard for Bob and Charlotte to blend in with the local people.

Reference

http://www.impawards.com/2003/posters/lost_in_translation_ver2.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Translation_(film)

Note: The images are cut from the xbmc in AIT .

Movie Analysis - The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides is a novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides, and it is then filmed by Director Sofia Coppola in 1999. The movie Virgin Suicide is Coppola’s first directed movie but overall, it have a well critic and reputation from both the Hollywood and the public.

The story takes place in an affluent neighborhood in the 1970s. The story is about how a group of grown up neighborhood boys explores the past and to find out the answer for the suicides of five Lisbon sisters – who the boys had infatuated with. In another words, the movie is center with these five Lisbon sisters – 13 years old Cecilia, 14 years old Lux, 15 years old Bonnie, 16 years old Mary, and 17 years old Therese.

The purpose of this movie is to help the audience to understand the importance of exploring and understanding the past, in order to eliminate the repetition of the same mistakes in the future. To achieve the desired purpose of the film, Coppola had used cinematic techniques to illustrate the girls’ story.

The story is presented in a narrative form, from the perspective of an anonymous boy from the neighborhood boys. This technique is used beside to make the film more interesting, but also to help the audiences get involve and participate in the movie, rather than just an “outsider” of it.

The film starts off with a long shot of path filled with trees from an affluent neighborhood – where the Lisbon family was moving in. Trees are used as a symbol of the girls’ life in this scene – the trees is green and they look healthy; however, the trees are actually sick “inside”. This metaphor that the girls seem beautiful but deep inside their soul, they are actually suffering.

Screenshot - long shot of path filled with trees from an affluent neighborhood

Soon the camera has switches to a group of people dressing in bright color as a long shot, whom trying to chop the “sick” trees down. Color contrast between warm and bright color is used to catch the audiences’ attention, acknowledge them the fact that something is wrong and the story of five Lisbon sisters is starting to begin.

Screenshot - a group of people dressing in bright color as a long shot

The story of five Lisbon sisters begins with the attempted suicide by the youngest sister, Cecilia in the cool color bathroom. The color contrast between the previous scene - warm color, and the bathroom - cool color symbolize that Cecilia is living in a different “world”, she is “different” and she is suffering.

When comparing this movie to Coppola’s other film, such as the “Lost in Translation”, I realize Coppola like to make “contrast” between scenes in order to stand out the characters’ emotions among others. For example, the contrast between the warm color in the neighborhood and cool color in the bathroom from Virgin Suicides, and the contrast between the bright hotel room and dark bar in Lost in Translation. This technique creates two different “worlds”, ”emotions” and “identities”. Moreover, this unique and symbolic filming method also helps label these movies as “Coppola’s movie” indirectly to the audience.

When Coppola filmed the scene, where Cecilia attempted suicide in the bathtub which filled with water in a high angle, it seems like she is lying in her tears and “a damaged boat sinking into the sea”. All these reflected how depress she is and how much she is suffering. On the other hand, while Cecilia lying in the bathtub, it seems like she is baptizing. This echoes to the following shoot where Cecilia is holding a picture card of mother Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she is rescued. All these linked back to the fact that Cecilia and the Lisbon sisters are born in a traditional catholic family.

Screenshot - Cecilia attempted suicide in the bathtub which filled with water in a high angle

Screenshot - Cecilia is holding a picture card of mother Mary when she is rescued

Therefore, as Cecilia attempted suicide, does this means Cecilia is trying to “escape” through death and wanted to “reborn” through the power of her religious belief? This is ironic since the girls are born in a traditional catholic family, they are taught how to love and treasure themselves. However, they attempted suicide at first and committed suicide at last. All these have also questioned the audience that whether Coppola is trying to deliver a message of we are all the children of mother Mary, should be loved and no one should be suffering?

In the middle part of the movie, after the scene where Lux has sex with a guy named Trip Fontaine, after the school event “Homecoming Dance” and broke the Lisbon family’s curfew. Then the Lisbon family has taken the five sisters out from school, physically and mentally “caged” in the house. During the time, the five sisters contact the “outside” world – the neighborhood boys using light signals through the windows and share songs over the phone as a way of communicating and releasing their feelings. The way of how they using light signal and telecommunications to contact the outside world, it is similar to how the ships communicate between each others in the older days. This scene is echoes to the beginning scene when Cecilia lying in the bathtub just like a sinking boat, and also reminds the audience that the five Lisbon sisters is suffering due to the lack of freedom and identity.

Screenshot - light signals used as a way of communicating and releasing their feelings

Moreover, the name of the youngest sister, Cecilia, it is a Latin name and its original meaning is “the way for the blind” - If Cecilia is the “blind”, then she has a higher chance of losing her “way” comparing to others. In fact, she was the first to lost hope, lost her way in her life path and ended her life journey by committed suicide. As such, it echoes. Moreover, the name Lux, the 14 years old sister; it is also a Latin word and with an original meaning of “light”. However, ironically, she is “dark” – she lost her freedom, identity and the hope to be alive.

The ending of Virgin Suicide is very ironic and upset. The purpose for the Lisbon family to “cage” the five sisters is to “protect” them and make sure they are doing the “right” things. However, the five Lisbon sisters committed suicides. This is totally out of the Lisbon family imaginary and expectation. This ending explained to the audience that “authoritarian” has never been the best solution for all matters and in all situations. As a conclusion, the ending enables the audience to puzzle out the girl’s story, and also to understand the purpose of the film – the importance of learning from the past and mistakes.

Reference:

IMDb.com, 2010, Awards for the Virgin Suicides, [online], available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159097/awards, [12.04.10]

The Virgin Suicides, (motion picture), 2000, United States

Wikipedia, 2010, The Virgin Suicides, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_Suicides, [12.04.10]

Wikipedia, 2010, Sofia Coppola, [online], available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia_Coppola, [12.04.10]

Identity

This film talk about a patient malcolm have eleven personalities. one of his personality kill 6 people at a motel 4 years ago. The court is difficult to judge the man is criminal or not. so the doctor malick decide to kick the criminial personality out. Then the dreadful things happened in
malcolm's personality world.

The eleven personalities meet in a motel at a raining day.
7 of them die in turns in differents strange way. Everytime i think that guy is murder, next time the guy will be killed. It seems everyone possible is a murder, in fact no one is. they all dead.
during the all film I keep nervous and guess who is murder. Everytime when a person die, there must be a red door key with white number left beside the body. One of the left 4 personality is driver(he do police before) is told the fact by Dr malick in real world. Then
the driver and the bad guy both die with gun shot. And women(she is whore) personality go back to her hometown to plant orange.

Until here I still think it's happy ending. But one day the women dig a red door key out of soil in her orange garden. She is frighteen. The most evil people appear, it's little boy Timmy. Almost all the murder case is done by him. He said:"whore don't get a second chance." in fact Malcolm has miserable childhood, his mother is a whore, and treat him very bad.

"when I was going up the stairs I met a man who wasn't here. He wasn't here again today, I wish he had go away. " This sentences appear in the begining and the end. I think "I" is evil boy
and "he" is original personality. "I wish he had go away" means the evil boy want to kill the original personality for take control of Malcolm'body. OK, this film has perfect plot, I like it.

2012

This movie is about the world goes to the end.

My friend and me had made some joke about this movie:



The euro will replace the US dollar.

Only China can build that giant ship.

California governor is an "actor".

Always listen to the radio.

The U.S. president is always the president of all the people.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

(I HAVE POST IT ALREADY,BUT IT SEEMS I PUT IT ON THE WRONG SIDE,SO I WILL PUT IT AGAIN.)The movie i sawis talk about a famous film star who come to japan to have Filming commercials.And the japanese culture is different from his hometown.so he feel borling and he didn't like to live in japan.so he often come to bar drinking.The young lady who has a husband.but her husband seems is a playboy,often leave herself in the hotel.she feel lonely and sad.so she often come to bar drinking too.oneday the famous film star met the young lady in bar.Because they have the same culture.at that time they talk very happy.so they become a friend.And later they often go out play together,and the lady life changed,she become happy,at last they found they love eachother.This film tell us friends are important.when you have the common language,you will feel happy.I think this is a good film.

[I did this review ages ago but I posted this under the "comment" as I did not how to use this blog.. therefore I’m re posting my review again.. thx..]

A movie I saw recently is [The Virgin Suicides].




The Virgin Suicides is a novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides, and it is then filmed by Director Sofia Coppola in 1999.
The movie is center with the suicides of the five sisters – 13 years old Cecilia, 14 years old Lux, 15 years old Bonnie, 16 years old Mary, and 17 years old Therese.

Coppola had used different techniques to illustrate the girls’ story and also to catch the audiences’ attention.
Trees are used as a symbol of the girls’ life – the trees is green and they look healthy; however, the trees are actually sick “inside”. This metaphor that the girls seem to be fine but deep inside their soul, they are actually suffering.
Color contrast is also used to catch the audiences’ attention. At the very beginning of the movie, earth tone color is used. Then people dressing in bright color suddenly appear. This is to tell the audience that something is going wrong and the story is starting to begin.

Moreover, color contrast between the town – warm color, and the bathroom where Cecilia attempted suicide (cool color) represented that Cecilia is living in a different “world” and how depress she is.
The scene where Cecilia attempted suicide in the cool bathroom, Cecilia was actually holding a picture of mother Mary, the mother of Jesus. This make me feel ironic since the girls are born in a catholic family, they are taught how to love and treasure themselves. However, they committed suicide. Moreover, it also question me, whether Coppola is trying to deliver a message that we are the children of mother Mary and should be loved and treasured?

As a little conclusion, I think this is a good movie and I do recommend this movie to all of you.

Crows Zero

This is not the first time i see it,but i see it one more time recently, and the feeling it gives me just like the first time.

This is the story happened in Japan, which describe some things happened in the high school there, almost is fighting with each other, so it can be some kind of violent,this is the second film of this serial.

In the first one,it tells a boy just transfered to a new high school where the students there always fight with each other,because everyone want to be the no1 of that school,then the file begins to tell how can this boy become the no1 of that school finally,i think this file is not just about violence as simple as that, it also tell us a spirit,never give up,in the film,the boy fights with some very powerful students in that school,of course sometime he will lose but never giving up then they are like some kind of moved then decided to help him to become the no1,then this dream comes true.Just like real life if you keep doing somethings,you will always make it.

The second film,mainly tells the fight things between two high schools,why that happened,because the boy made a mistake to fight with other schools' students then the fight begin,but this time no body will help him,because of his recklessness,what happened then is the boy went to that school and want to fight with like hundreds students of that school,but when his friends know this thing,they all go to that school with no reasons,at these stage it become quite moving, it is not a film about high school students ,it about friends help each other,it is also tells a spirit, it is my thing i will do it.

Why this film called Crows,in my opinion,because these students want to fight with the powerful things to challenge their limitation, they do not want to stay,just like crows,they will never be caught in the cage like some other birds,they always flying in the sky.