My Favorite Scenes In Lost In Translation
+++ title = “04” date = 2019 +++
I remember the first time I saw this stargazey film. I was really into ambient music at the time, and the philosophy of creators like Brian Eno, who believed that sometimes we create art that is meant to let our mind drift, the way he did with his famous album Music for Airports (and many others that followed).
It was the first time I had met up with my parents since I had gone to college. It was still relatively early in the year, October I think, so things were just cooling off but we were in that lovely in between period (at least in terms of the weather) between summer and fall.
I remember leaving the film feeling a way that I never felt leaving any other films. Instead of what I normally felt, which was however the ending had left me, I had felt like the entire film washed all over me, and I was covered in its residue.
My two favorite scenes:
- When Bill Murray whispers something into ScarJo’s ear at the end, but we can’t hear what it is. I love this because when I revisit this scene at different times in my life, I’m either deeply curious about what he says to her, or I don’t care, or I don’t want to know. It changes every time, which is an effect that I believe a good film has on a viewer.
- When ScarJo is killing time and walking around Tokyo. She’s poking at things, and looking at foreign art in almost a meditative way. It’s a scene that goes on longer than one would expect, but the scene does for the viewer what the experience does for the character: it makes us feel like we’re children, exploring the environment around us. Very few movies accomplish this.