Playing catch up. Thanks for the shout-out! All of this stuff has also been swirling in my head lately, so thanks for writing it down and developing these observations for us all to chew on. Someday (soon?) I am going to write about the Scorsese film in New York Stories which, is very good but also very problematic. Have you seen it? In it, Nick Nolte plays a successful artist and Patricia Arquette plays his assistant-turned-lover. When imagined from the female POV, it's totally a horror film--or a farce because Patricia Arquette just isn't a real woman. So much of this movie is great--and Richard Price wrote the script, and you can tell when it's really singing--but I kept saying to Patrick, "They needed a woman helping with this, sheesh. This is a MAN'S story."
I saw it when I was a teenager, I have a vague memory of renting it with my parents and having the sense that these were directors I should know about. But I clearly need to rewatch it!
Love this. I'm so grateful to you, Hannah, for Thelma and Alice.
One note - with Lost in Translation, I totally agree with your points. But there is another area in that film where I felt disappointed, which was the depiction of a Japanese sex worker, who became a kind of slapstick gag, if I'm remembering the film correctly. I think I also recall a general gag of Bill Murray's character being inexplicably misunderstood by some Japanese folks he was working with...it just didn't seem fair to those Japanese characters. I didn't believe they would actually be so lacking in comprehension. Those portrayals really stood out to me for being quite insensitive, and also unrealistic, in a film that was otherwise so sensitive and believable. I guess I'm just bringing it up because I think this whole project is about redirecting our gaze and focusing on those who have been overlooked in much of film and entertainment - and I think Sofia Coppola might have had her own blind spots in the making of this film. (But again, I haven't seen it in ages - maybe two decades ?!? - and am open to other interpretations)
Yes, I agree Lost In Translation is disappointing in that way--both the depiction of the Japanese sex worker and the running gag of Murray not understanding/being misunderstood by his Japanese colleagues. I rewatched Lost in Translation recently and one thing that redeems it (maybe only partly) is that it is very much in the bubble of the hotel, and is about these two extremely jet legged people being disconnected from their environment and from other people. It's clear that they are quite privileged and self-involved. If you want to give it a generous reading you could say that their profound loneliness stems from their privilege and blind spots but I'm not at all sure that Coppola intended that--she seems more focused on their romantic entanglement and how , because they are so far from home, they feel like they are outside of time. But I agree that Coppola could have portrayed this feeling of dislocation with greater sensitivity to her Japanese characters.
Playing catch up. Thanks for the shout-out! All of this stuff has also been swirling in my head lately, so thanks for writing it down and developing these observations for us all to chew on. Someday (soon?) I am going to write about the Scorsese film in New York Stories which, is very good but also very problematic. Have you seen it? In it, Nick Nolte plays a successful artist and Patricia Arquette plays his assistant-turned-lover. When imagined from the female POV, it's totally a horror film--or a farce because Patricia Arquette just isn't a real woman. So much of this movie is great--and Richard Price wrote the script, and you can tell when it's really singing--but I kept saying to Patrick, "They needed a woman helping with this, sheesh. This is a MAN'S story."
I saw it when I was a teenager, I have a vague memory of renting it with my parents and having the sense that these were directors I should know about. But I clearly need to rewatch it!
Coppola's movie, which he wrote with Sofia, is TERRIBLE. I haven't watched the Woody Allen one yet.
Uh the above comment is by MOI. Wrong Substack account. :)
Just popping in to say that I'm enjoying this series Hannah. Thank you.
Love this. I'm so grateful to you, Hannah, for Thelma and Alice.
One note - with Lost in Translation, I totally agree with your points. But there is another area in that film where I felt disappointed, which was the depiction of a Japanese sex worker, who became a kind of slapstick gag, if I'm remembering the film correctly. I think I also recall a general gag of Bill Murray's character being inexplicably misunderstood by some Japanese folks he was working with...it just didn't seem fair to those Japanese characters. I didn't believe they would actually be so lacking in comprehension. Those portrayals really stood out to me for being quite insensitive, and also unrealistic, in a film that was otherwise so sensitive and believable. I guess I'm just bringing it up because I think this whole project is about redirecting our gaze and focusing on those who have been overlooked in much of film and entertainment - and I think Sofia Coppola might have had her own blind spots in the making of this film. (But again, I haven't seen it in ages - maybe two decades ?!? - and am open to other interpretations)
Yes, I agree Lost In Translation is disappointing in that way--both the depiction of the Japanese sex worker and the running gag of Murray not understanding/being misunderstood by his Japanese colleagues. I rewatched Lost in Translation recently and one thing that redeems it (maybe only partly) is that it is very much in the bubble of the hotel, and is about these two extremely jet legged people being disconnected from their environment and from other people. It's clear that they are quite privileged and self-involved. If you want to give it a generous reading you could say that their profound loneliness stems from their privilege and blind spots but I'm not at all sure that Coppola intended that--she seems more focused on their romantic entanglement and how , because they are so far from home, they feel like they are outside of time. But I agree that Coppola could have portrayed this feeling of dislocation with greater sensitivity to her Japanese characters.
Yeah, honestly this all makes me think I should re-watch :)