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10 February 2004
oscars are approaching
Of the movies nominated for Best Picture this year we've only seen one, but it's one we've recommended to many of our friends and so I recommend it here officially: Lost in Translation. I'm one of those people who thinks Bill Murray gets better and better as the years go by, and his performance only makes that opinion stronger. Hearing Bill Murray's sleep-deprived character say calmly, "The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you." makes me smile. Out of context it might sound a little trite, but in the context of the movie it's touching advice. It's one of those sound clips I should capture. (Can you arrange to have a sound clip play every time you start your iBook? I'll have to look into this...)
The movie's trailer is available online--a good introduction if you haven't seen the film (and amusing if you have). For those of you who saw the movie and were curious about what was really going on during the Suntory commercial scene (the one with the raving Japanese director and the perplexed Bill Murray), the translation is here.
Also of interest to me is that Sofia Coppola is the first American woman to be nominated for best director. Amazing, but true. According to a recent New York Times piece, the other women nominated for best director have been Lina Wertmuller (Italy) for 1976's Seven Beauties, and Jane Campion (New Zealand) for 1993's The Piano. The Times also noted that:
If Sofia Coppola wins an Oscar in any of the three categories in which she's nominated (directing, original screenplay, and picture), it would make her the second third-generation Oscar-winner, following grandfather Carmine Coppola and father Francis Ford Coppola. The first family members to achieve this generational feat were Walter, John and Anjelica Huston.
The Times also profiled Ms. Coppola in a magazine feature last August (and it now appears to be accessible for $ only...let me see if I have a better link somewhere...).
Our movie-going time was dramatically reduced by Wallace's arrival. By the time we felt comfortable leaving him alone for an afternoon or evening, I started law school. While blogging takes up little bits of time, it's been difficult to justify taking a big block of time away from my class preparation to go to a movie theatre. (Then there's the whole business of people talking during the movie...) I'm going to try to schedule time to see a few of the movies that have caught my attention before the Oscars. I'll let you know how that turns out...