film

A maudlin love letter to loneliness, connection and the odd limbo of travel, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation is one of the defining films of the early 2000s. Set in Tokyo's neon-lit blur, it follows an ageing movie star and a young woman in a drifting marriage as they wander into each other’s lives in a fancy hotel. Coppola's direction is dreamy and intimate, and captures the light-headed feeling of jet lag, alienation and fleeting closeness in whispered conversations and late-night wanderings. 

Kevin Shields' score is the perfect complement, and features hazy original compositions plus classic shoegaze and downtempo tracks by his band My Bloody Valentine, plus Air, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Death In Vegas and more. Bill Murray delivers one of his finest performances, balancing deadpan comedy with painful vulnerability, while Scarlett Johansson is the film's emotional centre. More than two decades on, its mix of wistfulness, romance and emotional dislocation lingers on.