Lost in Translation: Sophia's Farce??

The article here is only the first post from Imomus.com. The article is title "Lost on Me" and contains a great deal of insight into the acting of the characters in Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation. The following quote is taken from the article explaining Bill Murray's comedy:

Does Murray's charisma have to come at the expense of someone else all the
time? (Let's not even talk about the portrayal of the prostitute or the
commercial director.) In a hospital scene, an old lady asks Murray why he took
this long trip to Japan. Murray responds again by playing to the gallery, miming
her as if she were doing a ludicrous choreographed song. He's the odd one out,
the foreigner, and yet he's treating those around him as if they were
foreigners. This is bad manners and bad traveller etiquette. It prompts the
question, is it possible to be American and foreign? I suspect the answer is
'No', at least if one is in an American film, wherever it may be set.

The author describes, in great detail, the other actors and actresses and they're strong points and weaknesses in the film. There is also a great deal of ideological analysis which analyzes the socialogical behavior in the film.

Zhang Yimou: House of Flying Daggers

Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers was the second major film he directed after Hero. The film has some concepts similar to those in Hero. Zhang Yimous uses a common theme of everday people becoming great heroes. Both films speak about a rebel/rebellion against the emperor. Another major theme within each of the films is the idea that love always prevails.

In the film two policemen decide to infiltrate the "House of Flying Daggers" in order to weed out there new master. Jin takes Mei into the forest in order to help her find the House of Flying Daggers. Along the way they are attacked by Jin's own police guards in order to confuse Mei. In the end they discover many things about each other and eventually the two policemen fight for Mei's love.

The link is only a Wikipedia article. It talks about major themes in the film along with aspects of genre. The plot of the film and information about Zhang Yimou is also explained.

The Tarantino Style

This is a clip from youtube but it is an excellent film as it depicts the style of tarantino using his film like:

"Reservoir Dogs" (1992),
"Pulp Fiction" (1994),
"Jackie Brown" (1997),
"Kill Bill volume 1" (2003) and
"Kill Bill vol. 2" (2004).

The good thing about this film clip is that you can see some parallels about the themes in tarantino's work. For example, in one scene from "Pulp Fiction", we have samuel jackson and travolta looking at the money in the trunk while it compares that to another scene in another tarantino film. The theme might be that there is greed associated with crime which has its implications in tarantino's films. The common themes help us perform an auteur analysis of tarantino's work.

Richard Kelly: Does He Even Have Another Film?

This is just the basic overview from the Internet Movie Data Base. It contains links to information about Richard Kelly's two shorts The Goodbye Place, and Visceral Matter. It also gives an idea of some of Kelly's achievements and other (more known) films: Donnie Darko, the upcoming release Southland Tales, and the film (currently in pre-production) The Box.


Southland Tales received almost no acclaim at Cannes when it was introduced and viewers commented on IMDB.com that it was "the greatest movie never seen." According to this one viewer, and other reviews I have read, the film tanked it and was a huge failure; trying to copy Donnie Darko but missing every beat of Donnie completely. The other clips I've included are some from Donnie Darko and from Southland Tales.

Соля́рис, What if Your Every Desire was Real

The 1972 film Solaris (Соля́рис) is a Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and is considered by most to be an outstanding work of art. Tarkovsky viewed this film as one of his only failures. The aim of the film was to take a science novel and direct a film that was genre-less. The film opens with Kris Kelvin who is sent to a mysterious planet where three scientists have been studying the new world. Kris is sent to replace one of the scientists who is mysteriously deceased. Once he arrives he finds the laboratory to be desolate, unkept, and the scientists (Snaut and Sartorious) distant and confusing.

Dr. Sartorius: "Man was created by Nature in order to explore it. As he approaches Truth he is fated to Knowledge. All the rest is bullshit."

Kris begins to discover that the planet Solaris is alive and is materializing the thoughts and fears of his mind... even bringing his deceased wife back to his side.

Blade Runner: Are you a replicant?

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) is the story of Detective Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who is on the hunt for escaped super human robots called replicants. As he searches for them in 2019 LA he falls in love with a replicant named Rachael, hindering his ability to "retire" the vengeful replican convicts.

Scott's earlier films Alien, Legend, Blade Runner all present the same type of feel. There is almost a sense of unity among the stories even though they all apply to different genres. The special effects in Blade Runner are fantastic and exciting and help to only back up the meaningful plot and impressive acting.

The clip I've included gives a representation of the amazing special effects in this film.

Dune: The Sleeper Must Awaken

Dune, directed by David Lynch (1984) is the retelling of the novel written by Frank Herbert. The opening sequence begins with the tale of the film: Princess Irulan: A beginning is a very delicate time. Know then, that is is the year 10191. The known universe is ruled by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam the Fourth, my father. In this time, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The Spacing Guild and its navigators, who the spice has mutated over 4000 years, use the orange spice gas, which gives them the ability to fold space. That is, travel to any part of the universe without moving. Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you. The spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe. A desolate, dry planet with vast deserts. Hidden away within the rocks of these deserts are a people known as the Fremen, who have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah, who would lead them to true freedom. The planet is Arrakis, also known as Dune.

Canidate for Film Project

This clip is from the movie Schindler's List. This film I Believe fits all six categories, in this clip you see the little girl wearing the red coat (the red however is kind of hard to see though!) and how Speilberg makes such and impact by making her coat red when the whole film is in black and white.