Artists in Dialogue - Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation & Spike Jonze's Her

I have always found this exchange so interesting, especially having seen each movie and loving both of them before knowing about their connection. Many people interpret Lost in Translation as Coppola's interpretation of her past marriage, with fellow director Jonze, and Her as his response and reflection a decade later.

Both films explore themes of loneliness and isolation, juxtaposed with their settings of the big cities Toyko and Los Angeles. The visuals reflect the characters’ respective emotional states, Tokyo being an overwhelming and unfamiliar place mirroring uncertainty, and L.A. being a sterile, digitized landscape depicting disconnection.

Both films center deep yet transient relationships. In Lost in Translation Bob and Charlotte’s connection is powerful, but fleeting, and never fully resolved. While in Her, Theodore’s love for Samantha is real, but intangible.

In both stories, the protagonists are experiencing intimacy in detached worlds, and neither of the films have a conventional resolution, instead lingering on the bittersweetness.