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Mostrando postagens de janeiro, 2023

"We'll start a jazz band": a tribute to Lost in Translation, by Sofia Coppola


I Just saw Lost in Translation again, 15 years later, looking for my early self. I'm not the same anymore. And neither is Scarlett. Much less Bill Murray. Surprisingly though, most of my impressions haven't changed along the trip.

Her eyes still give me goosebumps in that piano bar where they met to keep going. At 18, I was so excited, imagining starting a band with someone else. Of course, I didn't. But the love I carry in my stomach is mine alone, like a record in the evening that plays forever.

One more time, I dove into forbidden memories to figure out the emotional triggers underlying the plot. Beyond mastering the expression of silence, this movie is even more 'accurate' because it sounds plausible. The thing doesn't happen, you see, but further, It doesn't happen like the formula of a typical crush, as the position of their (or any) interest is that of an unspeakable word embedded in the highest buildings we dare to reach. A raw, maybe grown-up feeling one can carry with oneself without falling into loneliness.

In the last take, when they stop amongst the passersby and stare at each other, they recreate the tale of passion countless times. I've also lived that scene, always identical but in a new mood, as genuine commitments used to be. Elsewhere and everywhere, in São Paulo or Recife, Tokyo is embodied with equivalent confusion. A metaphor for the moment we make the most critical decisions often dismissed. "How to be heard in the middle of the crowd?" we may ask the audience.

Even if in thought, what needs to be stated will be stated somehow. We should trust. That's the message. The way it can be done, as a tacit agreement demanding vast amounts of confidence woven in silence, we must call it 'dharma,' or we can call it 'love.'

Nothing happens, after all, because they leave the space honestly empty without trying to fill it as soon as possible. Sofia, Scarlet, and Bill. They and I. You and us. After saying goodbye, we shyly smiled since it was thoroughly done. It was fucking done right now! The road signs, billboards, a bunch of guests standing around, everything and everyone will be witnesses that fragility is the first choice for awakened people. When the truth is crude, that's when we need it. We choose it.

Far from challenging farewells, I look out the window, dreaming of this screenplay repeated by many and many characters: "We'll start a jazz band." I didn't. But can't wait for the next remake.