(Sofia Coppola, 2003, USA, 103 minutes)

Screening in 35mm!

One wants to call Sofia Coppola’s sophomore feature Lost in Translation her breakthrough, as well as star Scarlett Johansson’s, and the film that established Bill Murray as a serious and very much awards-worthy actor. That’s nonsense, though—Coppola already had the excellent The Virgin Suicides under her belt, Johansson was co-star of the well-received Ghost World, and Bill Murray, well, has been doing great work for how many decades now? (One need not reach further back than Rushmore or Groundhog Day for an argument about awards-worthiness.) Still, Lost in Translation feels like an upping of the stakes for all three artists. Johansson’s newly married Charlotte and Murray’s international superstar Bob meet in a Tokyo bar, both emotionally and culturally adrift, and find anchor in one another. With gorgeous cinematography courtesy of Lance Acord and one of the best soundtracks of the 2000s, Lost in Translation won Coppola an Oscar for her screenplay and is one of the most enduring films so far this millennium.