Marie Antoinette

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 10/20/06 with Some Edits.

When the name of Marie Antoinette is mentioned in some form of conversation. The first thing some will come to mind is the way she says to her starving people, "Let them eat cake". It's known to some people simply as the Queen of France who found herself in the early stages of the French Revolution where she and her husband King Louis XVI were beheaded in the year 1793. Throughout the years, he story has been told into several variations of biographies, including a widely praised one from Stefan Zweig, and films where in 1938 by director W.S. Van Dyke II with Norma Shearer in the title role. Another version appeared from France in 1955 which was lesser known than the famed 1938 version which based itself on Zweig's novell.

Then came another novel from historian Antonia Fraser where some claimed to be the most precise biography on the infamous queen. Fraser's approach of the novel indicated that the infamous queen was simply a young woman who found herself in the wrong place and wrong time to the point that she was unaware of the world outside of her own palace. The idea of disconnection was simply that American film director Sofia Coppola seems to have connected on in her own film version on Marie Antoinette's story.

Alienation is nothing new to Sofia Coppola's own work as a director where 1998's short Lick the Stars was about a girl who ends up alienating herself from her own middle school clique. Her 1999 film adaptation of Jeffery Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides was a dreamy, teen tale of five young girls trying desperately to connect with young boys only to be imprisoned by their strict parents. Coppola's first feature-length film starred Kirsten Dunst in the role which moved Dunst away from child and teen stardom to more young adult roles. Then in 2003, Coppola gained her biggest film hit to date with her sophomore feature, Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson about an actor and a woman who find themselves unhappy in their own marriages while being alienated in the aura of Tokyo.

The film gave Coppola her biggest acclaim while winning her an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay as well as becoming the first American woman nominated for Best Director. Also nominated as a producer in the Best Picture category, Lost in Translation propelled Coppola's career as well as her mark as a visionary. Though some were critical of the film's slow, elliptical style and its lack of dialogue, there were those who found it to be one of the best films of that year. Those closest to Coppola knew that she wanted to do a film biopic on Marie Antoinette, which originally was supposed to be her second film, but thanks to Lost in Translation. She finally went ahead with her own biopic.

Written and directed by Sofia Coppola while taking notes from Antonia Fraser's novel, Marie Antoinette is a revisionist biography on the young woman who would become Queen of France who would later embark on extravagance and scandal that lead to her beheading in the French Revolution. Playing the role of the doomed queen is Coppola's Virgin Suicides star Kirsten Dunst in the title role. In her film version, Coppola chooses to expose everything that surrounded the young queen's life including the stories of her associates, her marriage to the shy King Louis XVI, and the various, legendary rumors about her including an affair with a count named Axel Fersen. With an all-star cast that includes Jason Schwartzman, Marianne Faithfull, Steve Coogan, Rip Torn, Asia Argento, Rose Byrne, Shirley Henderson, Judy Davis, Mary Nighy, Molly Shannon, Danny Huston, Aurore Clement, and Jamie Dornan. Marie Antoinette is a surreal, yet enchanting film from Sofia Coppola.

1768 in Austria as Queen Maria Teresa of Austria (Marianne Faithfull) has decided to send her youngest daughter Antoine to marry the Dauphin of France in Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) as a sign of unity between France and Austria. Accompanied by Austrian ambassador Mercy (Steve Coogan), her two courtiers, and her pug dog, Antoine is taken on a trip where she meets Comtesse de Noailles (Judy Davis) just before she is to meet the king and his grandson. Removed of all of her traces of Austrian clothing including her dog and courtiers, she is now worn a new French dress and is taken in a French carriage. On the island where she is to meet King Louis XV (Rip Torn), she is formally introduced to the king, his shy, awkward grandson Louis XVI, as well as many relatives including two gossiping aunts in Sophie (Shirley Henderson) and Victoire (Molly Shannon).

Upon arriving in the palace of Versailles where she is introduced to the French court in a lavish, extravagant wedding viewed by all, she is now a part of France and becomes Marie-Antoinette. On the night she and Louis XVI is to consummate their marriage, nothing happens and nothing will for seven years. The shy, awkward Louis XVI spends his time hunting and making keys while using food to purge his anxieties. Meanwhile, with only the Duchess of Polignac (Rose Byrne), Princess Lambelle (Mary Nighy), and Comtesse de Provence (Clementine Poidatz) as her allies and fellow mistresses, Marie has to contend the emerging gossip from Sophie, Victoire, and Duchess de Char (Aurore Clement) along with the presence of the king's mistress in Madame du Barry (Asia Argento). Largely due to Louis' shyness, the gossiping has become troublesome as Ambassador Mercy reminds her that she must consummate the marriage to create an heir that would unify France and Austria.

Even as the Comtesse de Provence gives birth to a son, Marie chooses to escape all of the pressures with lavish clothing, shoes, and stuff where she preferred to be a girl and have fun. While being reminded of everything from the Ambassador and the letters of her mother, Marie chooses not to think of the political implications while slowly, she and Louis try to form a relationship despite his shy behavior. Even to the point where they would go to the opera where her behavior would cause a stir and later praise while going to masked parties where she would meet the mysterious yet dashing Count Axel Fersen (Jamie Dornan). Returning from the party, news have emerged that the king was falling ill while Madame du Barry has officially left Versailles to the delight of Marie and her court. When King Louis XV has died, Louis XVI is now king as he prayed to God to protect him and his wife as they felt that they were too young to reign.

Now that she's Queen before turning 20, Marie chooses to create a more youthful court surrounded by her friends and courtiers while leaning towards her excess in clothing and hair with help from Leonard (James Lance). With the pressure mounting to create an heir, Marie’s brother, Emperor Joseph (Danny Huston) decides to help out in giving his brother-in-law some advice to help his sexual matters. The plan worked though Marie gave birth to a girl in Marie Therese (Lauriane Mascaro at age 2, Florrie Betts at age 6) while the King unwisely makes a decision to send aid to America during the American Revolution as a resistance against England. To spend time away from the politics of Versailles, the king helped create a new palace home for Marie known as the Petit Trianon. It was a place where Marie would entertain herself and her friends along with a small cottage and farm for everything she needed while wearing simpler clothing. With the American Revolution going on, Louis invited several soldiers including Count Fersen for a honorary contribution as Marie engages in an affair with Fersen in the world of the Petit Trianon.

After Fersen's departure, Marie still has loving feelings for Louis where his decision to aid the Americans in their revolution proved to be costly. Even with the spending of all of the things that Marie spent on dresses, objects, and things including the Petit Trianon has put France into financial troubles. The timing couldn't have been worse in the years as Marie's mother and one of her children both died in different areas. At first of hearing the troubles including a supposed infamous comment of "let them eat cake", Marie ignored what was going on. Then as things got serious, Marie and Louis realize that their future was becoming bleaker where Versailles was no longer safe as they eventually would meet their doom.

Anyone who knows the story of Marie Antoinette can be interpreted as a young woman who has no care in the world and an infamous comment led to her doom where she was eventually beheaded amidst the French Revolution. From the mind of Sofia Coppola, it's an interpretation of a young woman unaware of the world outside other than her own world of monarchy in France and Austria. Taking inspiration from the novel by Antonia Fraser, the film is not really about historical but more about a young woman in the transition of her own life. While Marie Antoinette isn't in the same environment as other Coppola heroines like the Lisbon girls in The Virgin Suicides or Charlotte in Lost in Translation in terms of their situations and what they were dealing with. Coppola sees Marie as a young girl who is stuck in her own girlhood and once she becomes a woman, it becomes too late as she is forced to confront the people of France.

Another interpretation is in the form of the second half of the film where once King Louis XV is gone along with several old courts, youth takes over as they just want to have fun while being unaware of the outside world. The old advisors, courts, and such are forced to watch in the sidelines trying to get the young people including the king on what's going on France. Yet, the result is that Louis XVI is surrounded by people who only care more about France's pride rather than the people that led to the dissolution of their monarchy. Still, Coppola isn't too interested in politics nor choose to take many of the historical context of Marie Antoinette's life too seriously. One incident of Antoinette's life that isn't discussed and probably was a good idea is the famous incident about a jewel necklace that was discussed years ago in a film called The Affair of the Necklace starring Hilary Swank and Adrien Brody.

The lack of serious historical context will upset very serious history buffs though Coppola does tell the story wisely with the film’s first act being about Marie's arrival into France and the pressure to create an heir for France. The second act being about her escape into fun, Louis XV's death, and the arrival of Petit Trianon. The third act features legendary yet debated affair with Count Fersen along with Marie's role of being a mother and the fall of Versailles and its monarchy. The result of the storytelling is elliptical to play to the times which is a similar strategy that Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon chose since time moved slower. Though some parts of the story do drag and get repetitive, only to convey the emotions of what Marie and Louis XVI are going through in the seven years. It's a strategy that is crucial to the storytelling. Then there's the dialogue where half of the dialogue is spoken in a 18th-Century language with French accents on some parts. The rest is more modern to give an interpretation that is something a modern audience can relate to. It's nothing original since Martin Scorsese used the same approach for 1988's Last Temptation of Christ where he wanted a lot of the biblical context to be something that can be heard in the corner of a city street. Coppola's approach is similar since a lot of the gossiping and conversations are something you would hear anywhere today.

The rest of the film in terms of its writing, like Lost in Translation, is not dialogue-driven since half of the film has a lot of non-dialogue moments in rather to show expressions and emotions of what is going on and everything. This is where Coppola is at her strongest when she's a director. Taking an observant view of what everyone is doing, it has a dreamy yet surreal quality of the world of Versailles where the film is shot entirely in Versailles. With most of the film done in hand-held, it's presented from a point-of-view where at first, everything is foreign yet once the story develops, it becomes familiar yet surreal. With the kind of trademark shots of moving transportation from the outside, shots of leaves looking up, Coppola really goes for a dreamy approach to the world of Versailles yet make everything seem completely unreal in what is going on. Yet, the shots are beautiful in the same way that it can be described in some scenes as Malick-esque. Overall, despite flaws with the story and the interpretive approach, Sofia Coppola has proven herself to be a strong, visionary director.

Longtime cinematographer Lance Acord helps Coppola in her worldly vision with wonderful, long exterior shots that are breathtaking in the epic scope of what Versailles is with several shots of blue and green that is a trademark of Acord's work. The interior set-ups aren't similar to the natural-lighting approach of Barry Lyndon but are given great fluidity to the colors of the dresses and floors along with the spacious look of the palaces while the film's opening shot with soft lenses is presented in a wonderful yet surreal way from the talented Acord. Production designer K.K. Barrett along with set decorator Veronique Melery and art director Anne Seibel probably give some of the best production design by using not just several of the same props in Versailles but everything looks 18th Century with an edge and look that is authentic with the times. Legendary costume designer Milena Canonero, who won an Oscar for her work in Barry Lyndon, proves her mastery in the film's look with shiny, excessive dresses that definitely tell the story. Canonero's design where the Austrian clothing is simpler as opposed to the dresses of France where the sides are bigger and springy while the men's clothing as the costumes not just play to the time but have life as Canonero does amazing work.

Editor Sarah Flack brings a wonderfully stylized yet elliptical editing style that is crucial to the film's 125-minute running time. With fade-outs, jump-cuts, and perspective cuts, the film flows naturally to the times as it serves to the serenity of the film's first act, the energy of the second, and the chaos in the third and final act. Sound designer Richard Beggs, a longtime associate to the Coppola family, does some amazing work in the sound design where the noise of church bells, organs, and voices are wonderfully mixed as well as the atmosphere of Versailles. Beggs is a genius with sound as his work is amazing to convey everything that goes on, even to convey silence in the film's final moments as Marie and Louis await their doom.

Supervising the film's unconventional soundtrack is longtime Coppola associate Brian Reitzell. A mix of classical, baroque, post-punk, new wave, electronic, and ambient music, Reitzell creates a soundtrack that is traditional to period films and radical in some ways to that genre. While the use of classical pieces that includes elements of baroque and operatic music not only works for the time but most of all, the emotions of what's going on. Then there's the music of the new wave and post-punk movement from the likes of the Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Gang of Four, Adam Ant, New Order, and Bow Wow Wow. While it's nothing new since A Knight's Tale did the same thing with rock music to make it momentum-building and for celebration. The approach Coppola and Reitzell did was to convey an energy of what the characters are going through like the masked ballroom scene has an energetic cut from Siouxsie & the Banshees that could've been played in those times but in a different form of music style. It's the energy that creates the intensity while two cuts by Bow Wow Wow are remixed to more energetic heights by the reclusive Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine.

Other stuff from Phoenix, Air, Squarepusher, Radio Dept., Aphex Twin, and Dustin O'Halloran are widely diverse since Air and Phoenix lean more towards classical, baroque Style while Squarepusher and Aphex Twin go for more ambient territory to convey the atmosphere and tone of what's going on in the story. The soundtrack for the most part, doesn't play like a gimmick. Towards the third act, the approach becomes grating when an appearance from the Strokes on the song What Ever Happened? really starts to get old as it's the one track that doesn't fit in with the rest of the soundtrack. Still, it's wonderfully conceived.

Now we come to the film's large, ensemble cast that includes notably small performances from Coppola associate Aurore Clement, Al Weaver, James Lance, Tom Hardy as an advisor named Raumont, the band Phoenix in a role as a band in the Petit Trianon, and the legendary Marianne Faithfull as Queen Maria Teresa, who gives some great voice-over work through letters in her brief role as Marie’s mother. Clementine Poidatz, Mary Nighy, and Rose Byrne are great as Marie's mistresses who give memorable performances and jokes about men and such that audiences can relate to. Molly Shannon and Shirley Henderson are also funny as the gossiping women of the court who play like modern-day mean girls while Asia Argento makes a great impression as the devilish Madame du Barry who wants to be acknowledge while being very scandalous with her own dreary style of clothing. Jamie Dornan is excellent in the somewhat, Trip Fontaine role of Count Fersen as a man who is handsome and flirtatious in ways that women would swoon for.

Judy Davis is great as the Comtesse de Noailles with her duty to serve and give advice on behavior to Marie. Steve Coogan is great as Ambassador Mercy who is the man who tries to remind Marie about her role and realities of the world as Coogan is great in his restraint. Danny Huston is also excellent as the wise, helpful Emperor Joseph who has a great scene with Jason Schwartzman involving an elephant that shows his role as a straight man. In a role that was supposed to be given to the legendary French actor Alain Delon, Rip Torn is funny as the likeable King Louis XV with his brash behavior and fraternal role in how he cared for Marie and Louis XVI while being a man with his own vices. Jason Schwartzman gives an amazing yet restrained performance as the shy Louis XVI who acts very awkward in many ways. While Schwartzman is a natural comedy actor, he brings a lot of that and more into a man who is scared of his role as king and husband. Schwartzman brings a real, natural anxiety to the role that is really one of his best performances from an actor who doesn't get taken very seriously.

In what could be the best role of her career, Kirsten Dunst really captures the spirit and vibrancy of Marie Antoinette as Dunst gives her character much more than she is perceived. Dunst definitely adds an innocence to her character early on while having a personality that people could like despite the fact that she's unaware of the real world. Dunst really brings more of her depth as an actress in some very, heavy emotional scenes while getting to act natural as a person who isn't a monster that some will claim. It's really an amazing yet complex performance from Dunst as she makes Marie Antoinette a young woman caught up in a world that she is really unaware of.

Now that Coppola has finished a trilogy of young women dealing with their own emotional transitions and alienation, it's clear that it marks an end of sorts for Sofia Coppola as she is about have a daughter born at the end of the year. Despite mixed reviews at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival as well as reaction to its revisionist, historical approach, Marie Antoinette remains a very strong, engaging, yet surreal film from Sofia Coppola. While it's nowhere near the dreamy innocence of The Virgin Suicides or the emotional yet spiritual drama of Lost in Translation. Marie Antoinette should stand as one of her finest work despite what people think. If there is someway to sum up the Lisbon girls, Charlotte, and Marie. They are young women who aren't sure what to do in their own environment and place in their own life. While Charlotte ends up being the only character that has a remnant of hope, the rest end up not getting past that. So, it's a very melancholic trilogy that Sofia Coppola has created since two of the stories are about young girls wanting to reach a part of their life while in Marie, it's about a woman who seems to lived it all only to be forced into the dark world of reality.

***Updated DVD Tidbits 3/27/07***

The Region 1 DVD for Marie Antoinette from Sony Pictures presents the film in the 1:85:1 aspect ratio for anamorphic widescreen. Also presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital in both English and French plus their respective subtitles. The DVD includes previews for films like Dreamland, Sam Raimi's upcoming Spider-Man 3, Marc Forster's Stranger Than Fiction, Premonition, The Holiday, and the soundtrack to Marie-Antoinette. Two trailers appear for the actual film. First is the 2005 teaser featuring New Order's Age Of Consent playing in the background. The second is the U.S. theatrical trailer which is more energetic and presented in the same, American style with cuts by Aphex Twin, Gang of Four, and New Order's Ceremony. The U.S. is excellent though is a bit weak compared to the European trailer released in the Spring of 2006.

Three special features come in the Region 1 DVD. First is the 30-minute making-of special directed and shot by Eleanor Coppola, Sofia's mother. The making-of documentary features interviews with Sofia, her legendary father/executive producer Francis Ford Coppola, cast members, collaborators, and novelist/historian Antonia Fraser. In the doc, Sofia reveals her intentions into making the film where she didn't want to go for a typical, historical period piece but rather a film about character and a real-life human being. Francis Ford Coppola, Judy Davis, and Steve Coogan talked about the infamous "let them eat cake" comment that was never really said. The press just exaggerated as well as other stores which some were true. Shot on location in Versailles, Coppola and production designer K.K. Barrett talk about bringing furniture and drapes to use for the palaces since the real furniture in Versailles can't be used. Yet, with the help of consultant and Versailles historian Dominique Avart.

One of the prominent profiles in the documentary is costume designer Milena Canonero whose work in Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon won her an Oscar. For her work in this film (which she won another Oscar), Canonero took the same approach while bringing more life to the clothes and color that would bring new energy to the costume period dramas. Danny Huston said that those films often feel weighty and trapped in their own genre. When discussing the music as well as Jamie Dornan being the Adam Ant version of Count Fersen, Sofia talks about the New Romantic movement which was directly inspired by 18th Century decadence and reveled in its look and style. It was in the New Romantic movement that also became a reaction towards the fall out of punk rock in the late 70s. The casting is discussed where Sofia and Antonia Fraser said that the people in Versailles were eccentric for which, made sense to have a Texan like Rip Torn play King Louis XV and the Italian Asia Argento as Madame du Barry. Marianne Faithfull and Kirsten Dunst were both cast largely due to the fact that they both have Bavarian backgrounds. Faithfull talks about her own family tree which is descended from Austrian royalty.

Fraser talks about Dunst, whom she was impressed by and felt that she was perfect to play Marie Antoinette because Dunst has a German background and has the same jaw line that Antoinette had. Dunst talked about the acting which, she was happy to not do an accent. While some actors chose to, it was in spirit of collaboration for the actors to feel natural and give their own interpretation of the characters they play. Cinematographer Lance Acord talks about the lighting schemes for the film which differentiate in several sequences. From the opening sequence in the Austrian palaces which were darker in contrast to the many scenes in Versailles. For the Petit Trianon phase, Acord goes for more natural lighting, handheld, and looser camera work to convey her energy. For the final sequences, even darker colors and shades to convey her own emotions. Overall, this is a fascinating documentary by Eleanor Coppola.

Two deleted scenes appear in the DVD with each introduction text from Sofia on why they were cut. First is an opera sequence shown after Louis XVI's meeting to give aid to the Americans in the American Revolution. The opera sequence shows Marie presenting a German opera to the people of Paris that is followed by a letter from Ambassador Mercy to Queen Maria Theresa. Coppola explained that it was cut due to the fact that there was one too many opera scenes and that the other two, one right early in the film and the other in the third act were to convey were Marie was to the public at the time. The second deleted scene is Marie's return from the Petit Trianon after Count Fersen's departure. It's a sequence played to a piano track by Aphex Twin, the scene conveys Marie's isolation in Versailles while she's shot entirely in dark blue with everyone else in more, sepia-like colored. It's a great sequence but Coppola cut it because she felt that it was too self-pitying.

The final special feature is called Cribs with Louis XVI which is a parody of the show Cribs. With Jason Schwartzman playing his character, Louis XVI gives a tour of Versailles. Shot by Roman Coppola, Louis (being all hip-hop and in costume) starts off in the Hall of Mirrors while revealing the bedroom that he and Marie sleeps in. Shows off all of the paintings. All in the accompaniment of some cheesy music by Roger Joseph Manning Jr. It's pretty funny while showing a bit of what is inside Versailles. While the Region 1 trailer has some nice features. It's only minuscule to the French DVD box set that includes another disc filled with the same features and more including Sofia's short film for Lick the Stars back in 1998. Also included are a fan and the French book translation of Antonia Fraser's biography on Marie Antoinette.

***End of DVD Tidbits***

In the end, while it's not a perfect film or a disaster, Marie Antoinette is still one of the most interesting and engaging films of 2006. Thanks to an all-star cast led by Kirsten Dunst in the amazing title role along with a dedicated film crew, this is a movie that people will love and hate. While history buffs might be upset over the lack of historical context presented in the film. It's a film that does play with the rules about the idea of bio-pics. Some audiences might love the film for its lush presentation, lavish costumes, and radical approach to music because it's unconventional. Yet, it's a film that isn't for everyone. In the end, Marie Antoinette is still a remarkable film from Sofia Coppola.

Sofia Coppola Films: Lick the Star - The Virgin Suicides - Lost in Translation - Somewhere - (The Bling Ring)

Sofia Coppola Soundtracks: Air-The Virgin Suicides - The Virgin Suicides OST - Lost in Translation OST - Marie Antoinette OST - (The Bling Ring OST)

Sofia Coppola Essays: Sofia Coppola: The Videos and Ads 1993-2008 - LIT 5th Anniversary Essay - The Auteurs #1: Sofia Coppola

(C) thevoid99 2010

Favorite Films #1: Lost in Translation (5th Year Anniversary Essay)

Author's Note: The Essay was Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 9/21/08 to Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of My First Viewing of Lost in Translation, in which I believed to be the best film ever made.

Lost on Earth & In Need of Translation

 With American cinema nearing the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, it's clear that for anyone looking for an alternative from the big, mega-blockbusters of Hollywood. They turned to the auteurs that re-defined American cinema as something as interesting and unique as new worlds were explored. Coming from the post-Quentin Tarantino of independent cinema were new voices like Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, David O. Russell, Alexander Payne, Brad Anderson, David Fincher, David Gordon Green, and Spike Jonze. Another director coming out of this new wave of American cinema is Sofia Coppola. The granddaughter of famed music composer Carmine Coppola and the daughter of reknowned filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola.

Coming from a family of artists and people in the film industry that includes cousins Nicholas Cage, Jason Schwartzman, and Robert Carmine along with her aunt Talia Shire, mother/documentarian Eleanor, and brother Roman. Sofia Coppola redefined the theme of alienation from a new perspective of young women dealing with new environments, adolescents, and life in transition. Starting with 1989's short segment Life Without Zoe for the anthology feature film New York Stories that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola, along with shorts directed by Martin Scorsese, and Woody Allen. Written by Francis and Sofia, Life Without Zoe tells the story of a rich young girl who is surrounded in an adult world through parental neglect. While it was the most maligned segment of the film, it carried themes that Sofia Coppola would tell in her later films.

Part of Coppola's transition in her own life through her young adult life was her trying to explore things. Something that she felt every young women goes through from one phase to another. In her second feature film Lost in Translation, there's a scene where Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are lying in bed side-by-side where Charlotte contemplates her lack of direction. She had just graduated from Yale studying philosophy yet has no idea what to do with her degree or with her life. She mentions going through a photography phase and then attempting to write. Yet, Bob tells her that she'll figure it out and keep writing.

In the early 90s, following her maligned-performance in The Godfather, Pt. III where she took over for Winona Ryder at the last minute. Sofia went through a modeling phase, did some photography, went into fashion, and started a short-lived TV project with friend Zoe Cassavetes. Yet, it would be the discovery of Jeffrey Eugenides' novel The Virgin Suicides about five young girls dealing with their adolescence as they live in a strict household desperate to connect with young boys. Told in the perspective of one of the boys who live in their suburban neighborhood. Desperate to turn the story into a film, she wrote a script with help from her father to turn it into a film.

Before Sofia directed her 1999 feature film debut with The Virgin Suicides, she had directed a few music videos for Walt Mink and the Flaming Lips while also directing two shorts. Bed, Bath, & Beyond in 1996 and Lick the Stars in 1998. The latter told the story of a young girl in middle school who is popular while her best friend is cast out. Yet, when the popular girl creates a statement that is misinterpreted, she is immediately cast out. Lick the Stars would be the predecessor of what is to come from Sofia in her exploration of alienation from the mind of young women. The Virgin Suicides premiered in film festivals in 1999 and a year later, got a theatrical release to rave reviews. Around the same time, Coppola's personal life with husband and director Spike Jonze, who was coming off his own breakthrough with his 1999 feature film debut Being John Malkovich, was starting to unravel through closed doors.

During that period, Sofia Coppola had a fashion line that was popular in Japan. Yet, her visit included a period of jet lag, depression, and wonderment. Yet, this experience along with her own personal life would be the inspiration for her second feature film Lost in Translation. The story of an aging actor named Bob Harris whose best days are behind him goes to Japan to shoot a whiskey commercial for $2 million while endorsing it. Yet, his own life is unraveling as he forgets his son's birthday while his marriage has lost its sense of passion. Meanwhile, a young woman named Charlotte is dealing with her own marriage being lost as her photographer husband goes off to work while is dealing with the unique world of Japan as she tries to find herself. Yet, Bob and Charlotte would meet through jet lag, depression, and confusion as they share their feelings of confusion and frustration.

The film is a study of two people in transition as the troubles in their personal life and ambitions bring them together in a world that's extremely foreign to them. Inspired by the films of alienation by revered Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni and the dreamy romanticism of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai. Coppola goes for mood instead of gimmicks or stylized cutting and presentation of the Hollywood films of that time. With its sharp, shading color and hand-held camera work of cinematographer Lance Acord, the layered sound design of Richard Beggs, and the slow yet methodical pacing by editor Sarah Flack. It's a film that engages the viewer in giving them a world, whether they've been to Tokyo or not, that is very foreign and also overwhelming.

While the film's technical work that includes notable work from production work from K.K. Barrett and Anne Ross along with Nancy Steiner's costume design. Sofia Coppola also brought back one of alternative rock's unsung heroes back to the forefront in My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields. Shields, who had not released new original music since 1991's landmark album Loveless, had been on-and-off experimenting and collaborating in other people's project. With the help of music supervisor Brian Reitzell and Roger Joseph Manning Jr., Shields' contributions to the film helped emphasize its dream-like mood with acts like Squarepusher, Sebastian Tellier, Air, Death in Vegas, and the Jesus & Mary Chain contributing cuts. The film's music and soundtrack is an ode to the shoegaze music scene of the early 90s as well as playing to the emotions of its characters and their situations.

The four tracks Shields contributes to the soundtrack along with Sometimes from MBV's Loveless album play to the loneliness and confusion of Charlotte's character. Yet, music also plays a positive part where Bob Harris sings Roxy Music's More Than This during a kareoke sequence. Harris' voice is filled with emotion as his attraction to the young Charlotte is becoming evident where they connect in a big way. The scene along with a scene of Bob and Charlotte smoking a cigarette is followed by a wonderfully edited, shot, and sound mixed sequence of the Tokyo highway, bridges, and streets to the tune of Sometimes. The emotion and longing for sleep comes arrive with Bob carrying a sleeping Charlotte to her room in a platonic way. That series of scenes and sequences are perfectly executed led by Sofia Coppola's subtle, restrained approach to drama.

Coppola's direction and script definitely underplay a lot of what goes on in the emotional front while a lot of the film is based on life experiences and such. Though some might feel that the supporting characters of John (Giovanni Ribisi) and Kelly (Anna Faris) are caricatures along with a slew of Japanese characters. In a way, it could be true but it's too easy to say that. While John might be based on Spike Jonze and Kelly, rumored to be based on Cameron Diaz. Coppola was revealing painfully about what happened to her failed marriage though she isn't suggesting that John had an affair with Kelly. Yet, maybe nothing did happen and Kelly was just a starlet who was more likeable and energetic to the more introspective yet snobbish Charlotte.

There was an accusation of racism about the Japanese characters and how they were treated on the film. Audiences may be missing the point since Japan is extremely foreign and their tastes in comparison to Americans are very different. It's not fair to say that the Japanese have a sense of excitement and huge smiling personality since not all of them are like that. Bob Harris' encounter with a TV Japanese talk show host is only there for amusement as Harris is bewildered by appearing on the show. Yet, overwhelmed by the sense of culture shock and revealing the dirty laundry of his passionless marriage leads him to having a one-night stand with a singer at the hotel. Yet, the character of Bob Harris is a man confused at where he's at while filled with frustration in both his personal and professional life.

Bill Murray's performance of Bob Harris is wonderfully understated as the legendary comedy-actor goes for a performance that was thought to be unseen. Known as a comedy actor coming out of the TV show Saturday Night Live and hit comedies like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, and Stripes. Murray's career by the 90s was going through a transition as he mixed comedy and drama in films like Groundhog Day and Wild Things. Yet, it was the films of Wes Anderson like 1998's Rushmore and 2001's The Royal Tenenbaums that gave Murray a new career as a dramatic actor. With Lost in Translation, Murray's sharp, sarcastic, dead-pan sense of humor mixed in with regret and confusion. Murray's approach to under-dramatize his character and make him engaging and funny proves his talents as he won several awards while getting an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role.

Matching Murray in the performance front is Scarlett Johansson. Only 17 when she acted in the film back in 2002, Johansson was a promising actress coming off of such acclaimed films as Manny & Lo, Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer, Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World, An American Rhapsody, and the Coen Brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There. Her minimalist, subtle, and entrancing performance as Charlotte is often considered to be her finest work that was matched even more months later in the film adaptation of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Though there were criticism for the fact that she didn't do much, the fact that she didn't do any kind of overacting or melodramatic is what set her apart from her acting peers at the time. Winning a British Academy Award for Best Actress that year along with several nominations including 2 Golden Globe nods for Best Actress in different categories for comedy and drama for both Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring. Johansson was catapulted to stardom despite the fact that she never gained the same acclaim or promise she had in 2003.

Five years since its release, Lost in Translation is still a favorite among some film buffs though its acclaim has diminished somewhat like other films. Yet, it remains Sofia Coppola's best work though her follow-up film, a revisionist bio-pic on Marie Antoinette, received mixed reviews in its 2006 release. While Sofia Coppola's take on period films and 18th Century dramas did wow some audiences, the film did at least prove that the director is a unique visionary who won't repeat herself though will venture into the same themes that she has visited. Another part of Sofia's genius is in Lost in Translation's much-discussed ending about what Bob Harris whispered into an emotional Charlotte's ear. To this day, it has not been revealed as it remains one of the most discussed and beloved endings in cinema.

Lost in Translation is not a film for everyone. It's not for anyone looking for pop-culture, savvy dialogue. Not for audiences looking for a conventional romance with lots of skin or anything that has a familiar plot. It's also not a film that mainstream audiences would want, especially in the traditional happy ending. Yet, those are the reasons why Lost in Translation is a great film and definitely one of the best films ever made. It's a film that defies expectations, explores themes of alienation and identity, and for those lost souls feeling disconnected by the world. This is a film that connects them in such a way that it could be done with such style and emotion through the mind and heart of its unique visionary, Sofia Coppola.

Related: 

(C) thevoid99 2010

Lost in Translation

Originally Written and Posted at Epinions.com on 9/21/03 w/ Additional Edits

"Listen to the girl as she takes on half the world. Moving up and so alive. In her honey-dripping beehive, beehive, it's good, so good, it's so good, so good. Walking back to you is the hardest thing that I can do. For you, I'll be your plastic toy; I'll be your plastic toy, for you. Eating up the scum is the hardest thing for me to ".

-Just Like Honey by the Jesus & Mary Chain from Psychocandy

The lyrics above are a very good description on what Sofia Coppola's film Lost in Translation is all about. It's about two people who find themselves alone and neglected in a world that is foreign to them. Starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation is an evocative, romantic masterpiece that transcends all barriers of depth in acting, writing, and direction. Sofia Coppola brings in a film that takes the audience to an area they might have not been before and see the cultural differences between the worlds you live and the new world that that they're being introduced to. In the process, it's an unconventional romantic comedy-drama that is more about trying to identify yourself in the new world while looking at the old world from an eerie distance. What Lost in Translation succeeds in is finding an emotional chord through its actors, plot, and striking visuals.

50-year old Hollywood actor Bob Harris (Bill Murray) has just arrived to Tokyo to endorse Suntory Whiskey for $2 million.  Yet, Bob's career isn't hot as it used to be as he arrives at the Hyatt Hilton Tokyo where he receives a fax from his wife that he had forgotten his son’s birthday.  His sullen mood worsens as he's forced to listen to bad jazz renditions of songs like Scarborough Fair from a jazz chanteuse (Catherine Lambert), dealing with fans, and having trouble sleeping. In the same hotel, a young Yale graduate named Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is also having trouble sleeping while her photographer husband John (Giovanni Ribisi) is on assignment to do photos for a rock band. Charlotte somehow feels neglected in her 2-year marriage as she wanders around in Tokyo looking at temples.  Charlotte suddenly feels like her marriage is falling apart as well as her identity after tearfully calling a friend in the U.S. about what's going on.

Bob and Charlotte for a few days would see each other in the bars or in an elevator but haven’t spoken as Charlotte is exploring the strange culture of Japan with its video games and pop culture references. Bob meanwhile, is shooting the whiskey commercial and finds himself in an awkward position where he has trouble figuring out what the Japanese director wants from him, which is more intensity. Bob also feels alone not just from the array of Japanese television but from the number of faxes from his wife on what shelves or carpet colors he wanted. Charlotte is also having trouble trying to find something she can relate to as her husband has been consumed with his job.  Even as they meet a vapid Hollywood starlet named Kelly (Anna Farris) doesn't help matters for Charlotte.

Then one night, Bob and Charlotte finally talk in the hotel bar as they both couldn't sleep and talk about their own problems. They would meet again after Charlotte leaves a dinner conversation with John and Kelly where Bob asks if she would participate in something that would get them out of this funk they’re in. Charlotte says yes as the two explore Japan by themselves. In the day, Bob will do his promotional work for the whiskey including a hilarious photo shoot where he mimics the Rat Pack and Charlotte would explore Tokyo and the art of Japanese flowers. They meet again and later in the night, they explore the party scene of Tokyo where Charlotte meets an old college friend Charlie (Fumihiro Hayashi) who introduces the two to the rave scene, indie-pop records, and of course, karaoke. Charlie does the Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen and Bob does Nick Lowe's (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, & Understanding?. Charlotte later does the Pretenders' Brass in Pockets and Bob responds with a moving rendition of Roxy Music's More Than This.

The night resulted in the two finally getting some sleep while Bob is forced to deal with strange, disconnected communication with his wife while Charlotte is feeling more neglected from John as he is away from business. Bob and Charlotte have lunch together where Charlotte reveals a bruise in her foot resulting from a bump with a small object a few days back. Bob accompanies to the hospital where he talks to an old person despite not understanding what he's saying. They later meet for another night with Charlie at a strip club as they begin to have conversations about their troubles lives in a moving scene of the two of them in bed talking about marriage. With the film progressing from then on, Charlotte and Bob do their day activities while wondering if the relationship they're having is meaningful in the short time they're having.

In her second full-length feature to date after making the 1999 acclaimed film The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola has created something that is dreamlike but also eerie in its framing and tone. With cinematographer Lance Acord, Coppola captures the colorful, modern look of Tokyo that seems beautiful but at the same time, makes the audience feel very isolated in a lot of ways, particularly the characters of Bob and Charlotte. Coppola's original script is filled with wide-range of emotions along with some humor while in scenes with no dialogue, there's no need for her to write words as she makes the actors capture raw emotion through their performances. Even the sceneries of temples, landscapes, clubs, and arcades are filled with enigmatic beauty as the audience is transported into this new world that they're surrounded by. Though it seems to be a clash in cultures, it really opens the mind of the worlds many aren’t familiar to and Tokyo is a perfect setting with its wild look and people.

One noted factor to the greatness of the film is the use of its music. With cuts ranging from karaoke, jazz standards, Japanese pop, and dream-pop, the film exceeds the use of music the way Coppola had approached it with The Virgin Suicides. In Lost in Translation, the music moves and captures the mood of the film. With some of the original music from Brian Reitzell with Beck musician Roger Joseph Manning, Reitzell brings an eerie, cold mood to the culture of Japan along with the electronic music of Death in Vegas, Air, and Squarepusher. The real music star of the film is none other than My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, who finally returns with new music in 12 years after the release of the 90s rock masterpiece Loveless. Shields brings a dreamy, melancholic tone to the music, including the song City Girl used in the film's opening shot of Johansson in pink underwear and in the flower scene for a dreamy, melodic instrumental called Ikebana. Even the classic MBV song Sometimes appears in the film and the Jesus & Mary Chain noise-pop masterpiece Just Like Honey that gives the film its emotional climax.

The supporting performances of Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Farris, and a slew of Japanese actors are all well utilized. Ribisi plays a character that loves his wife but he's also married to his work and has been consumed with the trappings of being around celebrities and all sorts of people stroking his ego while making himself neglectful towards Charlotte. While Ribisi's character is based on Coppola's now ex-husband Spike Jonze, Ribisi's performance isn't an exaggeration of Jonze. Anna Farris does a surprising performance as a brainless Hollywood starlet who is consumed with her own fame and believing that she is the greatest thing in Japan, while she does a hilarious, off-key rendition of Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better. Even the Japanese cast is hilarious to watch from the commercial director (Yukata Tadokoro), the hooker, translators, TV talk show host Matthew Minami (Takashi Fuji) and all sorts of people including Fumihiro Hayashi as Charlie stand out on their own bringing out a sense of comedy while not purveying to the stereotype of the Japanese.

Then there's the two leading performances of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson that are both enigmatic, masterful, and deep in their respective roles and it's no doubt these two should be getting some awards. For Bill Murray, the character of Bob Harris is the best film role of his entire career. While he was hilarious in movies like Caddyshack, Meatballs, Ghostbusters 1 & 2, Scrooged, What About Bob? and Stripes along with more serious performances in Ed Wood, Rushmore, and Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation is his most defining performance as he not only brings out some quick-witted humor that is dry in some cases while he reveals his sense of vulnerability in the film including the poster of him sitting on his bed with his sad, droopy face.

Scarlett Johansson meanwhile, delivers a performance that exceeds all sorts of expectation wanted from a young actress. Though she's only 19 years old, Johansson brings in a mature, fragile performance as Charlotte that I don't think many actresses, including those around her age group could manage. She displays a beauty that transcends all sorts of barriers from the exterior to the more internal torture in her character. Johansson recently won the Upstream Best Actress prize from the Venice Film Festival for her performance and she truly deserved it. Just the way she made the camera look at her and to identify with the character is a true power to what it is to be a great actress. In comparison to early film roles like Manny & Lo, The Horse Whisperer, Ghost World, An American Rhapsody, and The Man Who Wasn't There, this is one of her best performance to date though she recently top that with Girl with a Pearl Earring with Colin Firth as the famous Vermeer painting.

The chemistry between Johansson and Murray are spellbinding as they channel their sadness to find some life around themselves in a foreign world. Even in their karaoke scenes, they bring in some depth into their roles while proving that they're not the best singers in the world. The age difference between the two is thrown out of the window as they play two lost souls trying to find meaning with their drab life. Even in the script's unconventional approach to a love story, the film doesn't give an answer on whether they should sleep together or not because it doesn’t matter. What matters is how these two individuals feel through real emotions and no one could capture those kinds of performances the way Murray and Johansson has done

***Updated Tidbits on the DVD from 2/5/04***

The DVD to Lost in Translation is featured in two versions. The Full-Screen and 1.85:1 Anamorphic Wide-Screen version. For those of you cinematic buffs who saw Lost in Translation multiple times (like I did where I saw the film 3 times in 2003 in the theaters), the Wide-Screen version is the one to own since it captures the film in an exhilarating form. With languages featuring French and Spanish subtitles plus DTS & Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound in English and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound in French. No, the film doesn't have Japanese subtitles but at least now, we can hear what Kevin Shields was saying in his MBV song Sometimes and City Girl that has so many interpretations on what he said.

Aside from the scene selections and language features, the DVD also includes a great menu of Special Features. The only disappointment in the Special Features DVD and probably for good reason is audio commentary from Sofia Coppola (but due to her personal circumstances, it's understandable and there’s no audio commentary from the always reclusive Murray and the workaholic Johansson). Aside from the great trailer (and before the film, some great trailers of films from Focus Features), there are some great special features that include two documentary features, Coppola's video for Kevin Shields' City Girl, five deleted and extended scenes, and the full version of Bob Harris’ visit to the Matthew's Best Hit TV Show.

The video for City Girl includes some shots of the film based on the viewpoint of Charlotte as well as a few scenes that didn’t make into the film. Sofia Coppola, who only had shot three music videos, did an amazing job with the editing and her romantic use of Kevin Shields' new song. The feature for Matthew's Best Hit TV Show is downright hilarious as the audience gets to see the whole episode in its entirety. We get to see Bob Harris trying to talk to the boisterous Minami and we finally see what was revealed in the box that is downright disgusting but overly hilarious.

The five deleted and extended scenes can be played individually or as a whole. The first is a deleted scene of Bob Harris joining in the water aerobics club with some Japanese women as he splashes around and joins in for the fun, showing Murray's offbeat comedy antics. The second is a scene where Charlotte goes into a toyshop outside of Tokyo as she encounters two robot children as she tries to play with them but leave her displaying her sense of neglect with background music of In The Subway by Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Brian Reitzell. The third is an extended press conference scene for Anna Faris’ Kelly where she talks about her action film Midnight Velocity and all of the Hollywood clichés that is played to the hilt, especially as Faris is playing a ditzy, Cameron Diaz-like character to the role. Faris isn't trying to be Diaz but she definitely brought some humor to the film's subtle tone. The fourth scene is a scene where Charlotte calls Bob the night after the karaoke party as she asks if he'll join her for lunch. The fifth and final scene is an extended scene of Harris' conversation with a Japanese elder that gets funnier because of the language barrier as they to learn each other's name.

The two documentary features include two different documentaries from Rome and Tokyo. The first is a 10-minute conversation with Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray in Rome, Italy in October of 2003 as they talk about the film where Murray says it's the best film he's ever done and it's his all-time favorite. Coppola and Murray thanked the film's crew for all the work that went through it including the actors and producers. The second is a 30-minute documentary on the making of the film as we see Sofia working on the film with the Japanese film crew. Also featured is Spike Jonze (who also shot the documentary) talking to Sofia about the film as we see the hospital scene, the worst lunch scene, Bob Harris' commercial scenes, and the Hyatt scenes being built with the Murray and Johansson talking and having some fun.

Overall, the DVD is something any hardcore fan of the film must have along with the film's soundtrack. The features are great; especially for film buffs that want to learn how movies are made and the other stuff are cool too. Hopefully, we'll get some audio commentary soon from Coppola and the actors in future editions and maybe, a book on the screenplay but it's likely that no will ever know what Harris whispered into Charlotte's ear. That's a moment only for the actors and its best if audiences never knew.

***End of DVD Tidbits Section***

Lost in Translation is hands-down, the best film of 2003. Though the comic-bio pic of American Splendor is a close second, Lost in Translation is just brilliant with its striking visuals, dreamy music, romantic script, and evocative performances of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The film is just powerful in its approach and mood, as Sofia Coppola has finally established herself as a filmmaker. Gone forever is the miscast performance of The Godfather Part III and gone now is her being mentioned with father and legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. Now, Sofia is a filmmaker that everyone will have to wait for and it's obvious her next film will be widely anticipated. In the end, Lost in Translation is an enigmatic masterpiece that is filled with beauty and realness thanks in large part to Sofia Coppola’s direction and the performances of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

Sofia Coppola Films: Lick the Star - The Virgin Suicides - Marie Antoinette - Somewhere - (The Bling Ring)

Sofia Coppola Soundtracks: Air-The Virgin Suicides - The Virgin Suicides OST - Lost in Translation OST - Marie Antoinette OST - (The Bling Ring OST)

Sofia Coppola Essays: Sofia Coppola: The Videos and Ads 1993-2008 - LIT 5th Anniversary Essay - The Auteurs #1: Sofia Coppola

© thevoid99 2010

Krzysztof Kieslowski's Trois Couleurs

Originally Written & Posted on 4/6/05 at Epinions.com

 Throughout the history of cinema, there have been films that been marketed into franchises but then, there are other films that were made into three-part stories. The most of famous of them had been blockbusters like Star Wars, The Matrix, and more recently, Lord of the Rings. Some directors chose to make their own trilogy like American cinema bad boy Gregg Araki and his teen angst trilogy of Totally F*cked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere from 1993-1997 and Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier has made a career with his own trilogies that ranges from subjects of European socialism, women, weird hospitals, and more recently, America. In 1993-1994, a Polish director not only created one of the greatest film trilogies ever made but it would become a fond farewell to his illustrious career. His name was Krzysztof Kieslowski and his trilogy was known as Trois Couleurs (Three Colors).

Kieslowski started out as a documentary filmmaker in the 1960s before seriously going into feature films. After getting a breakthrough in the 1980s with his Polish drama No End in 1984, Kieslowski embarked on ambitious projects that no international filmmaker would touch. In 1988, he created The Decalogue, a ten-part series of short films relating to the Ten Commandments and when it became successful, he became part of the international film elite. After Poland's break from communism, Kieslowski moved to France as he shot The Double Life of Veronique that was released in 1991 to great acclaim. Then, he embarked on another ambitious project that represented the three colors of the French flag. Blue for liberty, white for equality, and red for fraternity for its central themes of each part of the trilogy that he wrote with longtime writing partner Krzysztof Piesiewicz. There, Trois Couleurs was born as it stood to be one of the 90s greatest cinematic achievements as the director would later die in 1996 of heart failure.

Trois Couleurs-Bleu

The first of the three films starring Juliette Binoche in the leading role as Julie, Bleu (Blue) is a harrowing, dark psychological drama about a woman who is trying to liberate herself from everything from her life after the death of her husband and daughter in a car accident. The first theme for liberty that represents the color blue of the French flag, the movie is about human liberation in which Binoche gives an understated, complex performance as a woman trying not to connect with anything or anyone while trying to see if she can live life without memory, without pain, or without love. The film features some of Kieslowski's finest work as a director from its blurry subjective shots and sequences from Jacques Witta's fluid editing, Slawomir Idziak's evocative cinematography, and the haunting score of Zbigniew Priesner.

On the DVD supplements of Bleu, the film includes several features that are a must for any fan of the film or the entire trilogy itself. The feature documentary entitled Reflections On Bleu includes interviews with the film's cinematographer Slawomir Idziak and editor Jacques Witta along with film critic Geoff Andrews, Kieslowski historian Annette Insdorf, Kieslowski friend and collaborator Agnieska Holland, and Juliette Binoche. Each person discusses the brilliance of the film and what certain scenes mean to themselves. Binoche has a feature to herself about the making of the film and her memory of working with Kieslowski where she remembers attending his funeral where she nearly cries since some parts of the film would eerily reflect what would happen later on at his funeral.

Another documentary feature short is also featured on Kieslowski's early years in his life discussed by Andrews, Holland, Idziak, Insdorf, and Rouge actress Irene Jacob. Insdorf and Andrews discuss Kieslowski's childhood where he often moved along with his determination into joining a prestigious film school where Roman Polanski learned his craft as a filmmaker. Kieslowski stumbled into filmmaking accidentally early in his life till he went to that prestigious film school where by 1968, he became cynical towards politics and tried to explore the world of humanity through several of his documentary features and feature films later on where he gained friends and collaborators in Holland and Idziak. Insdorf also does an insightful, psychological feature-length commentary on the movie where she gives details on certain camera angles and shots sequences along with the in-depth study of its characters and their motivation. Insdorf provides a lot of views and ideas really help understand the film much easier while giving out some trivia on the film and Kieslowski's life while praising Binoche for her performance.

Other commentary comes on selected scenes where Binoche has her own commentary track on selected scenes entirely in French but with subtitles as she talks about the film and the scenes she liked. She also admitted that she was up for The Double Life of Veronique but turned it down almost regrettably only to see that Irene Jacob did a wonderful job. She almost turned Bleu down in favor of Jurassic Park because she wanted to work with Steven Spielberg. She also talks about certain inspirations for her character where she quoted lines of the book The Black Angel since it was one of the sources for her to play Julie. Editor Jacques Witta provides some nice, technical commentary on selected scenes in the film including how he came up with the fade-out shots and musical sequences with help from Kieslowski's notes. Witta gives ideas on how the film was edited and how Kieslowski worked since Witta wasn't used for Blanc because Kieslowski wanted a different editor so Witta could take a break and prepare for Rouge.

Producer Marin Kramitz is interviewed in the DVD about his relationship with Kieslowski and how the filmmaking process went while each film was presented in the scope of a year where Bleu premiered at the 1993 Venice Film Festival where it won several awards including the Best Actress prize for Binoche and the Golden Lion film prize for Kieslowski and Kramitz where though Kieslowski didn't speak French and Kramitz didn't know Polish, the two understood each through their ramblings while drinking whiskey. Kieslowski offers his first film lesson in a 1994 interview where he discusses a scene for Bleu about a timing sequence when Binoche's character puts a sugar cube on the coffee where it's soaked for nearly five seconds. Kieslowski discusses how he needed a certain brand of sugar cube for that scene since he didn't want to go to long or too short.

Also featured on the Bleu DVD is a short student film from Kieslowski back in 1967 called Concert of Wishes about a rag tag group of students camping in the country side as they try to go to a concert. Though its technical choices of sound, soundtracks, and black-and-white photography are impressive, the story is a bit simplistic but enjoyable since it's entertaining and thoughtful.

Trois Couleurs: Blanc

The second part of the trilogy, Blanc (White) starring Zbigniew Zamachowski and Julie Delpy is the more comical and probably the most accessible film of the trilogy. Set partially in Paris and mostly in Kieslowski's homeland of Warsaw, Poland, Blanc is about a man whose life has been destroyed by his ex-wife as he is humiliated and defeated to return back home to Warsaw where he plans a scheme of revenge against his French ex-wife. Set in the theme of equality, the film is partially a black comedy with a sense of irony and is filled with symbolic images and references that suggests a lot of the stranger things in life. Using a different cinematographer and editor for Blanc, Kieslowski delivers a different look and feel to Blanc as opposed to Bleu it remains connected in its trilogy thanks to Kieslowski's script with longtime collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz and composer Zbigniew Preisner who gives the film a plaintive, upbeat score than the melancholia of Bleu.

The DVD features in Blanc includes some of the similar features in Bleu which includes an intelligent audio commentary from Kieslowski historian Annette Insdorf who looks at the film's irony from the way it began and end along with a lot of the references and actors who have appeared in the previous work of Kieslowski. For the feature A Look at Blanc that included previous interviewees like Andrews, Insdorf, Holland, Witta, and Julie Delpy. They talked about the symbolism of the film along with its comparison of old Poland and the new Poland in circa-1993 where it had become a capitalist nation of sorts.

The discussion on Kieslowski's later work that included the 10-part segment The Decalogue and 1991's The Double Life of Veronique with Irene Jacob, many of the people interviewed in Kieslowski's life including his collaborators and friends along with Binoche, Jacob, cinematographers Slawomir Idziak and Piotr Jaxa and Kieslowski actor Phillippe Volter. They talked about Kieslowski's energy and work and how it nearly destroyed him in the end, even after he had announced his retirement. After his 1994 retirement, he and Piesiewicz were working on another trilogy on Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory for younger filmmakers to direct that never got finished when Kieslowski died in 1996. The 18-minute feature that discusses the working relationship of Kieslowski with his collaborators that includes all the interviewees plus sound mixer William Flageolett where Kieslowski often comes to his crew for their opinion on how the story should be told. Treating them as equals though he remains the director while they discuss how he works and plays with time, notably The Double Life of Veronique as they discussed the scene where Irene Jacob's title character meets her twin in one scene.

The conversation with Julie Delpy is a five-minute featurette where the actress talks about working with Kieslowski as a director, her approach to her own character and how she liked to get the story going. In her selected commentary scenes feature, she talked about some of the comedic aspects including a scene where she drove a car where in truth, she didn't knew how to drive a car while doing the entire commentary in French. Delpy also talks about her scene in the bedroom and the ending and the re-shooting where the actress gives some technical pointers on the scene. The cinema lesson Kieslowski offers is on two scenes, the film's opening scene that involved Zamachowski in the courtroom where a bird defecated on him and how Kieslowski wanted to see details for timing and everything and the scene where Zamachowski returns to Poland about the approach to comedy.

Producer Marin Kramitz's interview is on two things. One, he reads the production notes on how Kieslowski wanted White to be like and two, he reads a letter on Kieslowski's intentions for the film. The behind the scenes featurette on White shows Kieslowski discussing the film as a complex comedy of sorts along with scenes being made and the difficulties of shooting in the awful weather conditions in Warsaw. The three student films Kieslowski shows are all made in 1966. First is a simple love story called The Trolley about a man who tries to get on a trolley as he meets a young girl. The second is a thriller of sorts called The Face about a man who is haunted by a face he keeps seeing in his paintings. The third and most important is a documentary-like short called The Office about the problems of Poles trying to get jobs in its Communist regime. While The Trolley doesn't feature any sound, The Face works in its music but it's The Office that is the one to watch.

Trois Couleurs: Rouge

The third and final part of the trilogy, Rouge (Red) is a multi-layered film about a model/student in Geneva who meets a judge. Starring Irene Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignant, the film revolves around the coincidences and chances people meet where Jacob's character of Valentine meets a cynical old judge after accidentally hitting her dog. Learning that he's been eavesdropping his neighbors, her behavior towards him gives him a sense of change in his behavior and a love that he hadn't felt in years. Based on the theme of fraternity, Rouge was nominated three Oscars including Best Director for Kieslowski, Original Screenplay for Kieslowski and Piesiewicz, and Cinematography for Piotr Sobocinski. By far Kieslowski's best work in script and directing along with its colorful cinematography, Jacques Witta's solid editing style, sound work, and Bolero-driven score of Zbigniew Preisner, Rouge is a brilliant, masterful film from Kieslowski as sadly, this would ultimately be his final film.

The DVD features that includes the same specifications like the previous parts along with filmography section on Kieslowski features less material than the previous two but enough to satisfy fans of the film and its trilogy. Annette Insdorf's insightful commentary on Rouge is wonderfully informative to Kieslowski's work but also the work of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Irene Jacob plus some of the abstract details about the film including the idea of the ending and one of its survivors. The featurette Insights Into Trois Couleurs-Rouge is near-30 minute feature about Rouge and the trilogy with interviews from Witta, Insdorf, Jacob, Flageolett, Jaxa, Holland, and critic Geoff Andrews. They talk about the film's theme and Kieslowski's approach to the film and how it almost paralleled to Kieslowski's own life and upcoming demise. The cinema lesson Kieslowski provide that was shot in late 1994 shows the scene of the dog Rita running into the church with Jacob chasing after her only to return to find Rita at the home of the judge. There, Kieslowski shows the idea of plot-point and what to show and what not to show in a scene.

Irene Jacob has two features for herself on Rouge where one is a conversation scene about Kieslowski. Jacob discusses how she wanted to work with Kieslowski after watching a segment from The Decalogue and got the part for 1991's The Double Life of Veronique despite her shyness. She talked about how she loved with working with Kieslowski so much that she signed on for Rouge even before it was ready to go into fruitions. She talked about working with Trintignant and his experience as an actor and her own interpretation of the film's ending that involved all the main characters of the trilogy. In her own selected commentary scenes, Jacob talks about a few scenes in the film during an interview in French. Jacob talks about where the name Valentine came from plus the final runway scene that took a few takes to do and scenes with Trintignant that she admitted were hard because she couldn't be compassionate and she had to be a bit confrontational. She also talks about the ending and her own view on what happens while admitting that Rouge is harsh film on indifference but it works and is proud of her performance no matter how difficult it was.

Producer Marin Kramitz discusses the film crew where Kieslowski wanted Jacques Witta as his editor and Sobocinski since he shot a segment of The Decalogue while they talked about the look of the film where they didn't build any sets and borrowed an old woman's apartment and the bowling scene and its importance. Kramitz also talked about the 1994 Cannes Film Festival where Rouge lost the Palme D'or to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction though Tarantino felt Rouge should've won. They also talked about how Rouge lost out all the awards at the Cesars and how it almost didn’t get nominated for an Oscar because it was a Polish-Swiss-French film and the American press and filmmakers protested the Academy for not having Rouge to be recognized where the result was 3 Oscar nominations. Kieslowski and Kramitz were happy to be at the Oscars even though they didn't win but were excited to sit between Jodie Foster and Sylvester Stallone.

Editor Jacques Witta provides some technical pointers into the film, notably the role of being an editor where his job was to tell the director how the story should flow and to re-read all the material and with Kieslowski, it was easy because Kieslowski always asked him to see what could go wrong. Witta also discusses seven deleted scenes from the film that were cut due to pacing, notably a scene where Jean-Pierre Lorit's Auguste leaves his dog at a sign pole in anger. What wasn't shown that was a mystery for many, especially towards the ending is what Auguste does so a mystery is solved. Scenes that includes Valentine's brother reading about what happens in the end, a scene of another moment of synchronicity where Valentine Auguste are in the same frame but don't see each other and extended sequences that were cut because they weren't needed. Witta talks why Kieslowski chose to quit for good at the press conference for Rouge at the Cannes Film Festival because after seeing the film several time, Witta said that Kieslowski had nothing else to prove anymore and he was tired. Of all the films he's done, Rouge was the one he felt for the most.

The Behind the Scenes of Rouge featurette with Kieslowski is a 24-minute segment with several scenes of the theater scenes, in and out being rehearsed along with how the cameras entered the window where we first meet Valentine. There, the featurette shows how Kieslowski works with his actors while creating some great whether sequences including a scene during its final moments where Kieslowski holds a branch. The final featurette is a 15-minute piece of Rouge premiering at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival with interviews with Kieslowski, Irene Jacob, Zbigniew Preisner, and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Jacob, Preisner, and Trintignant talk about working with Kieslowski on the boats and restaurant while Jacob and Trintignant takes promotional pictures with Kieslowski as he is interviewed himself where they ask him about spirituality and all sorts of question. While there are clips of films cut with the featurette, the featurette also a clip of Kieslowski's infamous press conference where he announces his retirement.

The box set released in 2003, Trois Couleurs is a must-have for any fan of any of those films or Kieslowski himself. While one of the films could be a favorite for anyone, as a whole, Trois Couleurs is an outstanding set filled with great DVD features that any film student should have. It's a bit pricey and a bit hard to find but it's one box set that every fan of foreign films must own. With loads of interviews and features, this box set shows the brilliance of Trois Couleurs and its creator, Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Krzysztof Kieslowski Films: (The Scar) - (Camera Buff) - (Blind Chance) - (No End) - (A Short Film About Killing) - (A Short Film About Love) - (The Decalogue) - The Double Life of Veronique

(C) thevoid99 2010

Trois Couleurs: Rouge

Originally Written & Posted at Epinions.com on 3/12/05

After releasing 1993's Bleu (Blue) at the 1993 Venice Film Festival that won Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski the Golden Lion top prize and actress Juliette Binoche the top actress prize. Kieslowski released the second part of his Trois Couleurs (Three Colors) trilogy Blanc (White) at the 1994 Berlin Film Festival where he won the Best Director prize. Both films were already successful in its home production of France and Poland and all across the world including America. In 1994 at the Cannes Film Festival, Krzysztof Kieslowski released the third and final part of his trilogy in Rouge (Red) that will ultimately be his final film before his death in 1996.

Written with his longtime writing partner and trilogy co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Rouge represents the third and final color of the French flag. Whereas Bleu was about liberty and Blanc was about equality, Rouge focuses on the final color that represents fraternity. Set in Geneva, Rouge is a mysterious film about a young model/student whose chance meeting with a cynical, retired judge leads her to a path of her destiny and future. Playing the model is the star of Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique is Irene Jacob as she plays a good-natured young woman named Valentine. Once she encounters the judge, played by European film legend Jean-Louis Trintignant, that not only leads to a future of her own life and his life in the past, but also an ending that would link herself with participants from the previous stories. More multi-layered than previous parts of the trilogy, it is considered to be Kieslowski's best film of the series. Also starring Jean-Pierre Lorit, Frederique Feder, and Trois Couleurs participants Juliette Binoche, Julie Delpy, Benoit Regent, and Zbigniew Zamachowski. Rouge is a fitting way to close a great trilogy as well as a great farewell to one of Europe's most prestigious directors.

With everyone in Geneva trying to communicate, a young Swiss student/model named Valentine awaits a phone call from her boyfriend Michel, who is in London after arriving from a horrible trip in Poland. Valentine leaves her apartment to work on some photo shoots and do some work in her ballet. Her day consists of going to a cafe and try the slot machine where she often loses. Around that same time, a young student named Auguste (Jean-Pierre Lorit) is studying for his studies in being a judge while juggling his relationship with his girlfriend Karin (Frederique Feder). After a modeling assignment, Valentine tries to change the radio station in her car where she accidentally hits a dog named Rita. Taking Rita to her home address, she comes into the house of the owner, an old man who is listening to a conversation. She asks if she can take Rita to the veterinarian where he replies "As you wish" in his cynical tone.

Rita recovers as Valentine learns that the dog is pregnant where she takes her for a walk. Rita runs as Valentine chases her to find Rita at her home where the old man lives. She presents him with a bill for Rita's bandages as Valentine enters the house where she learns he's still listening to conversations from the house next door. She finds him disturbing as she tries to talk to the people next door but couldn't. She learns the man is a retired judge who is still doing his job on the outside. Then the judge talks about Valentine's brother, who is a junkie as she is astounded that he knows this much, even that he was on the paper earlier that day where Valentine won money from the slot machine in her cafe. She is horrified by his cynical behavior and conversations plus knowledge yet is intrigued.

Calling her boyfriend, who is still in England, Valentine continues on her modeling assignment during a trip to a bowling alley. Auguste meanwhile, studies for his judging exam where he has not only passed thanks to an answer he had accidentally found but celebrates. That euphoria is shattered when he learns that something isn't right in his love life. Then one day when Valentine does her daily routine and training at the ballet studio, she looks at the paper to learn about the judge's neighbors on a trial. She drives to the house of the judge, who had turned himself in to reveal the content of the conversations he learned about the neighboring family and another neighbor. Valentine wondered why he had turned himself in, it was because he thought about what she said to him during their last conversation.

Though he has rocks being thrown at his house, the judge asks Valentine to stay for a drink as he talks about a dream he had and his own past as a judge where he talked about a sailor he now learn was guilty of a crime. Valentine had stripped down his cynical, bitter front where he has now revealed himself to be a man who has been broken-hearted. Auguste meanwhile learns what Karin had been doing as she is having an affair with another man. Valentine has decided to leave Geneva to go to England to visit her family and her boyfriend. Before she leaves, she asks the judge if he could see her in one of her fashion show appearances. They have a final conversation before her departure where she learns more of his broken heart but the judge shows a sense of happiness and comfort that she hadn't seen. He tells her a story about the night his heart was broken and a man named Hugo who had been her lover, who he would meet years later at a trial. With their conversation finished, the judge fonds Valentine farewell as she embarks on her trip where she would find herself in a strange event that would bring her and a few people around her.

In comparison to the melancholia of Bleu and the dark comedy of Blanc, Rouge is by far the most complex film of the trilogy, notably in its theme. The theme of fraternity resonates greatly in the film from its opening sequence of a phone line being zoomed to another phone and the connections of both Valentine and Auguste though they never see each other. There would be moments where they're both in the same frame but neither character see or acknowledge each other, until the film progresses when Valentine sees Auguste's red jeep left off with the lights on. The theme of fraternity also plays well to the trilogy not just for the color of red throughout the film but also the fictional composer Van de Budenmayer, the musical theme of Blanc playing in a background at a record store, an elderly trying to put a glass bottle into a recycling bin, and the film's ending.

What the film's ending does isn't bring closure to all the main characters in the film's trilogy but leaves them hanging as the judge in Rouge would see everything unfold. In some cases, the judge is playing a god-like character who knows a lot and knows about the fate of Valentine. The credit goes to Kieslowski and his writing partner Kryzsztof Piesiewicz for bringing a story that isn't non-linear but one that has a sense of coincidence and synchronicity. It's the most original and multi-layered script of the three films and its story and its intention to stay in its theme gives Rouge a spot above the other two films. Its complexity will confuse audiences at first but once the story progresses, it becomes easier and simpler to watch.

The directing in Rouge is more sprawling than Bleu and Blanc because of its theme where Kieslowski would often zoom in and out for certain shots in slow or fast ways. Then, he would use crane shots for movements that relates to one of the central characters in the film. In its directing, Rouge trumps them all in its style and intentions with a lot of the credit going to cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski for using red and light to give the film a more distinct look. Sobocinski uses some great, natural lighting for the film but the use of red, even the judge's red-brown furniture in his home gives the movie that lovely, serene quality, even in the photo-shoot sequence of Valentine chewing bubble gum with a red, satin material behind her with some of the credit of its look from production designer Claude Lenoir and costume designer Corrine Jorry. It's a film that plays well to its theme with a lot of credit going to Bleu editor Jacques Witta for bringing a nicely, kinetic editing style in several scenes that moves the film fast but also gives the film a nice, rhythmic pacing that isn't too slow or too fast.

Rouge in a lot of ways has more technical achievements than Bleu and Blanc with its use of sound by Jean-Claude Lareux and mixing from William Flageolett that gives the film a distinct sound that is probably inspired by the sound work in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. Then there's the film's music from the trilogy's score composer Zbigniew Preisner. Of all the compositions in the trilogy, Rouge has the most operatic and serene tone of the film with some delicate arrangements and instruments from guitar strings and a sweeping quality that makes the music stand out against its predecessors. Overall, Rouge succeeds in its technical and story-like qualities thanks to Kieslowski's grand vision.

While the cast in Rouge is smaller than Bleu and Blanc, there are some nice, small performances from characters like Valentine's photographer, the man who voices her boyfriend Michel, Karin's lover, and of course, Frederique Feder as the beautiful, cheating lover of Auguste. While Jean-Pierre Lorit's role as Auguste is merely a supporting role, it's a character that drives the film, especially since he is someone that shares similar troubles as the judge did when he was young. Though Lorit doesn’t do much, he does give a lot of drive for the film.

Jean-Louis Trintignant gives a masterful and enigmatic performance as the cynical judge whose life is only driven by eavesdropping and judging the world. Trintignant gives his character a great shield early on with his cold, malicious view of life and the world but once he meets Valentine and her pity towards him, Trintignant gives another dimension towards his character. One that an audience can love and when Trintignant opens up and smiles, he glows in his old age of a man who embraces happiness, even as his time is dwindling. It's a great performance from one of Europe's most beloved actors. Irene Jacob is amazing as the good-natured, noble Valentine with her well-mannered attitude and behavior, her sad outlook on her family and love life but she is one who has an optimism and nature that is so refreshing to see. Jacob graces her performance with beauty and intelligence along with her goodness. Jacob carries herself greatly in scenes with Trintignant as the two bring magic in their views as she feels pity for him early on and towards the end, he embraces her for giving him a new outlook on life.

Released in 1994 at the Cannes Film Festival that year, Rouge was well-received but didn’t receive any awards in France. During the press conference for the film, director Kryzsztof Kieslowski announced his retirement after nearly 3 decades of making films. Rouge would end up being nominated for 3 Academy Awards for its original screenplay, cinematography, and director for Kieslowski. Sadly in 1996, Kieslowski would die from heart failure as he left a huge impact in European cinema. With Rouge, it was a fitting farewell to great director.

While Rouge might be the best of the entire Trois Couleurs trilogy, it's not a film for everyone since it lacks the intense drama of Bleu or the dark humor of Blanc but it does stand on its own. Thanks to Kieslowski's directing, his script with Piesiewicz, Sobocinski's cinematography, Witta's editing, Preisner's score, and the performances of Irene Jacob and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Rouge will be remembered for its simplicity and complex approach to storytelling, while it stands as one of the most seminal and beloved European films of the 1990s.

Krzysztof Kieslowski Films: (The Scar) - (Camera Buff) - (Short Working Day) - (Blind Chance) - (No End) - (A Short Film About Killing) - (A Short Film About Love) - The Double Life of Veronique - Trois Couleurs: Bleu - Blanc

(C) thevoid99 2010