When was the last time you visited a foreign city and didn’t look up things to do? Didn’t crowd-source recommendations, rely on offline maps and translate apps, or post a constant stream of pictures and videos? Didn’t even take them, maybe? These days, it’s tough to even go out to lunch in one’s own neighborhood without looking up options ahead of time. But in 2003, when Sofia Coppola’s sophomore feature Lost in Translation was released, iPhones didn’t exist; instead, people sent faxes or drew maps by hand. Experiences were meant to be enjoyed, not documented. 2023 marks the film’s 20th anniversary, its famously (and perhaps frustratingly) sparse plot all the more poignant when we consider how much has changed in those intervening years.
Part of Kicking the Canon — The Film Canon.
