Archives for February 26, 2013

From 2004, a memory of watching Lost in Translation with my septuagenarian mother:

Somewhat to my surprise, she liked it, though she initially found Sofia Coppola’s elliptical style of storytelling a bit hard to follow. (Gen-X moviegoers suckled on MTV take jump cuts for granted, but most people born before 1950 or so are accustomed to films in which the plot elements are laid out fairly straightforwardly.) In addition, it hit me after about 10 minutes that she didn’t know what jet lag was…

Read the whole thing here.

“If you try to write ‘good lines’ you’ll likely wind up with strings of dumb, unconnected applause lines. The audience will probably applaud–crowds of supporters are dutiful that way, and people want to be polite–but they’ll know they’re applauding an applause line, not a thought, and they’ll know they’re enacting enthusiasm, not feeling it. This accounts for some of the tinniness of much modern political experience.”
Peggy Noonan, A Sunday Thought (“Peggy Noonan’s Blog,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3, 2013)