When two or more people experience something, whatever it may be, their perspectives are going to differ considerably. Because the way we perceive reality is conditioned by our past and our personality. The movie Rashomon explores this in depth, in which a single fact can become incredibly inexplicable, when it becomes impossible to reconcile two contradictory perspectives. In the case of the divorce between Spike Jonze and Sofia Coppola, both being filmmakers, They each made a great movie expressing their point of view on their failed marriage..
They met in 1992, while filming a music video for the band Sonic Youth. After several years of dating, they married in 1999, the same year that Spike Jonze would release his first film, Being John Malkovich. Four years later, they would seek a divorce citing irreconcilable differences. That same year, 2003, Sofia Coppola would release her second film, Lost in Translationabout a young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage.
Ten years after the divorce, in 2013, Spike Jonze would release Her, a film that perfectly captured a new loneliness, based on Internet relationships and AI. It would earn it the Oscar for best original screenplay. But after that success, he would not direct a film again, only short films and the occasional music video.
Two views on the same heartbreak
Through the artistic process we can determine how each person processed the breakup. In the case of Sofia Coppola, she was already preparing a film about her failed relationship even before the divorce became official. What makes Lost in Translation in a passionate story and very personal. In the film, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) is accompanying her husband on a work trip, who was hired to photograph a rock band in Japan. She is frustrated because her husband seems to be much more interested in her work than in her, leaving her alone in the hotel all day with nothing to do. Even when they are together, the disconnection is evident.
It is easy to identify the parallel reality between Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze's relationship, and Charlotte's with her photographer husband. Jonze started his career as a photographer and also directed many music videos. Coppola it states that this character is not her ex-husband, but that has elements of it, based on experiences. Which is hard to believe considering all the similarities to real life.
Lost in Translation It is a film about the nature of loneliness, shows us two dissatisfied characters who briefly find respite in each other. Made by an artist leaving a marriage that, for all we know, could have collapsed exactly as we see on screen.
The couple's friends also noticed the resemblance. What led to the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and close friend of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, to to confront to Sofia Coppola at the premiere of Lost in Translation. He scolded her for seemingly exposing her relationship to her world, for which he later apologized to her.
We can see how Her is about exactly the same thing, but at a time after the breakdown of the relationship. We see the main character reflecting painfully, being tortured by memories of him. He constantly analyzes his memories, seeking to trace the spark and its development until it became the fire that ended their love. Coppola wanted to portray his broken heart live, while Jonze waited ten years to introduce us to a lonely protagonist, unable to form new connections because his gaze is always directed backwards.
Therefore, while Lost in Translation portrays the feeling of coldness that predicts the end of a relationship, Her focuses on revelations that only appear in retrospect. Joaquin Phoenix's character spends the entire movie going over what could have gone wrong. Near the end, when he meets with his ex-wife to finalize the divorce, a very uncomfortable tension dominates the scene. interaction. The protagonist cannot help but go back over the good moments of the relationship. Then, after an unfortunate comment, his ex-wife reminds him that he always wanted her to be something she wasn't, someone lively, smiling, and carefree. It is even revealed that he wanted her to take antidepressants. According to her, he wanted to have a wife, but without having to deal with anything real, which is why now her girlfriend is an AI.
Aesthetically, both films are also quite similar. Probably thanks to KK Barrett, who is in charge of production design on both films. And of course, both films feature the stellar participation of Scarlett Johansson. Her presence is an explicit reminder that the two masterpieces are connected by the same tragedyturned into something beautiful through the artistic process.