Sofia Coppola explains the final scene of ‘Lost In Translation’
So much of Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation is communicated via the silence between words. Nowhere is this more apparent than during the final scene, when Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray are forced to part ways and return to normality. Everything we need to know about how they feel about one another is expressed, not through dialogue, but through the creases around their eyes, the way they tense up and, of course, their final embrace on the packed streets of Tokyo.
Coppola somehow manages to express just how deeply these two are in love using body language alone; they don’t even kiss until the final five minutes of the film. Still, we know that their adoration is complex and profound. It is perhaps this lack of dialogue – and indeed the lack of obvious sexual tension – that has made the final scene of Lost in Translation such a source of fascination over the years. To this day fans are still trying to guess what it is Murray whisper’s in Johansson’s ear as they embrace for the last time.
Opening up about that iconic moment to Vanity Fair, Sofia Coppola seemed surprised by its enduring popularity. Its featherweight beauty was hardly intentional, after all. “I’m pretty sure it was our last day of shooting. We were exhausted, so I think it helped that they really were saying goodbye I didn’t intend [the end] to be a big thing,” she recalled,
Shedding some light on the origins of the whisper, Coppola added: “It came from the tradition of Italian movies—they would just say numbers and figure out the dialogue later. [But] then we left it. We never seemed to be able to sum it up. I always liked that Bill Murray says it’s between the two of them. [Everybody] asks what he whispers to her. I just don’t get why it’s such a thing, but I’m touched that people feel connected to it.”
Coppola would go on to express her own enduring relationship with Lost In Translation, noting how it affects everyone in a slightly different way. “I hadn’t seen it for a long time, but I watched it last spring, because we went to Japan on a family trip,” she continued. “We were staying at the Park Hyatt, so I wanted to show [my daughters] the movie. Watching with eight and eleven-year-old girls really changed the way I looked at it. Like, what’s the shot of [Scarlett] in her underwear? [Bill’s] so much older than her. My daughters are raised in such a different generation. When it’s on TV, sometimes I’ll stop and watch it for 15 minutes or something. It’s like an old photo album. It’s fun when it pops up, but I don’t sit down and review my work. I go on and don’t really look back.”
