|
Directed by Sofia Coppola, and starring Bill Murray, it became the most talked about movie so far at the when it made its debut Sunday.
Critics and the public alike were won over by the film, which is about two people who stumble across each other in Japan and has slightly melancholic touches.
"These are some of the most satisfying laughs I've ever got in the movies", said Murray, a veteran American comedy actor whose films include "Groundhog Day" and "Ghostbusters".
"There are some fantastically funny lines ... but Sofia created this film and she deserves the credit for it", he told a news conference as he sipped a glass of red wine.
Murray is Bob Harris, a has-been actor who flies to Japan to make a whisky commercial. Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World), is in Tokyo with her workaholic photographer husband.
Suffering from jet lag, the two strike up a midnight friendship that slowly blossoms into a subtle romance that they never consummate.
With his deadpan humour, Murray steals the show. In one scene Bob has to be rescued from a running machine that gets the better of him and in another he struggles to understand and fend off a Japanese prostitute.
"When I was writing the script I had Bill Murray in mind", said Coppola, 32, daughter of Francis Ford Coppola who directed "The Godfather" films.
"I sent him pages as I finished them and after many months of leaving messages, he finally agreed to meet with me", she said, joking she had bribed him with "caviar and champagne".
The film is up against 18 others in the "Upstream" competition for more experimental entries. Another 20 films are vying for the Golden Lion award in the main competition. Winners of both competitions will be announced on September 6.
"It's the best movie I've seen yet. My only question is why isn't it in the main competition?" one American critic said.
The movie, Coppola's second feature film after her first "The Virgin Suicides" won high praise in 1999, was shot entirely on location in Japan in what she described as "not very luxurious" conditions.
She also wrote the screenplay, based on her own experiences in Japan.
|
