Representations of non-places in Lost in Translation and Somewhere by Sofia Coppola

Abstract

By theorizing about the cinematic conceptualization of space, this article focuses on two feature films by American director and screenwriter Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation (2003) and Somewhere (2010), with the intent of analyzing her own personal techniques of spatial representation and how these help in the ideological and/or moral setting of her work. This article will connect filmic space to real space, highlighting the difference between the methodical creation of the former — which has the aesthetic aim of mirroring or contrasting the human spirit that surpass it — and the unfathomable existence of the latter, which also ends up being indifferent towards its inhabitants. Taking Marc Augé’s concept of «non-places» and expanding its range of application by bringing it to the field of spatial representation in audiovisual media, the article discusses how the meaning of this term can be consistent with the construction of filmic space orchestrated by Sofia Coppola, exemplifying with specific scenes and other aspects of each film in particular. Moreover, the anthropological ideas of Manuel Delgado are applied in the discussion about the possible moral filiation of filmic space versus that of real space, to finally take the sociological point of view with David Riesman’s work in an attempt to establish the possibility of redemption or appropriation of space by the characters in each film.