WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR BACKLOT WHISPERS. Review By Sunset Boulevard. February 17, 2004: Lost in Translation is lost all right — in critics’ minds. Yours truly, the roux of the Boulevard, was invited by a renowned movie collector to view  Lost In Translation,  the movie nominated by the National Academy of Arts and Sciences for an Oscar for Best Picture coming up in the next two weeks.

Yours truly and Mrs. Yours Truly arrived for pre-preview cocktails and canapés catered by a posh White Plains eatery at Mr. Collector’s pillored mansion Sunday evening. Afterwards we were ushered into Mr. Collector’s opulent private viewing theater for a showing  of the movie that has been championed and praised, as Best Picture, for Best Director, and Best Actor, and Best Screenplay.  

 

No less than that tastemaking  icon of savvy, The New York Times  ran a story about Bill Murray’s incredible performance over the weekend. Mr. Collector said he wanted to see for himself what the buzz was all about.

 

The question, upon viewing Sofia Coppola’s movie , is what started the buzz in the first place.

 

 Lost In Translation is perhaps the worst message movie in a long time, as self-indulgent and as amateurish a piece of film you will ever see. It is so badly written, so indulgently edited, that you find yourself reaching for good things to say about it.

 

You are so eager for the movie to be over halfway through it, you feel compelled to make apologies for it. You find yourself saying things like, “this is really a great 15-second cityscape,” or, “this is a great soundtrack,” or “now, that’s funny,” as you scan the unending celluloid boredom, unfolding before you, for gems of immortal Hollywood excellence.

 

 Had this movie been written and filmed by someone other than Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter, it would have been dismissed as an Orson Wells-clichéd compendium of what not to do in making a film.

 

First let’s take the opening credit: The opening credit is a shot of Scarlett Johansson’s underwear clad posterior and legs. Wow. How creative is that? A shocker.

 

Right away Ms. Coppola is sending a message here: this is a message film. How prophetic the opening shot of Ms. Johansson’s bottom is, let me tell you.

 

Bad Bad City. I am Soooo Alone.

 

We see Bill Murray emerging from the airport, arriving at a hotel, watching the lights of downtown Tokyo. A vast part of the movie consists of scenes like this one, Bill Murray or co-star, the nubile, compactly voluptuous Scarlett Johansson gazing at the “Oh Wow” cityscapes of Tokyo, thinking. The trouble is you do not know what they are thinking, ever, in this movie.

 

Ms. Coppola lets the elegant cinema photography  tell a story, and what an original story and message: The big city is impersonal and dehumanizing. Is that the message, Ms. Coppola? How observant,  how insightful.

 

Or, is it, the big city is filled with people who play at connecting? Is that the message, Ms. Coppola?

 

Or is it, if only I could find myself in this big city, someone who understood me and appreciated me for myself, because my husband/wife is so boring and does not appreciate me,  Is that the message, Ms. Coppola?  

 

Viewers Pick any one of previous choices or all.

 

Lost in Translation is a movie that is as unsatisfying as a therapist’s session, where the therapist never tells you what to do, but you find out for yourself in a journey of self discovery at $200 an hour. With Lost In Translation, it is $9.75 for what seems days.

 

It is the  film I saw made by  students in the late 60s, obsessed with super-8, who would take endless footage of everyday life happenings, jumpcut and string them together artistically and were rewarded with the sobriquet, “creative,” from their bearded professors.

 

What choo lookin’ at?

 

The critics love this movie. They are crazy.

 

This movie was rewarded with the following critic’s raves: “Lost is Found Gold! Sofia Coppola wrote the year’s best original screenplay and directred it with delicacy and precision. Bill Murray gives a performance that will be talked about for years. A career triumph!”

 

“Bill Murray is the best actor of the year! He gives the performance of his career. The beauty of Lost in Translation is in its exquisitely captured details. Working from her own original script, Sofia Coppola’s focus is unwavering. Unforgettable.”

 

And this: “ This year’s only truly great film! Bravo to everyone involved in this miracle achievement.”

 

Balderdash! I think the reason this movie is getting so much incredible hype is the man behind it,  Sofia Coppola’s Dad, Francis Ford Coppola, is the film’s executive producer.

 

 Critics are afraid to offend Coppola, director of   the interminable yawn of  The Godfather series, that glamorized Thugville, and had its own interminable sections, finally putting Marlon Brando’s mumbles to good use. How else can you explain Ebert and Roeper giving this movie two thumbs up?

 

This movie is a joke. It is The Emperor’s New Clothes on film. It is so bad, it must be good, the critics seem to be saying.

 

Hilarious? Like a Funeral.

 

How else to explain the DVD slipcase copy saying this movie is hilarious. It is not. It has less than 10 good laughs in it. Most of the jokes mock the Japanese, and their imitation of American culture, and the Japanese politeness and respect. This humor has a very sour taste to it. I laughed, but felt uncomfortable doing so.

 

 Lost is hyped as a comedy in its trailers, yet when you see it, you are getting a twenty-something writer’s view of how lousy middle age is, complete with a youth’s callow clichés of middle age.

 

Old reliables.

 

Witness the dialogue singled out by The Times as good, where Scarlett Johansson as Charlotte asks Murray (as Bob Harris) in the hotel bar if he bought a Porsche as part of his midlife crisis. This is a cliché!

 

If you take the premise that Ms. Coppola is simply mimicking the banter in bars, I’ll cut her a pass there.  But, it is soooo unrealistic. There just has to be some electricity. Ms. Coppola  ends the scene with the big verbal payoff after several clever banters by Murray with the lines “I wish I could sleep.” “Me, too.”

 

Man, that is heavy, double-meaning dialogue: are our characters  so haunted by angst, they cannot sleep. Cleverly written don’t you think?

 

This is typical of the way Coppola’s scenes dribble out.

 

But, wait, perhaps this is really the way life is? Is Ms. Coppola saying, through some of the most mundane dialogue ever filmed on celluloid, that real life dialogue is like that?  LIT is film-making  that leaves you the breathless at the end of each sequence, thinking, what is the point of this scene?

 

Waiting for the Payoff

 

You keep waiting for some passion between these two protagonists, wanting the payoff, and  Ms. Coppola never gives it to you. This violates the first rule of filmmaking you have to have a crisis, followed by an critical incident, followed by a resolution. Lost In Translation starts with a crisis, delivers a critical incident, Bob Harris digging Charlotte, but frozen into inaction, and the movie never pays off for the viewer.

 

Flunking Cinema 101

 

Coppolla pulls off many cinema sins in this movie. She could have told the story in an hour, and she leaves many devices untapped. There are a great deal of scenes of Charlotte and Bob that involve drinking, smoking, partying, with the camera lingering on smoking and forms of self-indulgence.

 

This use of the camera to say what you are too untalented to write into the script is Felliniesque and was done much better by Fellini in La Dolce Vita. La Dolce Vita actually appears in a television set in one of Murray’s hypnotically compelling scenes of lounging on his bed in the Tokyo luxury hotel.

 

Actually when you think about it La Dolce Vita was pretty overrated too. Oh the meaninglessness of having a good time and being rich!

 

What film-making brilliance here!  Making life in a luxury hotel on the road a metaphor for the meaningless of  an actor’s life. How sensitive. How insightful.  Coppola loves the hotel. She uses the scene of Bill Murray lounging in a hot tub or on a bed, using a television clicker to click through the waste of Japanese television. Really grabs you by the intellectual throat, film-making insight like this.

 

Then there is the classic error of storytelling: the inexplicable action. In the middle of the movie Bill Murray makes a connection that has no rhyme or reason based on his attitude shown previously. This is the non-sequitor error. This writing contrivance, apparently put in too keep Charlotte and Bob apart, is inexplicable, based on Bob’s previous behavior.

 

They tell you not to do that in film school.

 

Devices Lost.

 

Charlotte’s husband goes off  on a photo shoot so she and Bob start hanging out together. Somehow Charlotte invites Bob to go with her friends who are Japanese…who all talk Japanese to Bob and Charlotte in the scenes. Who are these Japanese guys and dolls? How did Charlotte meet them? What are they saying? How do they decide what to do? This is like basic cinema stuff. Call for Logic on the set!

 

 And Bob and Charlotte seem to be having a good time. Does this mean they understand Japanese? What are all the bizarrely dressed and fashioned Japanese men and women saying to Bob Harris and Charlotte that makes them laugh? Darned if I know.

 

 

Ms. Coppolla would have scored some comedic laughs here if she had subtitled the film, as Woody Allen did in What’s Up Tiger Lily?  Lily was Woody’s first movie in which he took a Japanese action film and subtitled it with comic lines. The effect of Bob Harris seeming to understand what is going on around him and Charlotte is unrealistic.

 

Paging a Message.

 

This is another blockbuster set of original messages delivered by Ms. Coppola. Is it we’re all the same the world all over and there are no barriers? Is it, lap dancing is bad (shown in grotesque closeup) but makes everything all right? Is it, if you can afford $500 a day to stay in a luxury hotel, you can’t have a good time? I do not get it.

 

The praise for this movie seems to indicate dumfoundedness on the part of the movie critics. Are they dumbfounded seeing a movie so bad, it is actually good? Is this the 21^st Century Plan 9 From Outer Space?

 

Devices overused?

 

When you don’t know what to write next, you have to use contrivances to fill out the film time. The extensive use of the beautiful cinematography of Lance Acord  as visual bridges is a tell-tale sign that this story does not know where it is going. The writer is shooting as she goes along. (Let’s put in a cityscape here before I think of my next wonderful set of dialogue.)

 

The cityscapes, its crowds are beautiful, but serve no purpose in the movie other than to pad the running time between stretches of set pieces of mundane quickly forgotten, contrived lines.

 

The Whisper in the Ear.

 

Ironically, the best dialogue in the film is mumbled and not understandable.

 

That is not a good sign.

 

Appearing when it does in the movie is a contrivance, reminiscent of  Hair’s nudity. The Murray “whisper in the ear” appears and is the only passionate moment in the movie.

 

The “Whisper in the Ear” contrivance is and has been recognized by critics as brilliant and creative. It sure is. It is a creative way for the writer to admit, “I do not know the story I am telling or how to end a scene with an all-time memorable line.”

 

“The Whisper in the Ear” has the same effect as giving a movie two conclusions, or three, or four.

 

Thank goodness for a soundtrack.

 

The soundtrack in this movie is used very nicely, and thank God it is there because you find yourself paying attention to it, because the story doesn’t grab you. You keep waiting the whole movie for Bob Harris to just jump Charlotte. I mean, she is a little honey. (Great mouth, good legs). I mean, viewing this, you’re saying let’s get on with it.

 

But no, Ms. Coppola doesn’t give you that. She writes a movie about a guy on a business trip in Tokyo, who meets a cute woman, has chemistry, and experiences sensual tension and feeling he has long forgotten and then fights against it. And maybe that is the message, maybe some kind of moral message here for us slightly older guys, and gals intrigued with straying. We think we do, but we really don’t want to. But, this is not exactly a new message, it’s the easy message.

 

The Movie to Nowhere

 

The movie is reminiscent of Zabriski Point, Heaven’s Gate, Vanishing Point and Thelma and Louise – movies that don’t deliver. (When Thelma and Louise drive off the cliff, it is totally out of character, for example, and we hate that.)

 

Lost is a movie that is afraid to take the middle aged actor out of his programmed existence and into the insecurity and perhaps happiness provided by the young chick, Charlotte.

 

 Now that would be edgy.

 

 

Murray should get best actor. Because he had to really act to act in this one.

 

As for Murray’s being Best Actor. This is his best acting job because perhaps never has an actor had to work so hard to keep a straight face in doing the serious dialogue in this movie.

 

Ms. Coppola’s cinematographer Lance Acord (love that name), makes great use of Mr. Murray’s pitted visage to bring us the “ravages of success look.”  The same technique has been used to portray a message of “been through it, done it , seen it all,” for such similar mugs as Johnny Cash, Lou Reed, Clint Eastwood, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. The studied lingering closeup of the actor to deliver a message is the oldest technique in the book. Ms. Coppola uses it a lot.

 

That Murray had to restrain himself from bursting out laughing every day doing this script is the real acting job, and that’s why he deserves Best Actor.

 

World Record for Head Shots.

 

Murray’s awkwardness throughout the movie and his sense of  alienation (why is it that alienation always seems to be the theme of these artsy-craftsy movies hailed as triumphs? Just once I’d like to see an artsy-craftsy movie about a sense of happiness), is convey through use of the headshot, many, many, many, many, many, many times.

 

At times he does “Bogart-weary, “ “Newman-charismatic,” and “Eastwood-irony,” and are indulgent riffs by the director. The silent photograph of Murray’s face is used a lot, and you the viewer have to interpret. Lazy writing.

 

The jokes of Lost in Translation consist of Murray’s lack of interaction with his television commercial directors, his still-ad photographers, and his partying without conversing with various Japanese young people who smoke, drink, and indulge a lot. And, trust me, friends, they are not hilarious, and are very reminiscent of Murray’s Saturday Night Live humor. You laugh to be polite.

 

You never forget for a moment that is Bill Murray up there. And, it is preposterous to say this is “unquestionably one of the all-time finest performances.”

 

It is not. It is good. It’s all right, but you never quite buy Murray’s performance as real.

 

Scarlett Johansson  a Foil With a Future

 

Scarlett Johansson as Charlotte plays an interesting role. But, what is lacking on the screen in her developing relationship with Mr. Murray is her motivation for being attracted to him. Is it because he is older? Has more knowledge? Is it because he is funny? Is it because he pays attention to her? Is it because she needs a friend? Is it because her husband ignores her? Is it a sexual need? Is it because she feels he can give her wisdom?

 

She seems quite interested in passion with her husband, but appears to repress her desire with Bob. What she wants in Bob Harris or sees in him, other than someone who pays attention to her is not developed at all by the script. Is it one-night stand time? Is sex just something to do? Is she really afraid of lovemaking that engulfs you?

 

She is an attractive and earthy young lady with a lot of substance, with Deneuve lips and Bacall eyes and a soulful quality few young actresses have. Her talent was barely mined in this movie.

 

Is There Anything New here?

 

No.

 

The movie raises questions that have been raised before about the middle aged condition. But supplies no new answers, but maybe it’s because we do not know what questions are being asked. (Gee, do I make a critic’s degree with that statement?)

 

The writing does not pay off in this movie, because there is never that moment of zen when a true feeling is released until the very end. They seem on the verge.

 

There is a touching sensuous scene in the movie where Bill Murray touches her foot. That is perhaps one of two sensitive and emotionally gripping scenes in the movie. The other is the final scene.

 

 On the Verge With the Fear of Going Over.

 

But, here I will do a critic copout…perhaps that is the message.

 

Everyone is always on the verge, few vault over the verge.  However, Woody Allen does this kind of movie a lot funnier, with a lot better realistic dialogue,  never wastes a cutaway, and knows where his story is going.

 

Lost in Translation makes a classic mistake of film-making, promoting itself as a comedy, when it is a serious movie, much like its main character Bob Harris, it does not know what it or he is.

 

Best Picture it is not.

 

Perhaps a better award for it would be “Most Indulged Screenwriter,” and “Most Deceptively Promoted Picture,” or my Award “Best Bad Picture.”

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WPCNR COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD. February 16, 2004: The Men’s and Women’s Choirs of Anchor House, the United Methodist residential drug rehabilitation program, will sing during the 10 a.m. worship service at Memorial UMC on Sunday, March 7.

After the service, the congregation of Memorial will host a covered dish luncheon for its Anchor House guests.

The Anchor House men’s program was established in 1967 in a former parsonage on Brooklyn Avenue in Crown Heights by the Rev. Alfredo Cotto-Thorner, then pastor of South Third Street United Methodist Church, who was working with addicts and saw the need for a residential facility. The program has been in operation continuously since, serving up to 21 men at a time.

Later, a new building was developed into a program for 50 more men, and a women’s program was started for 18 women. Another house has been purchased next door to the women’s house, and Anchor House is awaiting funds to renovate both buildings to serve up to 28 women.

Anchor – which stands for Addicts on Narcotics CHrist Oriented — House is a faith-based program. To graduate, residents must go through the entire program, which takes 18-24 months. They study to receive the GED diploma if they have not completed high school. They are then placed in a vocational track suited to their particular gifts, and graduate with a savings account, a place to live and a job.

Anchor House has been recognized by The United Methodist Church, the State OASAS division and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as an outstanding program.

The congregation of Memorial strives to welcome and respect persons of every race, ethnicity, national origin, physical or mental ability, gender, family status, sexual orientation, age, theology, and economic circumstance. Its pastor is Rev. Joe Agne. The church is located on Bryant Avenue between North Street and Mamaroneck Avenue.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. From Todai Restaurant. (Edited) February 15, 2004: Todai, a Japanese all-you-can-eat sushi and seafood restaurant will debut in the Northeast at the White Plains Galleria Mall in early March. The 350-seat restaurant will occupy 10,000 square feet on the first floor of The Galleria and will feature its signature 160-foot seafood buffet counter, offering 40 kinds of sushi. Learn more abotu Todai from their website at www.todai.com.

There’s a salad bar and hot entrée island offering more than 15 dishes, and a dessert bar featuring 20 different cakes and fruits. The restaurant will be located on the first floor of The 24-year old Galleria Mall, which recently was purchased.

 

The restaurant price range begins at $13.95 to $15.95 for lunch to dinners from $23.95 to $25.95. The salad bar features mixed greens, edamame, mixed seafood salad, green lip mussels, poached salmon, marinated mushrooms, seaweed and eggplant salad.

 

At the sushi bar, tuna, salmon, yellow tail, eel, sea urchin, spicy tuna roll, California roll and more delicacies will be available. At the “steam table,” seafood adventurers can select from grilled fresh salmon, shrimp and vegetable tempura, teriyaki beef and chicken, sukiyaki, baked green mussel, half-shell baked lobster, fried noodles and rice.

 

Todai first opened in Santa Monica, California in 1985 and expanded to 10 restaurants throughout southern California. Currently there are 25 Todais operating in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Hong Kong.

 

Richard Lee, Director of Marketing, is quoted in the news releases, praising White Plains: “Our new restaurant at The Galleria will be the first in the Northeast, and we’re very excited about coming to White Plains. This is a vibrant city and we’re confident that this restaurant will be one of our most successful.”

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By District 89 Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. February 14, 2004: The New York State minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is a slap in the face to hard-working families. A full-time minimum wage worker in New York earns only $10,712. Clearly, a higher minimum wage is needed to help families make ends meet. A hard day’s work should be rewarded with an honest wage.

 

The gap between the richest 20 percent and the poorest 20 percent of families with children is wider in New York than any other state. Increasing the minimum wage will not only help working families get ahead, it will also help spur the economy since those families will have more money to spend.

 

That’s why I sponsored legislation to increase the state minimum wage – to $6.00 per hour on October 1, 2004; $6.75 an hour on July 1, 2005; and $7.10 on January 1, 2006.

 

Currently, food service workers receiving tips have a minimum wage of $3.30 per hour. That would rise to $3.90 an hour on October 1, 2004; $4.40 per hour on July 5, 2005; and $4.65 an hour on January 1, 2006.

 

Our neighboring states like Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island all have higher minimum wages than New York. In New York we have not raised the minimum wage since March of 2000.

 

The bill I’m sponsoring will also allow an employee to bring a wage and hour complaint, and give the commissioner of the state Labor Department access to wage and hour records in investigating alleged minimum wage violations.

 

Creating a livable wage will go a long way toward helping our neighbors who work hard to put food on their families’ tables. We must ensure that a person working 40 hours a week is able to support his or her family, and my legislation helps address this inequity.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. February 12, 2004: The Quo Warranto action begun in March 2002 by the New York Attorney General on behalf of voting machine jam victim, Larry Delgado, to remedy Mr. Delgado’s ill-fated run for Common Council in November 2001, moved forward this week.

 

Judge Francis Nicolai, the Ninth Judicial District Administrative Judge, decided he himself would handle the Delgado quo warranto case, and not have the court clerk assign it to a new judge, as moved by Mr. Hockley’s attorney.

CONSIDERING APPEAL OF NICOLAI’S TAKING THE CASE: County Legislator Tom Abinanti, attorney for Glen Hockley in the longrunning Hockley-Delgado disputed Council election of 2001 in White Plains, is exploring appeal options to get the quo warranto case filed for Mr. Delgado assigned to a new judge. Photo from WPCNR News Archives.

Thomas Abinanti, the attorney for Glen Hockley, said Thursday evening to WPCNR, he was considering appealing that Nicolai decision to take the case himself. Mr. Hockley has been serving as White Plains Councilman since March 15, 2002, when the Court of Appeals ruled against the Appellate Court call for a citywide election between the two, ruling Mr. Delgado’s only remedy was quo warranto action by the attorney general on behalf of Mr. Delgado.

THE PHANTOM COUNCILMAN: LARRY DELGADO:  The jammed voting machine in District 18 on the night of November 5, 2001, he feels, cost him 103 votes, and the Councilseat now occupied by Glen Hockley. The Attorney General is calling for Judge Nicolai to make a summary judgment to instate Mr. Delgado onto the Common Council and remove Mr. Hockley. Photo from WPCNR News Archives.

Mr. Abinanti is defending Mr. Hockley against the Attorney General’s quo warranto action, told WPCNR he is considering his options to appeal Judge Nicolai’s ruling.

 

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Binder, a legal strategist for Larry Delgado said the attorney general was preparing papers for the next phase, which papers he said would be filed in two weeks.

 

Attorney General “Judge Shopping.”

 

Abinanti told WPCNR Thursday night that, in his opinion, the Attorney General is “judge-shopping” by requesting Judge Nicolai handle the quo warranto action.

 

“We moved to ask to send this (quo warranto) case back to the Calendar Clerk for reassignment. We believe the rules of the court apply. We’re considering our options on how to appeal this Nicolai decision (for Nicolai to review the case) to the Appellate Court.”

 

Abinanti said “Where a case is related to another case, it may be assigned to a judge handling  that case, or related to an existing pending case to eliminate duplication of testimony and assure consistent rulings, and the expertise a judge might have. None of these conditions apply to this (quo warranto) case.”

 

Abinanti said the quo warranto is a completely separate new case, that should be randomly assigned because the original Delgado action against Mr. Hockley and the Board of Elections was thrown out by the Court of Appeals in March, 2003. Abinanti pointed out the quo warranto was filed eight months after the Delgado vs. Board of Elections case was decided.

 

MARCH 14, 2002: Glen Hockley, left, with his attorney, Adam Bradley, who successfully fought the Judge Nicolai and then the Appellate court ruling for a citywide election to the Court of Appeals and had it reversed by the state’s highest court forcing Mr. Delgado to request the Attorney General to mount a quo warranto action on his behalf. Mr. Hockley was sworn in as Common Councilman the next day, the Ides of March. Photo From WPCNR News Archives.

 

“The Attorney General is judge shopping, trying to dodge the appropriate procedure, demanding it be referred to Judge Nicolai.” Abinanti said. “This is why we want to go to trial. This is not necessarily a slam-dunk for Delgado. I don’t want to tip our strategy, but how sure are these people (103 persons who signed affidavits that they voted for Mr. Delgado, the crux of the Attorney General’s evidence)  that they really voted for Delgado?”

 

Summary Judgment Could Come Any Time.

 

Abinanti said he would be moving quickly to determine the way  to appeal the judge assignment decision by Nicolai, because he said, when the attorney general filed his final papers within the next two weeks, Judge Nicolai could rule at any time.