I saw Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola today. I don't know what I think about it yet, which is usually a good sign.
I also recommend The Last King of Scotland, Babel and Das Leben der Anderen.
I have grown to enjoy films in which there are narrative gaps that are left to be filled by the viewer's imagination. When I was younger I was annoyed when something was not shown or told, but now I find omissions stimulating. At the end of Babel a depressed girl gives a written note to the man who comforted her, and later you can just see him reading it. I liked how it made me study his face for a hint of what the note said. In Lost In Translation, you never get to know what Bob whispers to Charlotte when they say goodbye. To me this narrative strategy has two interesting effects: it brings depth to the diegetical world the film creates by giving the viewer limited perceptions. You don't feel like a privileged audience, but it feels all the more real, because that is what we experience everyday. Secondly there is no better way to attract someone's attention on something than by not showing that thing. Turning the written note or the whispered words into definite, unequivocal meaning would be more comfortable (although possibly disappointing), but less intense. I definitely choose intense.
Rinko Kikuchi in Babel
