For my March column for the Visual Thesaurus I take a look at the titles of this year’s Best Picture nominees, each of which represents a distinct style, from acronym to slogan to Biblical quote.
Full access to the column is paywalled for three months. Here’s an excerpt:
Drive My Car. The only non–English language Best Picture nominee is based on a short story, “Doraibu mai kā,” by Haruki Murakami. (The author is well known for his references to Beatles songs; in addition to this one, which evokes “Baby, You Can Drive My Car,” he also wrote “Noruuei No Mori,” a rough transliteration of “Norwegian Wood.”) It’s all about language and silence: The central character is a theater director who casts multilingual actors, as well as one woman who uses Korean Sign Language, in a production of Uncle Vanya. The title alludes at least in part to the time the director spends being chauffeured by a taciturn young woman. Besides Beatles films (Yellow Submarine, A Hard Day’s Night), I can think of one other movie whose title is borrowed from a Beatles lyric: Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed, a lovely Spanish film released in 2013.
Japanese poster for Drive My Car.
Read the rest of “Title Tales.” And watch the 94th Academy Awards ceremony on March 27.
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Here are some of my past Visual Thesaurus columns recently released from paywall:
Where Do Place Names Come From?
The Rare, Overstuffed “Turduckenym”
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