And a little bit of mystery goes out of your life ...

December 13, 2007 8:34 AM

Bob: "______________” Charlotte (Johansson): “Okay.” Lost in Translation's mysterious whisper finale revealed by audio processing. (via kottke)
posted by WCityMike (142 comments total)

So basically we still have no idea what he's said.
posted by xmutex at 8:39 AM on December 13, 2007

The "digital processing" adds almost nothing. You can still hear almost anything you want in that audio.

(Anything but "I have to be leaving. But I won’t let that come between us. Okay?", that is. What are they, kidding? As the other examples point out, the closest thing to a word you can make out sounds like "truth", and that quote totally ignores the "t" sound.)
posted by designbot at 8:41 AM on December 13, 2007

That line doesn't make any sense. If he had actually said that she'd have said 'huh?', not 'okay'.
posted by bluejayk at 8:45 AM on December 13, 2007

To me it sounded like "Giovanni Ribisi is kind of a douche huh?"
posted by ND¢ at 8:46 AM on December 13, 2007 [4 favorites]

The audio in the linked video is also unintelligible. You can really pull anything out of it.
posted by xmutex at 8:47 AM on December 13, 2007

I like knowing what he said. I also like strangers to slap my face and having my fragile notions of perfection shattered right in front of me. Yay!
posted by Pecinpah at 8:47 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

When I used to hang around on alt.music.radiohead, when people actually still used newsgroups, the most common question bar none: "What does the the guy say at the end of the Just video?!"

At first it was kinda interesting, thinking of things for him to say, but it got kinda dull after the 1,457,642nd time.
posted by afx237vi at 8:49 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

THE WHOLE POINT IS THAT WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE SAID

REPEATED! WITH EXTRA DOUBLE CAPS LOCK! AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 8:50 AM on December 13, 2007 [5 favorites]

"I like how I actually had to read the spoiler to realize it was a spoiler."

Add me to the list of people who are sick and tired of the Can't-leave-well-enough-alone crowd. The very ambiguity of that moment was part of the movie's graceful ending. And whatever was said, the point, clearly, is that the viewers aren't supposed to know. (In case you failed to grasp "shakespeherian"'s subtlety.)

So crap in quantity on everyone who can't deal with that. Make your own friggin' movie if you're not happy with the director's choice.

Oh, and by the way: Rosebud was his sled; two hours and change after hitting the iceberg, the ship breaks in two and sinks; and Dil's really a guy.

Oops... Did I forget to say SPOILER? My bad.
posted by Mike D at 8:53 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure the reason that the audio was obscured beyond all reason is because they decided to change the script and leave it a mystery what he was saying, so he could just be moving his lips or saying he's hungry and that the weather is nice today, it doesn't matter. Sofia Coppola didn't make it so that if people rewound on the dvd and listened closely they could hear, there isn't supposed to be anything to hear, the movie isn't written so that there is some secret that we are all supposed to decode.
posted by whoaali at 8:53 AM on December 13, 2007

I can't believe this is merely the seventh post to use the versatile "in" tag.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 8:53 AM on December 13, 2007 [7 favorites]

Did I mention that the movie's totally overrated and Sofia Coppola sucks as a filmmaker?

Wanted to get that relevant bit in.
posted by xmutex at 8:55 AM on December 13, 2007 [9 favorites]

Slightly interesting little movie, that.
posted by koeselitz at 8:55 AM on December 13, 2007

whoaali: Who gives a crap what Sofia Coppola wanted the movie to mean. It's my viewing experience, I'll make of it what I want.
posted by absalom at 8:56 AM on December 13, 2007

Here is what was actually said"

BILL: Everybody needs a hug.
SCARLETT: Go fuck yourself.
posted by Mister_A at 8:56 AM on December 13, 2007 [13 favorites]

I think what he said was "I'll just whisper silently in your ear so that, just when you thought this movie couldn't cop-out any further, whoops!, here's a whole new level of cop-out that you didn't know could exist, even at this level of self-indulgence."

NOT INDIEHIPSTERIST
posted by Jofus at 8:56 AM on December 13, 2007 [8 favorites]

THE WHOLE POINT IS THAT WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE SAID

REPEATED! WITH EXTRA DOUBLE CAPS LOCK! AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!

BUT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? THE VERY LAST THING TO HAPPEN IN A MOVIE SIMPLY MUST BE THE PUNCHLINE! THE CLUE THAT UNLOCKS THE RIDDLE!! THE CULMINATION OF ALL THAT PRECEDES IT!!! THAT'S WHY, FOR EXAMPLE, THE THEME OF CITIZEN KANE IS THAT FADED TITANS LOVE THE CHILDHOOD TOYS THEY GAVE TENDER NAMES TO!!!! AND NOT THAT UNCHECKED GREED AND EGO WILL LEAVE YOU BROKEN, LONELY AND WRACKED WITH REGRET ON YOUR DEATHBED!!!!!

LOST IN TRANSLATION IS NOW ABOUT WHAT BILL MURRAY PROBABLY SAID IN THE FINAL FRAMES!!!!!
posted by gompa at 8:57 AM on December 13, 2007 [6 favorites]

(In case you failed to grasp "shakespeherian"'s subtlety.)

Believe me, it was a lot more subtle than I'd have liked it to be.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:58 AM on December 13, 2007

"Charlotte???"
posted by rokusan at 8:58 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob: "If it weren't for my horse, I never would have spent that year in college."
posted by psmealey at 8:58 AM on December 13, 2007 [19 favorites]

I removed the quote entirely, people can click through and see it in the YouTube quotes or whatever. MeFi isn't really set up to deal with spoilers so including them in posts is not a super good idea.
posted by jessamyn at 8:59 AM on December 13, 2007

Add me to the list of people who are sick and tired of the Can't-leave-well-enough-alone crowd.

This is by and large the same crowd that thought the Da Vinci Code was good writing. They do not inhabit my universe, so what they do or say is of no consequence to me.
posted by psmealey at 9:02 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

It was a good movie; the attempt to decipher what he "really" said is dumb.
posted by languagehat at 9:02 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

psmealey, I could listen to people bashing the DaVinci code til the cows come home. For really awful writing, check out Angels and Demons (devils?) by the same Dan Brown who perpetrated DaVinci. I read it on a plane and giggled pretty much the whole time.

Sorry for the derail!
posted by Mister_A at 9:05 AM on December 13, 2007

absalom - i think you're taking the movie a little too seriously, you are free for the film to mean whatever you want it to mean to you, but my point was just there wasn't some hidden secret that the filmmaker left for us to find so it's kind of silly to go searching for one by decoding the audio and whatnot, because there really isn't there in the first place.
posted by whoaali at 9:06 AM on December 13, 2007

Get a shooting script. Get a shooting script, held open by a smiling Sophia Coppola to the page with the line typed out in the clear, while Bill and Scarlett stand by giving a big thumbs up.

That'd be convincing. This is Yatta.
posted by cortex at 9:07 AM on December 13, 2007

God, I forgot how much I loved this film
posted by p3on at 9:07 AM on December 13, 2007

It was actually: That's where I'm a viking.
posted by meehawl at 9:07 AM on December 13, 2007 [4 favorites]

It's amusing to assume they really added any speech from Murray in that scene, just meexed eet reeely low. Come on now, It's a film, not a doc, with post-dub, etc. It's a polished piece, especially sound-wise. I expect whatever DSP is happening is just picking up other ambient noises and conversation. They are doing a street scene, and to pull that off in a film you need Lots of external secondary conversation mixed into the audio, which could all be raised to the surface through digital processing.

Leaving in 'what he said' would be like allowing the last scene of the Sorpranos to just be reeally dark so that one day digital brightness can reveal Tony had a gun.
posted by Peter H at 9:08 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

"Soylent green is people. It's peeeeeeople!"

At least, that's what I heard.
posted by zippy at 9:08 AM on December 13, 2007

The person who posted the video (8months ago!) just commented at youtube:

What has happened? This video has been on youtube for 8 months but in the last two days it has doubled in views from 36,000 to over 71,000. How did you hear about it? Just curious as this is most unusual.
posted by jeffmik at 9:09 AM on December 13, 2007

I used to date a girl with freakish super-hearing. Completely changed my entire world-view as to wht the human beings are capable of, and the powers of sensory input. It kind of sucked though because we always had to watch tv with the sound turned way down, and she didn't really like clubs or live music. She also would always assume that because she could hear you, you could hear her, so she would mumble a question from the opposite end of a supermarket aisle, and I would have to walk all the way over there to see what she said, and she's get all miffed. Or I'd yell something from across the backyard, and she'd get pissed at me for yelling, but my brain could never wrap itself around talking in a normal voice to someone 50 yards away.

I haven't talked to her in years, but I'm guessing she knows what that last line was....
posted by billyfleetwood at 9:09 AM on December 13, 2007 [5 favorites]

I don't know, I think that this is kind of interesting. Not because it unlocks the secret to the movie, but just because it's interesting. It's fun in the same way that it's fun to look for ghosts in the background in Three Men and a Baby, or the naked woman in The Rescuers Down Under. It's just something fun to do.
posted by roll truck roll at 9:10 AM on December 13, 2007

"You're sort of like Communism; you look good on paper, but the execution's always lacking."

"Okay."
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:11 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

"I used to date a girl with freakish super-hearing... haven't talked to her in years..."

That's what you think.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:12 AM on December 13, 2007 [36 favorites]

Why would there be a line written for a part that was never meant to be heard by the audience? That's about as silly as writing text for a letter never meant to be seen by the audience.
posted by aftermarketradio at 9:14 AM on December 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

Sounds like EVP. I certainly can't hear the claimed line.
posted by edd at 9:15 AM on December 13, 2007

The whole aesthetic strategy of this OK-but-not-great movie is to leave lots of things unsaid in the hope that silence will suggest depth. So trying to figure out "what he really said" seems very much not in the spirit of the movie.
posted by escabeche at 9:16 AM on December 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

whoaali: Oh, sorry if you misunderstood. I think what they say at the end is also pointless. I just think it's obnoxious when someone presumes that there is a "proper" way to consume media. Especially if that "proper" way aligns with "director/author intent."
posted by absalom at 9:21 AM on December 13, 2007

whoaali: and it looks like we agree on the important stuff, at least. Cheers!
posted by absalom at 9:23 AM on December 13, 2007

I thought he was saying, "This scene is a rip-off of the scene in In the Mood For Love of Tony Leung whispering his secret into a hole at Angkor Wat."
posted by alidarbac at 9:26 AM on December 13, 2007

aftermarketradio: I would love to see an FPP collecting such freeze-frames.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:26 AM on December 13, 2007

I think it's something about "I don't even have to write a last line, my daddy will buy me the Oscar anyway."

OK movie but weak weak script. It pisses me off when indie faux-teurs confuse vagueness for subtlety. The script is pretty obviously a first or second draft, so I can't imagine Coppola herself put much thought into it. She obviously didn't put much into structuring the rest of the story.
posted by drjimmy11 at 9:27 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'd argue that any subtlety not in the script is supplied in spades by Bill Murray, whose character's behaviour is incredibly nuanced.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:32 AM on December 13, 2007

eh, I liked the movie.
posted by delmoi at 9:33 AM on December 13, 2007

It pisses me off when indie faux-teurs confuse vagueness for subtlety.

This pretty much sums up why I hated it so much.
posted by xmutex at 9:33 AM on December 13, 2007

I don't really care what he said in real life. But I think that in theory, it's possible to try to find out what he said in real life, and still watch and appreciate that bit as an ambiguous part of the movie. Like roll truck roll, this strikes me as movie trivia, not cannon. If one were to find out what Bill Murray said, that same person could still watch that movie and not think that's what that character said. It's like the letter aftermarketradio links to. That's what the real life paper said. That's not what Mr. Cleaver's letter said in the world of Leave it to Beaver.

But I don't really think what he really said is hidden in the audio of the movie.
posted by lampoil at 9:40 AM on December 13, 2007

I'm part of a minority of people who thought that film was Sophia Coppola's entitled daughter-of-deity spoiled-princess-stuck-in-boring-Japan narcissistic wankery. A tiny, vociferous minority. So I'll shut up now.

And, on preview, exactly what drjimmy11 said.
posted by tula at 9:42 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

I have figured out the contents of briefcase in Pulp Fiction by digitally enhancing the reflection in John Travolta's teeth. Next I will determine whether or not Deckard was an android by amplifying the audio and listening to see if his cooling fans come on during the fight scenes.
posted by billyfleetwood at 9:42 AM on December 13, 2007 [12 favorites]

For those of us on dialup who can't access the video, what did he say?

Or - you know, I really don't care. The whole movie was an episode of Seinfeld with all the funny sucked out.
posted by BrianBoyko at 9:45 AM on December 13, 2007

For those of us on dialup who can't access the video, what did he say?

He said "HHHCHCHSSSSHHHRRR NSNHSHCCCHHH SHSEHRHRHRHHHHCKSHSHHHSHSHSHRRRRRR", or something very close to that. It's useless compressed/filtered/windtunnel-to-death noise. Compare with another film from another Coppola.
posted by cortex at 9:53 AM on December 13, 2007

Did Sofia Coppola already spill the beans on what he said?

// spoiler!!!


// spoiler!!!


// spoiler!!!


// spoiler!!!

Something to the effect of "I want you to go back to your husband and tell him that you love him, OK?"

I thought I read that in an interview somewhere. And I can kind of hear it in this clip, too.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:54 AM on December 13, 2007

You really have to see the movie in the original language to get all the jokes.
posted by Floydd at 9:58 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

I really liked the movie... whatever weaknesses and holes there were in the script were more than compensated by Bill Murray's tremendously nuanced performance, some very true to life supporting characters and, at times, breathtaking cinematography (the Tokyo night shots, its skyline by day, the trip to the shrine, and teeing off with Mount Fuji in the background are unforgettable).

What I didn't get was the heroine's life situation. What is a 22ish year old, hottie Yale chick from New York City doing being married... particularly to a early 20s Brooklynish hipster photographer dude? I've known such people most of my adult life, and that particular detail (which was necessary to the plot from the infidelity angle) wasn't terribly believable.
posted by psmealey at 10:02 AM on December 13, 2007

But, I think why I have such overwhelmingly positive feelings about the film is more than 80% due to Kevin Shields's score.
posted by psmealey at 10:03 AM on December 13, 2007

What I would like to know is what Laura whispers to Brendan at the end of Brick.
posted by felix grundy at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2007 [4 favorites]

Still another version:

Bob: You know what phrase works as an alternate caption for every single New Yorker cartoon you've ever seen?
Charlotte: Christ, what an asshole?
Bob: Yeah.
posted by psmealey at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2007

My money is on 'This is the volume of the line I'm using in this scene. This line is supposed to be so quiet that normal people can't hear it. If you can hear it, you're not normal.'

When I was in University, I used a textbook, File Structures by Bill Zoellick and Michael Folk, specifically, that has a really pointless diagram in it meant to reflect different types of files. The third file type is a document, and has teeny tiny type on its teeny tiny pages. The teeny tiny type reads 'This is the size of the font that I am using in this example. The font is supposed to be so small that a normal person can't read it. If you can read it, then you are not normal.' I derived a great deal of amused from that when I first read it.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:11 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Man, the fact that it stripped my paragraph/font size style out of that after I posted it sucked all the fun out of that post.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:12 AM on December 13, 2007

What he actually said: [spoiler alert!]

Bob [whispered]: What the hell, it's a paycheck, you know? Wanna get coffee later?
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by spacely_sprocket at 10:31 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

If you want to see an indie-hipsterish Bill Murray movie with a cop-out ending, check out Broken Flowers. I liked it when I was watching it, because hey, it's Jim Jarmusch, but that ending veered too close to "THERE'S NO REAL WAY TO RESOLVE THIS STORY SO I'M GOING TO SAY THE POINT IS THAT THERE IS NO POINT." The result conclusion approached Caché levels of badness. It's not so much that I demand concrete closure (almost all movies are ten minutes too long anyhow, and I love elliptical storytelling) as I can see through the trick of buttoning a story - and creating the illusion of depth where this is none - by aggressively withholding information from the audience, or by determinedly creating an ambiguous ending in the hopes that the audience will keep on wondering what a particular moment was about.

At least Lost In Translation (which is a good movie) had already established a pattern of silences and unspoken feelings, so it made sense to me there, which is why I'm incurious about the whole matter.
posted by Sticherbeast at 10:33 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

MeFi isn't really set up to deal with spoilers so including them in posts is not a super good idea.

While I thoroughly agree, I'm baffled by the idea that this is a spoiler. A spoiler gives away the end of a movie. This is a theory, ill-supported in my opinion, about what the Murray character might have whispered. What he whispered, assuming for the sake of argument that he actually whispered something coherent instead of rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb, is not part of the movie and thus cannot be a spoiler.

Jeez, people around here will bitch about anything. [NOT PEOPLIST]
posted by languagehat at 10:41 AM on December 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

While I thoroughly agree, I'm baffled by the idea that this is a spoiler.

Something central to the conclusion or resolution of a story is probably falling reasonably in the the neighborhood of spoilerdom for most folks.

A fake spoiler—even a theory presented (however unintentionally) as fact—is still a spoiler.

So, eh. The spirit is there, even if I agree with you for the most part and am generally unsympathetic about non-epic spoiler concerns.
posted by cortex at 10:47 AM on December 13, 2007

Sticherbeast: I had the exact opposite reaction to Broken Flowers (and I hope that doesn't make me an indie-hipsterish asshole). I, too, feel that most movies are ten minutes too long, and there is often a point at which I say to myself, 'This movie would be fantastic if it ended right now,' usually because I care much more about character/thematic resolution than stupid tidy plot resolutions. Broken Flowers is the one film that actually ended at the exact moment that I thought it ought to end.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:48 AM on December 13, 2007

Designbot - hey, I heard "mumble mumble tell the truth" - glad it's not just me.
I like Cool Papa Bell's answer better than what these people came up with.
Add me to the list of people who DID like the movie (and it looks like we might be the minority in here).
posted by naoko at 10:59 AM on December 13, 2007

felix grundy: "What I would like to know is what Laura whispers to Brendan at the end of Brick."

I think it's "Holy fuck, I don't want to go to jail."
posted by shmegegge at 11:08 AM on December 13, 2007

I like Cool Papa Bell's answer better than what these people came up with.

Yeah, but he didn't finish it: :"I want you to go back to your husband and tell him that you love him, OK?... because you're both well on your way down the same path my wife and I are... you'll both end up bored at middle age and you can harangue him about the color the dining room should be while he has empty meaningless sex with women he encounters in hotel bars."
posted by psmealey at 11:11 AM on December 13, 2007

There is dialogue in the film? I usually just pause on the scene where Scarlet is lying on the bed in her panties.
posted by terrapin at 11:20 AM on December 13, 2007

jacquilynne reminds me of the Red Dwarf episode "Backwards", where an awful lot of the episode happens in reverse. Much of the dialogue is reversed. Details of one fourth wall-breaking line can be found here - search for 'stage manager'.
posted by edd at 11:34 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

I saw a version of this film in a foreign lanuage, with English subtitles, so I already knew what he said.
posted by emd3737 at 11:39 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Don't stop belieeeeevin.
posted by Area Control at 11:43 AM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb.

(If you can decipher meaning from this, you are not normal.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 11:50 AM on December 13, 2007

Your favorite movie that isn't at all your favorite movie, but you liked it and you watched it for the first time with someone special so you get a little wistful about it sucks.
posted by spaltavian at 11:52 AM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Michael Shermer gave a talk related to this at TED last year. The relevant part is 9:30 in:

In the absence of sound science, incomplete information can combine with the power of suggestion (helping us hear those Satanic lyrics in Led Zeppelin). In fact, he says, humans tend to convince ourselves to believe: We overvalue the "hits" that support our beliefs, and discount the more numerous "misses."

It would be interesting to see what other messages would sound plausible when you primed the viewer with subtitles.
posted by lucidprose at 11:55 AM on December 13, 2007

Don't stop belieeeeevin.

The mass emotional reaction to the Sopranos finale and the "controversy" over this frustrate me terribly. Whether they're revelatory of infantilized we've become as a culture, or else indicate that we're no longer able to separate the fictitious from the real, I cannot say. In either case, it's really annoying.
posted by Tommy Gnosis at 11:56 AM on December 13, 2007

I always found the film to be boring. *shrug*

But I did wonder what he said at the end. I'm not sure they got it right, but I guess it'll do. I had no idea there was such a fuss about wanting to know what Bill Murray said.

For all I knew, it was always, "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown, okay?"
posted by angeline at 11:57 AM on December 13, 2007

It's Suntory Time.
posted by Dr-Baa at 11:58 AM on December 13, 2007

If a whole minigenre were to crop up, on Youtube, of videos that splice in different "digitially recovered" lines from other Bill Murray films, I would not be displeased.

Bob: "In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher'."
Charlotte: "Okay..."
posted by cortex at 12:01 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Bob [whispered]: Gunga galunga. Gunga... gunga galunga.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:04 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

What I would like to know is what Laura whispers to Brendan at the end of Brick.

She reveals that he's the father of Emily's unborn child and whispers "That makes you...a motherfucker"
posted by unsupervised at 12:13 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob [whispered]: Chicks dig me, because I rarely wear underwear and when I do it's usually something unusual.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by shmegegge at 12:13 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

IRFH: Tell the Dahli Lama hello next time you see him.
posted by absalom at 12:15 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: In this universal catastrophe, the sufferings of Christians have tended to their moral improvement, because they viewed them with eyes of faith. - Augustine
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by roll truck roll at 12:17 PM on December 13, 2007

The notion of a spoiler is tremendously self indulgent. It always frustrates me when it comes up around here..

On topic..
In this talk on the Big Bang, the lecturer demonstrates what happens when you play Stairway to Heaven backwards - the important section begins at 22 minutes. The upshot being, if somebody suggests words, your brain gets a bias toward those words.

Also, the audio was more clear before the processing. And, it sounded like the go back to your husband version to me.
posted by Chuckles at 12:21 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: w00t! w00t! w00t!
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:24 PM on December 13, 2007

If a whole minigenre were to crop up, on Youtube, of videos that splice in different "digitially recovered" lines from other Bill Murray films, I would not be displeased.

Yes.. But by your logic, you'd also consider them all to be spoilers..
posted by Chuckles at 12:25 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob [whispered]: When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney, and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter. From Punxsutawney, it's Phil Connors. So long.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:27 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

"Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb" (If you can decipher meaning from this, you are not normal.)

Uh oh.

Standard "busy crowd" sound favoured by directors. "OK everybody, so now the DA ia going to shout dramatically, 'You honour, I beg a brief recess. Some new evisdence has just been brought to my attention.' When that happens, I want all the courtroom extras to mumble at the same time, 'rhubarb-rhubarb-rhubarb'."

Amazing how that sounds like a whole lot of people actually reacting coherently at the same time. Plus it requires a lot of mouth motion, so it _looks_ like a lot of simultaneous chatter.
posted by Mike D at 12:29 PM on December 13, 2007

Barring any supporting evidence I call this a case of pareidolia. If you aren't familiar with it, it's amazing how much the reinforcement of showing the text of a supposed transcription of ambiguous audio can influence what you think you hear. It's a classic trick for selling supposedly backmasked messages on reversed tracks of assorted devil music. Repetition reinforces the illusion. If you can't get it without being told what it is, it isn't really clear, is it?

Experiments have shown that if people listen repeatedly to meaningless audio, with the intent of extracting normal language from it, not only will they find scraps of language, others can be "sold" a particular interpretation - but only if they are told what it is.

Even with the textual prompting I thought this particular example was weak, anyway. Yeah, you can map those words over that sound but you could come up with any number of phrases that would convincingly map on top of that vague, garbled audio.

You still don't know what he says.
posted by nanojath at 12:31 PM on December 13, 2007

"The result conclusion approached Caché levels of badness." Easy, pookie-bear, easy, no need dragging filmakers into this discussion.

Bob [whispered]: You're supposed to be crying, are you crying? Then I'll step on your foot. And agai-
Charlotte: Ow, hey.
Bob [still whispering]: You just won her the Oscar.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:36 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm with nanojath - although I didn't think of using "pareidolia" until he did. Even knowing what i supposed to hear I couldn't hear it - all I know is that when altered this way Bill Murray sounds like Satan.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 12:41 PM on December 13, 2007

Seriously, I can't believe the people commenting on that video are so credulous. Even after watching it a couple times, after a few minutes, just listening to the audio and not watching the video, I couldn't hear shit. Presenting this as anything other than sheer speculation is ridiculous.
posted by nanojath at 12:41 PM on December 13, 2007

I'll just say this one last time: movies are what you see on the screen. There's no 'reality' behind them (unless they're documentaries, and even then...) He didn't 'really' say anything. He leaned in, and then you there was a lot of ambient noise. That was it.
posted by signal at 12:44 PM on December 13, 2007

Incidentally, one of the finer uses of intentionally ambiguous audio as a plot device in a film is The Conversation starring Gene Hackman. Apropos of nothing.
posted by nanojath at 12:45 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: "The anal bleeding will stop in a day or two and then we'll try again. Okay?"
Charlotte: "You'll pay."
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:46 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

I usually just pause on the scene where Scarlet is lying on the bed in her panties.

Those must be big panties.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:54 PM on December 13, 2007

I usually just pause on the scene where Scarlet is lying on the bed in her panties.

Those must be big panties.



Never been to Japan, huh?
posted by From Bklyn at 12:58 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob (select one):

A. Oswald acted alone.
B. No one really knows what the lyrics to "Louie, Louie" are.
C. Luke, I am your father.
D. I can't believe I got away with stealing Chevy Chase's career.
E. No one marries "up the butt girl".
F. "Rosebud" was Hearst's nickname for his wife's vagina.

Charlotte: OK.
posted by psmealey at 1:01 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: I'm really gonna miss that prostitute who wanted me to "lip" her stockings.
Charlotte: ok.
posted by shmegegge at 1:03 PM on December 13, 2007

I liked this movie. Of course, I also liked Unnbreakable. But I hate reality television. Does this mean I'm doomed, or that there's still hope?
posted by davejay at 1:15 PM on December 13, 2007

THE WORD OKAY MAKES EVERYTHING FUNNY.
posted by roll truck roll at 1:19 PM on December 13, 2007

Bill: THE WORD OKAY MAKES EVERYTHING FUNNY.
Charlotte: (stunned silence)
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:22 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Never been to Japan, huh?

No. Do they commonly dress their beds in undergarments?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:23 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Incidentally, one of the finer uses of intentionally ambiguous audio as a plot device in a film is The Conversation starring Gene Hackman. Apropos of nothing.

Apropos of STEALING!
posted by cortex at 1:24 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: Wookin' pa nub in all da wong paces, wookin' pa nub.
Charlotte: Otay.
posted by jefbla at 1:27 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Apropos of STEALING!

I can't be expected to click every faceless IMDB link and nevertheless yes, you beat me, and I am ashamed.
posted by nanojath at 1:28 PM on December 13, 2007

I didn't meant to hurt you, babe.

*whispers something inaudible in nanojath's ear*
posted by cortex at 1:36 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: You can't go. All the plants are gonna die.
Charlotte: Okay
posted by JaredSeth at 1:37 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: As Jean-Paul Satre once said, Au revoir Gopher.

Charlotte: Okay.
posted by cazoo at 2:08 PM on December 13, 2007

Due to some incredibly shitty recent developments in my personal life, I'm fine with this movie having a happy ending after all.
posted by EatTheWeek at 2:31 PM on December 13, 2007

LiT was good.
posted by ersatz at 2:32 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can't buy backbone. Don't let them forget it.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:42 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: It just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter.

Charlotte: Okay
posted by cazoo at 2:46 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: I think I need a root canal. I definitely need a long, slow root canal.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by cortex at 2:49 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob [whispered]: I'm gonna give you a little advice, Charlotte. Scrape 'em off. You wanna save somebody? Save yourself.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:53 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob: Riots in the streets. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.

Charlotte: Okay
posted by cazoo at 2:56 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob: Baby steps... get on the elevator... Baby steps, get on the elevator....
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by shakespeherian at 3:00 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob: Well, I'm sure Charles Dickens would have wanted to see her nipples.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by box at 3:08 PM on December 13, 2007

A friend of mine told the rest of us, on the way out of the movie, that she had heard what he said. She didn't tell us what it was, because she "didn't want to ruin it." A mutual friend actually begged for weeks for her to tell him, leading to this moment:

Her: "You better get checked."
Him: What?
Her: That's what he says. "You better get checked."
Him: Wha - I don't understand.
Her: Yeah, me neither. But that's what he says.

The slight possibility that he is earnestly telling people that line is fantastic.
posted by rush at 3:28 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob [It’s whispered that]: soon if we all call a tune, then the Piper will lead us to reason. And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter.
Charlotte: [head humming] Okay. *wonders*

“Rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb”

Bob: Badger, badger, badger.
Charlotte: Mushroom, mushroom.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:33 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: This is the Nick Winters show and I do the entertaining, thank you. Let's go out with something really hot for these folks The big hit out of '77! Aww ... Star Wars, nothing but Star Wars. Give me those Star Wars! Don't let them end. Oh, Star Wars, if they should bar wars, please let these Star Wars stay. And hey! How bout that nutty Star Wars bar? Can you forget all the creatures in there? And hey! Darth Vader in that black and evil mask? Did he scare you as much as he scared me? Yeow! Star Wars, those here in bar wars. My 7th winter up here! Star Wars!

Charlotte: Okay.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:34 PM on December 13, 2007

Your favorite movie _____.
posted by Brak at 3:43 PM on December 13, 2007

That aint what he says. I'll stick it thru a notch filter later.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 3:49 PM on December 13, 2007

well of course it's going to sound like whatever words get put up on the screen. A discerning ear can tell that he's actually saying "Don't just eat that hamburger, eat the HELL out of it!"
posted by maus at 4:08 PM on December 13, 2007

"If your husband is (such a?) nice guy, he'll know (what you have?), tell him that you love him, OK?"
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 4:46 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

"Lens cap."
posted by misha at 5:18 PM on December 13, 2007

Bill: BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE!
Scarlett: A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:18 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

I really wanted to like LIT, but after about the twentieth shot of SJ sitting on the windowsill, looking down at the street, I completely lost interest.
posted by misha at 5:19 PM on December 13, 2007

Samuel Jackson was in it? Musta missed that.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 5:49 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob [Whispered]: I want these muthafuckin' snakes off my muthafuckin' plane.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 5:59 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob [whispered]: We've been going about this all wrong, this Mr. Stay Puft's okay, he's a sailor, he's in New York, we get this guy laid we won't have any trouble.
Charlotte: OK.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:28 PM on December 13, 2007

"This film was Sophia Coppola's entitled daughter-of-deity spoiled-princess-stuck-in-boring-Japan narcissistic wankery."

"Okay."
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:49 PM on December 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

For nanojath:

Bob [whispered]: He'd kill us if he had the chance.
Charlotte [whispered]: He'd kill us if he had the chance.
Audience: OK. Wait, what?
posted by nicwolff at 7:03 PM on December 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Lucky for you people, I'm a professional translator. What Bill Murray says is:

- Esta es la parte en la que tenemos que fingir que te digo algo muy importante. Después nos abrazamos, ¿ok?

There it is, not lost in translation anymore.
posted by micayetoca at 8:32 PM on December 13, 2007

Bob: I buried Paul.
Charlotte: Okay.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 10:25 PM on December 13, 2007

(for those of you who wonder what a professional audio filtering -- unlike the one in the FPP which is worthless-- reveals from the whisper, see my post above.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 4:01 AM on December 14, 2007

It pisses me off when indie faux-teurs confuse vagueness for subtlety

Not to re-open the dialogue about the quality of the movie, but the vagueness was the whole point, wasn't it? Here you have a collection of seemingly intelligent people, in intimate situations with each other, but wholly incapable of communicating with or making themselves understood by each other. The very title of the movie tells you that.

I grant that it's perfectly acceptable to dislike, be bored by, or even hate the film, but the complaint about its vagueness misses the point.
posted by psmealey at 9:32 AM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob: I grant that it's perfectly acceptable to dislike, be bored by, or even hate thisfilm, but the complaint about its vagueness misses the point.
Charlotte: Okay.

This is great. I want this to become the new Metafilter:
posted by roll truck roll at 9:39 AM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bob [whispered]: Young lady, you go straight back to New York and see your poor mother. She's still so ferklempt that you married that lousy goyim!
Charlotte: Oy vey!
posted by Brak at 9:40 AM on December 14, 2007

you know Henry C. you could always post your audio sample up on mefimusic.
posted by shmegegge at 11:43 AM on December 14, 2007

or... somewhere. please.
posted by shmegegge at 11:43 AM on December 14, 2007

jefbla Bob: Wookin' pa nub in all da wong paces, wookin' pa nub.
Charlotte: Otay.

Alternate Buckwheat (Farina?) quote:

Bob: I will moon your tareer.
Charlotte: Otay.
posted by spacely_sprocket at 1:02 AM on December 18, 2007