DVD REVIEWS LOST SOULS OF 'TRANSLATION'.

Byline: Rob Lowman Entertainment Editor

There is a scene in Sofia Coppola's ``Lost in Translation'' where Bill Murray's character, a high-profile American film star named Bob Harris, is listening to a Japanese director explaining to him what he wants during the shooting of a liquor commercial in Tokyo.

As the director rambles on enthusiastically in Japanese - occasionally interjecting an English phrase - Bob listens in puzzlement, which grows to confusion when the translator boils it down to a couple of words. ``Are you sure that's what he said?'' he asks incredulously.

While on the surface ``Lost in Translation'' may seem to be about cultural differences that divide people, it works on a deeper level - on how when people talk, often what they are really saying doesn't come through. Listen as Bob chats with his wife by phone back in America. During their small talk about what the kids did that day, what kind of carpeting he wants, Bob is trying to tell her of his feelings of disconnectedness in life, hoping she'll sense something is wrong. She doesn't, of course - whether because she doesn't want to hear or isn't listening because she's caught up in the to-do list. And in the end, Bob has no real words for her.

For Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) - who is both recently married and recently out of college - she can't explain to her photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi), who's on assignment in Japan, that she feels useless as he leaves her alone for days in the upscale hotel. When 20-ish Charlotte and 50-ish Bob meet at the hotel's bar late at night, they connect - both are too hip to be caught in the usual touristy things, and they sense in each other another lost soul. While their privileged lives may not elicit much sympathy from some, their situation is universal.

What ensues is both comic and slightly sad, poignant but sardonic as the two have adventures in a seemingly otherworldly city and in the process sort out their lives through their complicated relationship. When you see Bob leave Japan, remember his arrival in Tokyo. Jet-lagged, riding through the city at night, he's overwhelmed by the bright neon lights and sees nothing of the life around him. Leaving in daylight, he's alert and looks out the car window as if seeing the city for the first time. ``Lost in Translation'' - with four Oscar nominations, including best picture - is a trip well worth taking.

``Lost in Translation'' (Universal; $26.98) includes a conversation with director Sofia Coppola and actor Bill Murray, a behind-the-scenes featurette including exclusive footage shot by the filmmakers and deleted scenes.

File under 'self-involved'

``American Splendor'' is a cleverly made film, but the fictionalization of the life of comic legend Harvey Pekar is a bit less than meets the eye. The movie, written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, uses both an animated Pekar and one played by Paul Giamatti to tell the tale of the curmudgeon who lives in his Cleveland apartment stuffed with record albums with his wife, Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis). Actually, the real Harvey and real Joyce also appear, which adds to this layered bizarreness of the film.

Pekar, a lifelong file clerk at a veterans hospital in Cleveland, is known for his odd comics that are drawn by others - mostly the celebrated R. Crumb, with whom he first collaborated. His stories, brought to life by Crumb, are a about a man like Pekar - complaining, in a dead-end job, reveling in his own self-created existential morass.

What makes Pekar appealing to some people is his selfishness - his driven agenda to play out his obsessions no matter how out of whack they are with reality. And though he occasionally scores points with his observations, Pekar rarely pokes his head out of his navel.

In Herman Melville's ``Bartleby the Scrivener,'' the lowly scribe of the title faced the absurdity of his life with the phrase, ``I would prefer not to,'' until he paid the price. True, Bartleby was fictional, but Pekar - or his alter ego - just continues to gripe, which after a while is simply trying.

This should take nothing away from Berman and Pulcini's film, which eloquently makes a case for someone celebrated for his ineloquence.

``American Splendor'' (HBO, $27.95) includes group audio commentary with the directors, cast and Pekar and a featurette from the Sundance Channel, ``Anatomy of a Scene.''

Lane keeps 'Tuscan Sun' on right road

Without Diane Lane, ``Under the Tuscan Sun'' might seem merely overbaked. It's based on Frances Mayes' best-selling memoir about a recently divorced writer who moves to a rundown villa in Tuscany to escape her despair. What she discovers through the gentle and sometimes odd folks who populate the small town she's living in is a way out of her own self-absorption. (See previous items.)

``Under the Tuscan Sun,'' directed by Audrey Wells, is slight, light but entertaining at times. Luckily, Lane, who proves she can project emotions with subtlety (her Oscar-nominated performance in ``Unfaithful'' showed that) keeps the movie alive - if barely.

``Under the Tuscan Sun'' (Buena Vista, $29.99) includes commentary by Wells, deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.

Rob Lowman, [phone]

robert.lowman(at)dailynews.com

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BILL MURRAY in ``Lost in Translation''