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Reader comments on
Subject: Re: wow
Date: Jun 17, 2002
A big part of what makes this movie so challenging (and refreshing) is that there is a great deal of melding of fantasy and reality. Some characters are real, some imagined and some purely symbolic. The moments in which the daydream (as it were) and reality MEET are the ones at once most loaded with significance and most responsible for making the movie so resistant to coherent interpretation. It is at these times that the viewer must abandon all notions of typical story telling convention (like standard chronology and a clear separation of dream and reality) and accept the movie on its own terms. Such acceptance in this case goes well beyond a reasonable suspension of disbelief, but the rewards are commensurately worth the effort.
An illustrative example of the aforementioned melding is a scene about 40% in where Betty (still Betty at this point) has just auditioned for a part (weird scene in itself, lending to many interesting interpretations) and has been taken across the street to the set/auditions for The Sylvia North Story. There she comes face to face with director Adam K ostensibly for the first time. HOWEVER, if the true chronolgy (discerned only after viewing the final scenes) is to be believed, she has already MET Adam. Certainly they trade uneasy, knowing looks of recognition. What's happened here? Betty's dream (if you subscribe to that interpretation) has suddenly, unexpectedly, jarringly met with reality. What's crazy is that at this point in your initial viewing, you have every reason to believe that you're seeing reality being played out in standard time. Dispite how disorienting that all is, the impact of the movie's various themes is much stronger presented in this forum than it could have been in any other. It also pretty much requires you see the movie more than once, which immediately disqualifies the attention span of an unfortuate percentage of moviegoers.
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Re: wow
I agree with Rosanna when she says "wow". I'm totally impressed with what you folks saw in this movie, which I otherwise would have found baffling. I'm intrigued by the possibility that the neighbor who comes over to get her stuff is Diane's real ex-lover and there is no Camilla. But I'm not convinced that's right.
Anyway, I have these additional observations/questions:
1. Note the bits of what we're called the "reality" scenes that creep into the "fantasy" scenes in altered form, just like bits of your life will pop up in your dreams. For example:
-- "This is the girl" - that's what the director is told to say when he sees Camilla, and that's what Diane tells the hit man when she hands him her headshot.
-- The name Betty on the waitress's name tag.
-- "We don't stop here" - Camilla says that to the drivers at the beginning and Diane says it at the end.
2. After the two women go to see Diane Selwyn's neighbor and the neighbor doesn't recognize Rita, Betty says, "We know you're not Diane Selwyn." Actually, strangely enough, the neighbor hasn't recognized Betty as Diane Selwyn. In a dream/fantasy, this is conceivable -- but what's really interesting about it, I think, is that it's one of many instances in which Betty projects her own confusion onto "Rita." The one who actually has amnesia is Betty/Diane, but she makes the fictional Rita the one who can't remember what happened.
3. The cowboy -- somebody said he represents death. Maybe. He says "If you're good, you'll see me one more time; if you're bad, you'll see me two more times." I don't pretend to understand this. (Any suggestions?) But I do think I saw him in the background at the dinner/engagement party. That's one time. But why was he there? (That was a "reality" sequence, apparently -- so maybe he's just a peripherally perceived character who later crept into the fantasy?)
-- Joshua
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Comment index:
wow from Rosanna, Jun 10, 2002
Re: wow from Joshua (editor of Offoffoff), Jun 12, 2002
» Re: wow « from Tashtigo707, Jun 17, 2002
PCP from Kilgore Trout, Sep 1, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 2002
wow from Rosanna, Jun 10, 2002
Re: wow from Joshua (editor of Offoffoff), Jun 12, 2002
» Re: wow « from Tashtigo707, Jun 17, 2002
PCP from Kilgore Trout, Sep 1, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 2002
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