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Reader comments on
Subject: metaphysics vs. reality/fantasy
Date: Jun 28, 2002
to reiterate - i go with a much more metaphysical interpretation (hence known as the Limbo Theory) to the movie than the reality/fantasy theory.
Of course - I left out the most important example in my previous post (see in response to "life, love, death...") which Joshua brought up...
the whole limousine scene *slapping forehead*
i.e., if we try to put the movie back into chronological order - it begins with the wannabe actress Dianne falling in love with Camilla, being invited to the party in the limo which is critical to her subsequent deterioration.
hence follows said deterioration--> obsession, bla bla, hitman, bla bla suicide --> LIMBO/SOUL SHIFT
and then...
Amnesiac Rita, Betty, a karmic attraction that pulls them to try and 'solve' the riddle, which in itself is the means to get things back on track.
Everything actually abruptly ends when Rita opens the blue box. It is at that point that things have shifted back into their 'proper' place.
In response to the Adam/Betty scene in the previous post, my interpretation is that it was love at first site.
Note that all the mafia dudes warned him that "no matter what, he has to point at the Camilla in the booth, and see 'that's the one'"
In my metaphysical interpretation, the mafiaondoes are angels - or whatever - doing Death's will, and therefore have prior knowledge that Adam will fall in love with Betty's character (who was originally Camilla).
in short - i see the film as one big symbol of the utter worship of the trade-in-souls that is the Hollywood business.
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Re: wow
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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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
» metaphysics vs. reality/fantasy « from yaghvali, Jun 28, 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
» metaphysics vs. reality/fantasy « from yaghvali, Jun 28, 2002
PCP from Kilgore Trout, Sep 1, 2002
Aunt??? from HugeElvis, Oct 14, 2002
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