planned or coincidence?
first off, it's great to find this site after 'you know who' closed their boards. Regarding the movie: as has happened before, the appreciation of the movie greatly increases after reading people's comments here. There seems to be a valid argument for both the 'he imagined most/all of it' vs. 'it really happened' theories. And I suppose that's what makes Coppola a genius, because if he went in beforehand with the idea "I'm going to leave it totally up to the viewer", he had to weave a believable, logical thriller *and* a study of a person probably losing grasp on reality at the same time. For those who strongly push the 'it all happened' theory and deride the other theory: as a pure thriller movie it really wasn't that special, even with the twist based on the inflected "us". But as a combo movie, it moves to another level.