What do you think that the last line means?
Maybe the next one, darlin'...
shareThe next one which will disfigure, or even kill her.
Away with the manners of withered virginsshare
When they *beep* on the balcony at the start of the film, Catherine asks James if his camera girl came. He says no. She says 'Poor darling. Maybe the next one.'
Then James has his car accident, his revelatory experience that changes him, gives his mundane modernity some actual meaning, albeit muddied. Catherine strives to match his 'bond' with Helen Remington because of this event.
THEN she meets Vaughan.
The last line, I always took to mean, was that James was to help her find her own personal car crash, her own experience from which she might never be the same.
I think it's about both of them trying to find meaning, through their lives and sex.
I think Cronenberg was pushed to make them seem more normal in the beginning and then even more messed up at the end and his response was 'but they are already messed up at the beginning!' (I can't remember the exact quote).
More thoughts on this....
It's their attempt to find meaning, a goal, an emotional satisfaction.
I've heard people say : 'Maybe the next one': means death, but I disagree.
James loves Catherine, he doesn't want her to die.
He's just trying to discover, through this fetish, HOW to love her. They are dysfunctional and damaged but ARE in love.
I thought it was a reference back to the balcony scene too, and he was asking if she'd cum at the point of impact. Given that it's the last line I suppose it's deliberately vague.
You're right about Cronenberg being pressured to make them a normal couple. I just read the book 'Cronenberg on Cronenberg' and he talks about the studio asking if he could make them a 'nice middle-class couple with a kid and a dog' who are corrupted by Vaughn later in the film. Similarly, he was asked to make the twins in Dead Ringers more normal too, and to make them lawyers instead of gynecologists because they'd be more accessible characters (!) for the audience. In both cases he argued that the fact that they're weird from the beginning is the entire point.
You've certainly got to hand it to DC, he won't be compromised!
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He left a note. He left a simple little note that said "I've gone out the window."
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