MovieChat Forums > Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) Discussion > The two old men..

The two old men..

posted 19 years ago by creepstar01
18 replies | jump to latest

Ok, this might already be a thread here, but I'm a bit lazy right now, so if there is a thread, go ahead and trash me and call me an idiot.

It's a while since I saw this, but I remember the last scene with the two old men talking about something. They talk, but one of them seem to be completely out of it, and talks about a sound he can hear and something. Then he falls asleep. Did anyone else interpret this as that he died? I dunno, none of the people i saw it with and people i've talked to about it seems to think so, so maybe i'm overanalyzing it. Then again, maybe it's the general understanding, and my friends are just idiots. Or i'm the idiot. Anyway, if he died i thought that made the short more powerful.

[–] bigendless 19 years ago

That's funny, I was just thinking about the exact same thing.

I interpreted it as him dying, but wasn't sure and wanted to know what other people thought.

[–] VoodeMar 13 years ago

I didn't interpret this way. He was just very old and tired and nap was a pleasure for him, even if lasted only 2 minutes :)

[–] crayonponyfish 19 years ago

It felt like he did. It didn't look like his eyes were closed. The other guy didn't seem to bothered if he was dead but the whole thing felt so Beckettian that it would make sense, kind of like Clov looking into the bins.

[–] joshuayeary 19 years ago

I'm not sure if anyone knows if he died or just fell asleep, including those who made it. In an interview with Taylor Mead, he talked about that part, saying "...at the end, when I died, or fell asleep, or whatever..." so I think they left it open to whatever we think happened.

[–] monkey_nuggets 19 years ago

Well, obviously he must have just been asleep. After all, he couldn't have done an interview if he died.

[–] bigpussylover069 18 years ago

You're not supposed to know if he died or not! It's up to the viewer. And it's possible the other guy died too.

[–] Ralyyy 15 years ago

haha :D

[–] xoxsapphirexox 18 years ago

I think he did die, because the music faintly came back.

[–] KutWrite (1317) 2 years ago

That was my clue, too. Yes, I think he died... happy with his "champagne."

I came here just to see if anyone else thought so. I'm glad you did. Now I can die happy!
(hopefully not too soon, though)

[–] cigarsmoke 18 years ago

In the special features of the DVD, there's an interview with Taylor Mead in which he says that his 'character' died.

[–] MoviemanCin 10 years ago

That's interesting because it seemed to me like he died.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, or doesn't.

[–] niccolomineo 16 years ago

you can spot he died by the fact he slowly stopped breathing.

[–] shift0 15 years ago

I don't think that he died but the mood was set so that it would come into our minds. Their conversation had a mood of ending of life. And since one of them fell asleep, he ended his part in the movie - and that was the last part of his life we saw. Because he would die anyway shortly after and it since this was last time we could see him it was like by ending of a scene he died.

[–] D_vd_B 15 years ago

they were already dead and in purgatory!

But seriously...does it even matter? The only thing mattered that the segment ended with him not being there, so for the story being asleep or dead would be the same thing.

[–] jtdeclercq 15 years ago

The music he hears is 'Ich bin der Welt abhande gekommen' (I am lost to the world), one of the Rückert songs set to music by Gustav Mahler.

Rougly translated, the last verse goes like this:

I am dead to the world's tumult,
And I rest in a quiet realm!
I live alone in my heaven,
In my love and in my song.

So did the old man die? Maybe. But hearing the music twice, he was dead to the world and had found his peace.

[–] hutzerl 15 years ago

Leaving is one of many themes of this movie... At the end of every short, there is somebody leaving and somebody left behind. So I guess, the old man did die. Left his friend in a way.

[–] Mrpinkeye 13 years ago

isnt the shakey and slurred guy in the short still alive and the other younger, healthier looking one dead!? weird

[–] PoppyTransfusion 10 years ago

I thought he died too and that Mahler was his guide into the after world.

A bird sings and the mountain's silence deepens.