There is substance behind the style

This is my take on the film. I'm sure there are other explanations and some people won't need an explanation to enjoy this film but here goes anyway;

The film starts with the “Lone Man”, who’s from Africa - the dark continent (See his Cameroon jacket at the end), taking instructions from the “Creole”, his employer from America’s deep south. I would suggest that these places are metaphors for the unconscious, however it’s the stone in the “Creole’s” hand that is the real clue. Here’s what David Tacey says about such stones in his book “Jung”;

“In Australian Aboriginal ceremonies of male initiation, the young male is given a sacred stone or churinga, to symbolise the second body or new life from which he must now live. At the climax of the ritual, the elder holds out the stone and says:- here is your body, here is your second self. There are parallels to this in all the world’s religions where the profane and self-centred life of the ego is terminated and a new self put in its place.”

This is what the film means in a nutshell.

The “Creole” is the elder and represents the deepest strata of the unconscious, so deep in fact that he needs an interpreter to translate his words. Incidentally this is the meaning of the secret codes – it’s the language of the unconscious which appears meaningless to the conscious mind.

The “Lone Man” is the agent of the unconscious and its most powerful manifestation, what the ancient Greeks called a man’s inner daimon, the Romans a man’s genius, the Egyptians a mans Ba-soul. In Jungian psychology its called the “Self”. As such he is obviously immune to the temptations of the “Nude Girl”. The Tai Chi is a discipline derived from Taoism which in turn is a philosophy with strong associations with Jungian psychology and is said to protect a man against his Anima (see further down).

The “Amerian” represents the ego, that part of us we are referring to when we say I, me, mine. The hair piece represents a persona of youth which the ego is clinging to, his lifestyle reveals how profane and self centred it has become. The skull indicates that having reached the mid life point the ego fears death. Here’s what David Tacy says about the mid-life crises in his book “Jung”;

“The ego goes into a state of alarm and erects barriers……erects shutters and boards to keep them out and installs security devices to keep out unwanted parties. The ego does not give up its power without a fight. However the self has an energy value equal to the ego and once activated it can on occasion wrest leadership from the ego.”

This describes the “Americans compound precisely”. Incidentally, I think the two cups of coffee represent an ever present invitation to the ego to meet with this agent of the unconscious and negotiate an amicable solution. The offer is never taken up and the “American” just hovers up above in his helicopter.

All the other characters are other parts or previous manifestations of the unconscious representing rejected parts or previous attempts by the unconscious to modify the ego. The “Lone Man” assimilates their experiences in each rendezvous by swallowing the secrete code. His journey is one of reintegrating all the disparate parts of the psyche.

The “Violin Man” represents the shadow. He’s shifty, nervous, wears a black coat & black sunglasses, has black eyebrows and a black moustache, and he carries a violin case like a gangster.

The ”Nude girl” and the “Blonde” represent the Anima – a mans unconscious femininity. The “Nude girl” is a negative aspect that leads men astray and the “Blonde” is a positive aspect that is a man’s muse and his soul. One is naked and the other excessively clothed, they are opposites of the very same coin. The “American” has the Blonde kidnapped because he has sold his soul in a faustian pact with capitalism and consumerism. The molecules girl is another higher aspect of the anima representing learning which is why she is so knowledgeable about science and suffi-ism. The driver is yet another aspect of the anima – the mother archetype representing mans first experience of the feminine. In Jungian psychology a man’s Anima goes through four stages called Eve, Helen, Sophia and Wisdom.

The “Guitar Man” represents the senex or “wise old man” the archetype of meaning and a man’s unconscious wisdom. The “Guitar Man” certainly looks the part and talks about even wiser old men like his own father and a famous musician. The “Mexican is another, more mercurial aspect of the senex – a merlin archetype. He is tattooed with mysterious symbols, knows a lot about psychedelic plants and his hot topic is the nature of reality and illusion.

The modern art shows fragmented, fractured images which represent the fragmented nature of the mind.

There are other things in the film to look out for;

1) The polka dot material that crops in dresses and scarves.
2) The missing floor numbers on the lift in the first hotel he checks into
3) The way the “Nude Girl” disappears into thin air (just after the Flamenco scene)
4) The “double take” when the “Lone Man” disarms the “Nude Girl” in his hotel room
5) The words “Life is worth nothing” on back of the pickup truck and in the Flamenco scene.

I know this spiel doesn’t explain everything, but it comes close, I have had to be brief and I would like to say more but I reckon this film if not entirely a Jungian construct is at least strongly influenced by Jung’s ideas.