MovieChat Forums > Borgman (2013) Discussion > No one can explain this film

No one can explain this film


Yes it was great it was interesting but if asked them what happened they can't explain it. Because there is really nothing to it that any sane person can relate to.

A woman and her husband has some issues, Why and what are they

A baby sitter gets seduced by one of the characters and gets angry with her boyfriend...Why

something is sprinkled on one of the kids back...What was it and what was the meaning of this scene

What was the building of the garden have to do with anything.


What were her dreams for and who what was causing them.


This film has nothing but question and it seems it does not want to answer any of them. It has things in it that are just there and with no explanation at all.

To whom ever says they understood it can you explain to us anything in the film you connected with. I can't wait to hear how you may have seen this film and was entertained.

Not trying to be sarcastic but just what was the wife thinking and doing the whole time.

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I did in fact relate to a lot off stuff in it. Don't know if I would describe myself as being 'sane' though... Relatively, I guess.

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A woman and her husband has some issues, Why and what are they
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I'm not even sure they are a woman and a husband in that sense. Maybe they are more like symbols, or concepts? I'm not entirely sure any of this movie took place in what we normally would call reality... On the face of it she was clearly struggling with some form of 'collective guilt of the privileged middle classes', she takes the drifter in, scoulds her child for not appreciating the amount of work that went into the teddy bear aso. She is missing something, perhaps a more spiritual side to life? A sense of meaning, purpose. She starts resenting her husband for not being able to give her this. Her longing for change leaves her very open to Borgman's suggestions. The husband on the other hand is more rooted in the material world. Content with what he has. He seems to have a more narrow world view in general. He therefore resists Borgman much longer.

The sudden outburst of violence when the husband first encounters Borgman also comes between them. Her reaction is largely a projection, she get's angry with him because she has problems with her own feelings towards violence. It could even be a case of her resenting him for doing something she herself lacks the guts or is somehow unable to do - taking action.

Violence in itself is such a tricky subject. We are taught that it's a bad thing, yet soldiers get praised for being brave, it's being glorified in movies and on TV all the time, all societies are ultimately founded on violence or the treath thereof - behave and follow the law, or get arrested, possibly beaten, put in prison and so on. Mixed signals, basically. Aggression is in all of us whether we realize it or not, it's a natural emotion, evolutionary important etc. But there are few outlets for it in modern, civilized life.

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A baby sitter gets seduced by one of the characters and gets angry with her boyfriend...Why
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By now Borgman is in full stride, shredding through the fabric of their safe middle-class existence like it's paper! No one is safe... :-) She probably doesn't know why she let's herself be seduced in the first place. Its more like she's under some form of spell. She is then rejected by her new lover, and turns her feelings of anger and confusion against her boyfriend. I'm sure there's some psychological term to describe that. Displacement of aggression?

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something is sprinkled on one of the kids back...What was it and what was the meaning of this scene
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I think I missed that scene. Unrelated: They did make incisions into the backs of the kids though, right? To me that was some weird ritual to do with the loss of innocence, like cutting the imaginary wings off of an angel or something like that.

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What was the building of the garden have to do with anything.
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A twisted reenactment of the Banishment from the Garden of Eden? Again with the loss of innocence and the religious symbolism. Original sin and all that.

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What were her dreams for and who what was causing them.
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They were for turning her against her husband. Borgman was causing them. We see him sitting naked across her chest as she is dreaming. In Nordic and Germanic folklore bad dreams are caused by a mythological creature called mare, or nightmare. Female and out to torture she would ride the chest of the person sleeping, inducing terrifying dreams and visions.

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This film has nothing but question and it seems it does not want to answer any of them. It has things in it that are just there and with no explanation at all.
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Just like real life! Jokes aside, I don't think everything always has to be answered, as long as you get an experience out of it. Which I did. For me that's a big part of what I like about art - its ability to bypass language and 'reasoning', and go straight for an emotional response. And I'd call this a more 'artsy' type of film. While I didn't understand half of it, I really, really enjoyed it. Loved the feel of it all, the plunge from hyperreality down into to surrealism, the feeling of being inside some kind of cruel fairytale.

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Not trying to be sarcastic but just what was the wife thinking and doing the whole time.
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Searching for absolution, searching for meaning. Losing her way. Getting sucked into a dark, trancelike alternate reality by cult leader slash supernatural being Borgman. Trying to make sense of a senseless world. Getting seduced by evil.
Setting out with good intentions but ending up hurting the ones closest to her. Again, I think perhaps she was more of a symbol than a real person. A symbol for what - up for debate. The human condition?

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A++ post

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I really liked your take on the film. It's an odd film for sure, but I quite liked it and like David Lynch's films, you don't have to understand everything to enjoy it. I wonder if the director has said anything about the film and perhaps the symbolism behind it.

"The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind" ~H.P. Lovecraft

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all-the-rest-is-treason has done yeomen service to these questions. Well done.

The only unanswered question (RE: something sprinkled on children's backs) was answered by someone else. The guy was removing stitches from whatever it is they were either putting into, or removing from the people.

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great interpretation, very comprehensive and detailed :)

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act like a bitch, get slapped like a bitch.

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Individual people`s actions and reactions are different to certain consequence`s in life.Borgman May have been a hobo but his iq must have tipped the high scale,the influence he could acheive on others emotions to get a negative effect to destroy a family was exceptional.

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I don't think he was sprinkling anything on the kids back if I'm thinking of the scene you may be thinking of. I think he was removing stitches from the incisions they made previously, and the threads were being dropped on the kids back.

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