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Fresh Untainted Thoughts On The Movie Before I Start Reading On Here

posted 12 years ago by freecrafted
4 replies | jump to latest

I thought for a movie like this I should first describe what I saw and got out of it before I start mixing in other peoples interesting interpretations of the movie.

1) I enjoy the start of the movie for a while and about the time they are to the green crazy dude who looks like a cross between a leprechaun and Blanka from Street Fighter I've come to conclusion that this is just some wealthy guy that loves to spend his days being other characters for fun. For obvious reasons that was shown as *wrong* by about the movies half way point.

2) Next I sort of hone in the conversation in the car when they're discussing camera's. I'm still trying to figure what is the practical(non symbolic) reason as to why this guy is going from character to character and I come to the conclusion(because of this conversation) that he's actually being filmed when he goes into character and you just don't see it. And the way it made sense to me was that he was working for some movie company that wanted characters doing their thing in real life. Towards the end of the movie I gave up on that idea as well and basically came to the conclusion that the movie has no intended practical(albeit weird) reason for why things happen on the screen and that's it has entirely symbolic reasons for 'plot' and that is really all anybody should focus on.

3) At about the same time that I came up with #2 I realized that the movie is very heavily satirizing the film industry. The first thing I'm noticing is that the movie is mostly going from wildly disparate genre's 'key scenes' to 'key scenes' and sort of making fun of how easy it is for them to recreate them. I came to this conclusion at the start of the 'I'm dying in bed scene'. The making fun of part of that conclusion could just be a personal emotion of mine though as I'm watching this, but I have reason to believe it was intended. Now this piece stuck with me through the end of the movie and I'm fairly confident is there.

Well I really only covered the 3 above(and quite a few smaller thoughts I had) during the movie because I had to devote most of my attention to following what was going on and making sure I didn't miss or forget details.

Now that I've had time to think about it:

4) The overall movie is a critique of cinema in general. The use of new roles every day that even involve an assignment over night is to symbolize what actors and actresses can feel like when they're never themselves and always other people. Never any time to for themselves and it's really impossible to not take a role home with you or worse yet not really ever feeling like you have a home.

5) I'm guessing that each of the individual characters are stand alone criticisms on certain elements of cinema, but I haven't put enough thought into it yet to determine each and every one of them yet.

a) I'm only as so far as to say that the tech and action room is definitely a criticism of technology in cinema.

b) The father and daughter car scene is a criticism of how typical father and daughter relationships are portrayed in movies by creating an argument that is the polar opposite of what most dad's would be angry about in their daughter(also maybe some acting theme in their about shyness, but haven't thought that through yet).

c) The conversation in the car with 'the boss' was obviously about the advancements in camera technology and how absurd that is. 'The Boss' symbolized a director and the dialogue was meant to symbolize the relationship between director and actor. The wondering if they still had it in them and appreciation of work as likely 2 very common underlying themes in the relationship between a director and actor.

d) The initial thoughts on green freak is that there is some criticism there about how movies portray women superficially as putting up with a lot of bull$hit from men while never trying to get out of it.

e) The dying scene is obviously making fun of the Hollywood formulaic approach to tragedy in movies(particularly dying scenes).

f) The musical scene was to satirize the lack of anything ever actually being said in musical numbers. This is pretty clear because the women's like, "Lets not talk we only have 20 minutes to catch up on 20 years and then proceeds to sing about basically nothing. The scene is just making fun of the idea that a song is a substitute for a deep conversation when there is really so much to be said.

6) I can't believe it took me to about 5 minutes after the movie was over to realize that the beginning of the movie when he comes out in the cinema and looks down at the audience was a for shadowing of how this whole movie was a criticism of movies. That was a pretty glaring one that I missed. Luckily for me I figured it out soon afterward, but didn't even realize the obvious placement of that foreshadowing until it was over.

That's all I've got now. How close am I on a scale of 1 to 10?

Alright time to read others thoughts.

P.S. what I thought about the movie? The movie is pretty conceded, snobby, and cynical, but... any movie *that* fascinating, creative, hilarious, and outlandish will always get a pass on the snob factor from me. I'm giving it an 8 = excellent.

[–] Mother_Of_Two 12 years ago

I really liked your analysis. The idea of making fun of different genres is interesting - I'm surprised that I never thought of that, as it seems to be so obvious now to me. Before reading your post, I always thought the movie was simply recreating different genres - without satirizing them.

"Stupid f...ing white man!"

Dead Man (1995)

[–] potsi-1 12 years ago

That was also my overall interpretation of the movie. One scene I can't figure out quite yet is the scene where we witness Kylie Minogue's character change from one character to another as well as the protagonists freak out once seeing her dead body (assuming she is also an actress, why would he have such an outburst seeing her dead seeing as death to an actor is nothing but a plot device). I'm really interested to hear your take on that scene.

While I agree with you that the film does feel smug and a bit too cynical at times, one of the key scenes that I don't remember you mentioning is the final scene. Having worked as a crew member in a Hollywood film (just an internship, nothing fancy) to me the cars felt like the technical department/crew that stay after the director yells "cut". During filming everyone's silently driving the filming process forward and once you hear "that's a wrap" that's when the whole crew comes to life: hectically shouting to someone to bring something over, moving equipment around but also casually talking etc... (much like the cars they're always there but come to life after the shooting process).

The cars are the "non-artistic" side of the industry that have a much less emotional and much more grounded outlook on the movie industry (treating it as nothing more than an everyday job).

[–] Penisinfurs46 12 years ago

I have watched it twice now and have come to a conclusion similar to yours but I disagree about it all being satirical. The mo-cap scene is definitely, what with it being set in an industrial area (Red Desert?) and it basically being some strange cgi-action-porn I guess that's Carax's view of mainstream event movies. I think the journey through different genres is also a celebration of the many ways in which film can connect and add gravitas to seemingly mundane events.

The Green Troll guy was in Tokyo so I'm not sure that that was entirely satirical as the character already existed so Carax would be satirising himself by referencing himself. I guess that is possible if he where decrying the amount of self-refential post-modernism abounding over the last decade (Hello QT) though.

The Kylie part was the most emotional scene in my mind as well, if it was a satire I think it was unsuccessful as it did evoke the motion you purport it to be mocking and they she did discuss their past in the lyrics, but more importantly their identity based confusion.

"All I want, is to enter my hoes justified"

[–] ell1981 12 years ago

Excellent analysis all round. Just a small addition- surely the lead characters name being Oscar is not a coincidence? Must surely be another dig at Hollywood especially pertinent given it was overlooked for any nominations.