I have to say that this movie compeltely confused me. I'm a huge plot person and it's hard for me not to focus on that. However, I thought the movie was very interesting seeing that I've never watched anything like this before. I did some research first and found out that the movie was filmed in Munich at the Nymphenburg Palace. It was a great place for the movie especially because of the gardens and all the geometric shapes.
I'm one of the people who believe that this was all in his head. I feel that something in the past possibly didn't go well and now he is replaying it over and over and almost becoming obsessed with it. The phrases that get repeated over and over throughout the movie explain part of the fact he keeps replaying this in his head. Because of this situation only being made up I feel that the movie is very dream like. Most of the people move and talk slowly, if and when they do move and talk.
I thought the hotel was very pretty. The mirrors, the lighting, the gardens and so much more. While I was watching the movie, it reminded me a lot of the Palace of Versailles. When I visited there, I remember the awesome lighting, the long corridors and the Hall of Mirrors. I also remember the huge gardens with the almost creepy geometric shapes and how perfectly everything was placed and taken care of. Which brings me to how I thought that the hotel seemed very claustrophobic. Even though it was so pretty, I felt I couldn't get out of there or the gardens and I think that means that he is stuck there too. He wants to escape but cant because of her.
I also thought that she reminded me somewhat of Laura. They both seemed to be in their own little world and she ( M, X, A... i dont remember who is who) would talk to him or he would talk to her, and they wouldn't even look at each other or notice the other one is there.
I still don't understand when she got shot. I thought maybe it was because he just thought of the worst possible case? Or maybe he just keeps thinking about how badly it went and its like she is dead? Or better yet, maybe her possible husband caught her with him? I have no idea. I jsut remember thinking ok... she's dead. Then a minute later her talking to him again and being completly confused.
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It's funny how you said that the pristine gardens as creepy. There is something weird about this very specific landscape. It is perhaps more perfect than anything we expect to see in real life, creating contrast to X's, the stranger's, story which we do not know if it is true. My biggest question would be that if it was a dream then how come everything didn't work out for X? Even if we know something is very unlikely of happening, we can still daydream about it and make it possible in our mind. If I'm daydreaming about having just won the lottery, I'm not going to suddenly think about loosing the money or being robbed. Just as I don't think that X, in a dream about shooting or raping A if the movie is really X's dream.
ReplyDeleteI too believe that what we where watching was X's mental thought process based on making it workout between A and himself. I didn't really notice the repeated phrases, but you make a great point. The phrases being repeated are X's thoughts and we are hereing them as an audience as if we are in his head. "Stop making since" made a point that caused me to rethink my intrepretation of the film. If it was a dream then how come everything didn't work out for X? I guess I can say that sometimes our dreams never work out the way we want them to. I have personally had dreams that at first start off going my way and then the abruptly take a wrong turn. In daydreaming you do have control over your thought process. Perhaps X was daydreaming about how she would react to him. At times she seemed interested, shortly, and then she was back to being creeped out by him. I don't know now, I really have to think about this because she really has me thinking.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was funny how you could draw on life experiences for one of the strangest movies and actually make it work. It's a good interpretation for the way X is. The geometric shapes are a large deviation from what we think of as a garden and it makes things more unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteI think the part where she got shot was just his worst case scenario. He's been thinking all this stuff over and over again that he's thought of every possible outcome. That was just a really bad one so it stuck with him and maybe almost affected him as much as if he had actually seen it.
It's interesting that you compare her to Laura. And you're right about how they never look at each other, I never really noticed. I think that supports the whole daydream-like aspect. I too agree that this is a product of X's imagination and that they've never met, so I think the lack of eye contact supports that as well.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that this was pretty much all in his head, but because of my confusion and the complete lack of anything that made a whole lot of sense, I felt like I was watching the inner workings of a mental patient's mind. That's why there were certain things that were not only impossible but didn't make any sense, such as the trees not having shadows but the people having big ones, or why everyone else moved so slowly and without character/emotion (I don't know what word I want really). The point is, I found so many inconsistencies that I felt that not only could this not be real, but I didn't think it was something that any sane person could come up with. The constant wondering if this was really happening and the repeating lines is also something I felt contributed to the feeling of insanity.
ReplyDeleteI like the comparison to Laura too--there seem to be a lot of instances this semester of men who obsess over the image of a woman. Weird. I hadn't planned that. I also like the point about the gardens being so pretty but eventually feeling like such a trap (a lot like this movie!) Your analysis is just fine. You only freak out a little at the very end when you start wanting a plot :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't think he can't leave the hotel because of her. I think he can't leave the hotel because he can't get out of his own head. The hotel is just as much inside his own mind as everything else is. Which is probably why he can't get the girl even in his own fantasies--to even image that would be to imagine some way out of his own circular thoughts--not so much insanity as ultimate Cartesian solipsism.
Thank you for looking up the location site, Julie. It would be cool to travel there to see it someday, and maybe get pictures taken posing like the characters in the movie.