I'm gonna go with Dr. McRae on this one and say that in a way, I loved this movie, but I also hated it. I'm not going to lie and say it wasn't extremely difficult to keep myself awake for the whole thing. I was really glad that we were told beforehand to not try to understand what was going on, but rather take it in and enjoy it. That, "Oh my god, I need to analyze this movie in the exact right way because it's for a class" feeling was swept away and I was sort of able to ask myself what I thought of the movie and what I got out of it.
The first thing I noticed and enjoyed was the poetic, sensual language. Those first lines, repeated over and over again, were so descriptive and full of imagery. Although they didn't really tell a story, they gave vivid pictures accompanied by true images of the castle/hotel. I thought this sort of language continued throughout the film-- many of X's lines were like little pictures or little scraps of memory. If you put them together you'd be left with a loose, unfinished and unreliable story, but if you didn't try so hard you could just take in the descriptions and images that went along with them.
The odd narrative was something I could almost grasp, but the other abnormal things having to do with filming really threw me for a loop. The thing I noticed most was the stilted, artificial acting-- which really shoved in your face that this story is not real life, it is a film. As the camera travels around the hotel, and we are presumably seeing things through X's eyes, the people and conversations around him are so stop-and-go. The people are almost like statues, just waiting for their lines and then returning to their static poses. Then there is a scene where X recalls seeing A on the balcony above the garden a year earlier; he narrates the memory as if it is merely stage directions, and A reacts as if she is an amateur actress reading a script for the first time, responding rigidly to the directions. Moments like this, to me, really emphasized that X is possibly constructing false memories in his head as he goes along, and these things may not have truly happened-- but we will never truly know.
In class we discussed the game that is played and constantly won by M. To me, this game is a reflection of the high-class, elite lifestyle carried on by most of the hotel's inhabitants. It is a game of form and rigidity, and it is played over and over again with the same outcome each time. This seems to be what drives X crazy about the people surrounding him, and is what makes him question the reality of it all. X attempts to win the game more than once, but no matter what moves he makes he cannot-- like we said in class, this seems to represent the fact that despite his efforts, X cannot figure out a way to escape this Cartesian life that tortures him.
Another recurring image that caught my attention was the statue of the man and woman. X and A discuss the statue, trying to figure out what exactly is happening between the two sculpted figures-- is the man protecting the woman from something or is the woman pulling the man back in an attempt to save him? The answer is unclear. This is also how I saw the relationship between X and A-- was X trying to save A from an elitist, redundant life or was he hoping A could save him from his own mind and affirm that his existence is not the only true life or true reality? In a way both seem true; A is the only other hotel guest X sees that seems to have qualities of life and freedom, and he clings to this hoping she will free him from the solipsism that tortures him.
The thought of solipsism is really cool to me. I get almost a weird pleasure freaking myself out thinking about it. To think that every being around me might just be a construct of my own mind, and mine is the only true reality, is really freaking berserk. Anyway, I think I will end here before I start confusing myself too much...
I think that this movie could infact spark spontaneous combustion. It is extremely confusing for every reason that you gave. The philosophical implications of the movie produce this fear of being in the Matrix.
ReplyDeleteI think at one point M come in and explains the statue. He says that the statue is a greek man, I forget his name, is stopping his wife from defending him from accusations of treason. Or it is something like that. This gets back to the whole perception of the situation. Great job in noticing that and associating it to the story.
I agree with you that the dialogue in the beginning was kind of soothing and pleasing. I guess I didn't think of the acting all that much but now that you mentioned it, it did seem sort of amateur and incredibly fake. I really enjoyed reading your connection between the statue scene and X's and A's relationship, nicely done!
ReplyDeleteYeah the whole solipsism idea behind the film just blew my mind as well. I remember sitting there in class just thinking " whaaaat?" trying to make sense of the whole thing lol so yeah I agree with you on that one.
ReplyDeleteThe lines that you were talking about at the beginning part of your post was a nice touch to talk about because I believe this helped add to the dream factor for me. As you said that they are repeated,when i found myself fading in and out, the smoothness of there voices just seemed to help contribute to that haha.
I think you bring up some really interesting things in this post. First off, I like your description of the voiceover and overall language used in the film and the effect that it had on you. The fact that you described it as poetic is, I think, very important. Poems tend to be much more abstract and less “on the nose” conceptually than that of novels or typical forms of narrative, focusing much more on the language and form to create a particular feeling. I think that’s exactly what this film does and should be looked at as visual poetry that is perfectly accompanied by literary poetry.
ReplyDeleteIn your blog you said, “Moments like this, to me, really emphasized that X is possibly constructing false memories in his head as he goes along….” I love the fact that you brought this up. The “stilted and artificial acting” as well as the fact that characters do often begin frozen in time, call attention to the fact that this is created, once again linking it to X’s mind. This is an awesome thought and I never looked at it in this way.
I think that this idea of being frozen in time as well as the use of statues is really cool to look at. Statues, particularly the one that is repeatedly referred to in the film, are perfect metaphors for the situation and once again bring us back to this idea of stressing the form of a piece of artwork in order to capture a moment or experience.
>>The thought of solipsism is really cool to me. I get almost a weird pleasure freaking myself out thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is the line I really like. I think it also describes the movie in a nutshell. Solipsism about solipsism about solipsism. Oh now, my head is now exploding!
Do you really think that A is the salvation of X though? She doesn't seem alive and free to me at all. Whenever we see her, she seems to be mostly assuming a series of mannequin poses, which occasionally correspond to X's narrated descriptions of her. I mean, maybe he wants her to be, but that doesn't seem to be his intention. I think he mostly just wants to pose her and fantasize about her, and then gets horrified by his own fantasies.