So I watched this flick last night and it’s stayed on my mind all day now. I’d kinda had, what I believed to be, a firm grasp on it but reading some online discussion shook my confidence in my takeaways. Way I saw it, the doppleganger was a split personality that survived when the original personality finally tried to come to terms with his faults (delusions of grandeur concerning his future in acting and infidelity). Spiders representing his venomous tendencies and hang ups with women.But the theory online that particularly undermined my understanding was that of the chronology. Mainly, was the apartment Adam lived in a place he got after getting divorced and tearing the photograph of he (Anthony) and Hellen in half. That would explain everything being in boxes and his mother referring to his new apartment on the phone (and his inability to stick with one woman later when they meet in person). And did the opening scene of him going to the club with his doorman and the key actually take place after the final scene? Or is it just that he’s in an unbreakable cycle as mentioned earlier in the film?I have lots of questions and yet it made me appreciate the film more than I did when I immediately finished. Went from like a 7/10 to an 8 or 9 for me (and Im not really the biggest villanueve fan).
Watched the movie like 10 years ago so I forgot almost everything but have my bump.
>>215381752i saw this movie last week and already forgot
one of the best money shots of all time
>>215381883Yeahh Im pretty late to the party. Saw it last night and randomly popped it on not knowing much about it. >>215381898Haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since last night personally but it seems pretty divisive from what I see online.
>>215382236I read that the director intentionally gave it no meaning so it could be open to various interpretations. I just left it at that.
Wait, I thought the doppleganger was the professor?
>>215382091The final scene?
Sarah Gadon kino
why was the spider woman upside down in his dream?
>>215382308I don’t think he ever said it had no meaning. most of what I can see from a quick search is that he said it’s a battle in the maincharacter’s subconscious. Feels like most directors or authors dont want to clarify things at least initially because it fosters discussion and more interest. David chase has more and more alluded to Tony dying in the sopranos after two decades of keeping quiet about it albeit, notably, only after gandalfini himself died.
>>215382314I don’t think we ever really find out which personality is the “real” one. But I may have that wrong.
>>215382383Definitely cuter than the girlfriend IMO
>>215381752>dopplegangerWait so it’s a movie about Naruto?
>>215381752>Spiders representing his venomous tendencies and hang ups with women.yes, but what is the chronology of the spiders? was his old apartment infested with them and that's why he had to move? were they already engaged in a full scale invasion?it's a pretty fucking simple movie, OP. stop being a retard and stop reading "theories" by other retards online.
Why did he care so much that another man fucked his wife? We must be better men.
>>215382675youtube.com/watch?v=GKBtMLOC2oU(Heidecker fanjobbers do NOT watch)
anyone w a brain can realize that its just the typical "main character is actually le crazy" film. he's got split personality, simple.
>>215382675It was an example of a the excuses he made time and time again to fuck girlfriend. Anytime theyre in the same shot it’s safe to assume it’s not actually happening IRL because theyre one person.
>>215381752If you like split personality kino you should try Possession, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.
>>215382748>>215382596If it was so simple what was his actual name? The name his wife called him or the one he had a legitimate teaching job with?
>>215382901anthony whats ur point?
>>215382934And yet he has a teaching job under a false name? Or was his name Daniel? Why would he use his real name for a sex club and have the letters forwarded to an agency that knew him as Daniel?
>>215383138bitch its all from his perspective, ever heard of an unreliable narrator?
>>215383172Who’s perspective?
>>215381752Reminder his mistress (Melanie Laurent) freaked out mid-sex upon seeing his wedding ring. She kept screaming "you're not a man". That and the basement sex club, & his irately shutting up his preggo wife (LA GADON), with "it was a man!" that he just talked to on the phone -- altogether put a diff subtext on the "double life" that he can't stop having. The "totalitarian", tyranny stuff isn't about LatAm politics as in the novel, but about MARRIAGE as a prison to this guy. He can't be himself bc of his mother's hold on him (less certain on this -- Rossellini just didn't have a sharp take on the role.)
skipped through it and only looked at the cool parts with the spiders
>>215383209Also a gay subtext for a "leading man"/role in 2012 (shot in 2011), even as indie, was quite risky to their image.
>>215383209Yeah the mother stuff falls just short of convincing since the most “controlling” we see/hear from her is telling him to stop attempting to be an actor and that his new apartment is shit.
>>215383188anthony
>>215383320Most of the scenes are from Adam’s perspective anon.
>>215383355sybau
>>215383387I accept your concession.
>>215382901his name was Robert Paulsen
>>215381752I think the movie is a metaphor for the subconscious mind of a man who is cheating on his wife.
>>215381752pregnant Sarah Gadon
>>215383503Yes this is exactly itThere is no hidden framework that brings everything together elegantly, it's basically just a typical narrative where one's psyche is manifested in the physical world, like Eyes Wide Shut. The plot is more a series of feelings to represent this part of his inner turmoil, not a literal collection of events with strict relationships.
When departing from a planetary surface, Shells do not actually move away from it. Instead, they slowly and procedurally turn into a misty substance that fades away and then vanishes completely. They may be some form of teleportation or faster than light travel.
>>215382596This, marathoned some of it while it remained intriguing, as soon as it became clear it was his mind at work marathoned the rest at x10, meh>le meaning is subjective just fucking have the balls to make a movie with a defined story and live or die by it cunt
When you gaze at the stars, is it possible that your eyes are deceived by Satan?https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-perversion.html
>>215384144when will hollywood learn...
I thought it was just him struggling between the idea of being a free agent bachelor who can do whatever he wants and fuck whoever etc. and accepting married life with a pregnant wife and soon to be fatherThe actual doppelgänger stuff doesn’t have an explanation because it’s just symbolic The spider stuff is symbolic of women, commitment and a fear of being trapped (like in a spiders web). If I recall the movie starts with him watching a woman stomp on a spider with a high heel in some strip club, ergo him wanting some responsibility free sex. We see his pregnant wife change into a spider in a dream sequence to directly show what it symbolises. And the ending of him facing the spider in his home is him still being afraid but doing it anyway
>>215385443in the dream the woman is not pregnant and he is not fazed by the spider in the ending, the spider is terrified of him. he sighs as if to say>"NOTTU DISSU SHITTU AGAINU"or maybe it is a sigh of relief because having a giant spider as a wife is preferable to the modern woman
>>215385443This is what I took away.It's basically his coping mechanism to deal with the commitment of a proper relationship and fatherhood. He believes women are controlling, including his mother, which is why he visualises them as spiders. When he makes the correct decisions and commits to his wife at the end, it is when his doppelganger dies.However, when he finds the key and makes the decision to cheat again, he realises he can't commit, and his wife turns into a spider. The spider is afraid of him, though, because he is the one in the wrong by cheating.
>>215381752Okay, how does that explain THE GIANT ENEMY SPIDER
>>215381752I thought it was the spider that bit spiderman's origin story. This makes more sense though fr.
