I think that the points you make could be caused by a not perfect mechanism of the movie itself. They're only showed to make the suspance grow and at the end you're not supposed to remember them and realize that they were not in Tim's perpective.
Anyway there's another ipothesis: we have not the possibility to see where it ends reality and it begins paranoid. How many characters were real and how many created by Tim's fantasy? Was his girlfriend real? When he is in Italy at the beginning he doesn't seem to be a man who is going to marry. Is it possible that he never come back to London, but he became mad in Italy and the girl that is supposed to be his girlfriend is in the reality his nurse (at the and we see him on a wheelchair and the girl is with him).
So, if the "English part" is all a dream, no problem with the not completly Tim's involving in things: it's not necessary to be in every part of dream.
I didn't understand at the end what do they mean the flashes of Italy we see when Tim is on the train. He sees his aunt dead in Pompei, then the man with moustaches laughing and then we see Tim who falls down a little hill in Pompei because he is pulled by a man. Maybe it could be the beginning of his hillness: he saw someone killing his aunt (bacause she has been surely killed) and then this (or theese man)pulled him from the hill. He has been transported into an hospital (maybe in Italy, at the end we see him near a beach, it could be England, but also Italy)because he was injured, but then he also lost his mind, thinking that he had returned to England.
The other possibility is that he himself has killed his aunt, maybe beacause she wanted to link again him to the world of drugs and he did want to protect himself. Then, to remove the fright and the guiltyness he forgot everything and invented an alternative situation.
I would like to hear your opinions about that: I think that the movie is more complicated that it seems at a first sight.
Sorry for my very bad English, that's not my mother language.
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Idghili
16 years ago
My sister remembered me another interesting thing: when two men hit Tim and put in his hand a syringe we see fragments of images of him in a white room with soft walls. Then we see a pair of male nurse taking him while he's screming. We think that it can be images of rehab from drugs, but maybe it could be the reality where Tim is in a psychiatric hospital.
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tieri
16 years ago
Just a few days ago I've watched this movie for the second time after many many years. As the first time, I found it very enjoiable but I remain confused about the meaning of the plot. I find your explanation very persuasive; the only thing I may add is that Tim itself might be the killer of his aunt and this could explain the flash in Pompei when he is watching his dead aunt from the hill. Anyway, the movie is mysterious and intriguing and Hemmings is fantastic. May be we might ask Sarafian itself more informations ...
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Idghili
16 years ago
If you'll read my post you'll see that the fact that Tim could have killed his aunt was one of my ipothesis. Anyway I agree with you, this possibility is more enjoyable, cause more "thrilling". Yes the movie is good. It remembres me some Dario Argento first movies, like "'l'uccello dalle piume di cristallo" which has been made the same year. Maybe it's not a coincidence if Hemmings (very good actor) is the protagonist of Argento's "Deep Red".
Of course beneath this kind of film there is always a "Hitchcok touch".
Asking Sarafian... that could be an idea (ehehehehehehehe), but I don't know if he colud explain the meaning of the plot: I remember an interview where Tim Burton was asked about the meaning of his "Planet of the apes" and he just couldn't say anything about it, he just didn't know what in fact happened in his own movie. Maybe for this film is the same, spectators decide what is their favourite solution of the story.
Thank you for your post and sorry for my very bad English.
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