What was the significance of the lemur in the sewer?
Does anyone have a clue?
share[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Forbrydelsens element (1984) Discussion > What was the significance of the lemur i...
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I think it was Von Trier's way of letting the audience know that it was time for Fisher's hypnosis (the one we as an audience had been participating in) to come to an end. If you'll recall, the film opens in Egypt, where it seems Fisher is about to undergo hypnosis. In the coarse of Fisher's time in Europe the therapist's voice interupts, I believe twice, to ask Fisher's voice over questions about what is happening. So, for almost the entire movie we are inside Fisher's head and he is dealing with his psyche's fixation on Harry Grey. At the end of the film when Fisher's experience is at it's most intense he looks in the sewer and sees...a lemur (an animal that can only live in Africa) It reminds us and Fisher that he is still in Africa, not in the distorted Europe of his mind. The Lemur is there as a symbol for Africa and as a rip-cord of sorts to end Fisher's hallucination. That's my theory...
shareIts a theory that makes sense and further ties to the fact that the psychiatrist, in the begining of the movie, has a lemur sitting on his left shoulder.
shareI agree with the above posts about the link to Africa. But there is also the fact that the animal, the lemur, has realluy big eyes. There are certainly other African animals Trier could have used, but I think the lemur, with its two black holes of of eyes, is also looking back into us, like the nietzschean abyss, and this ties intop the critique of system's, or ideology, whichg runs throughout the film.
shareAhem, can I just point out that it's a loris, not a lemur. I believe it's a Red Slender Loris, to be precise. And unfortunately for some of the theories above, they are native to India. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Loris_tardigradus.jpg
Personally, I think it's all about the huge eyes. It's clearly a nocturnal animal, and in the film Europe is shrouded in perpetual night. The Europeans are turning into loris-like creatures: things of the dark. Fisher is looking in a mirror.
Good eye - it is a Loris! However, there are several species of Loris like the potto are found throughout Africa (in the wet forests).
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A copy of a copy of a copy...
Also, I thought Lemurs are only in Madagascar (aside from Zoos all over the world).
share[deleted]
It's not a lemur, it's a monkey on the psychiatrist's shoulder. So that's that theory up the spout.
shareExactly. And if you replace 'abyss' with 'loris', that sums up the film.
Sort of.
Was it to freak me out? If so, mission accomplished.
What's the spanish for drunken bum?
SPOILERS:
I've always taken it to imply that Fisher is trapped, like the animal, however, in his own subconscious. It's important to remember that the film begins with Fisher being placed under hypnosis, because the psychiatrist wants to know what happened in Europe to make him so withdrawn. During the course of this session it is revealed that Fisher, having become overwhelmed by the brutality of the case, has snapped, like his mentor before him, and murdered the final little girl. This is literally the end for him. The psychiatrist will no doubt notify the correct authorities who will probably arrest Fisher or place him in an institution. The final shot of the animal suggests, on the most superficial level, the sense of fear and confinement felt by the character when realising what he has just confessed.