MovieChat Forums > Paperhouse (1989) Discussion > I Don't Get This Part...

I Don't Get This Part...

posted 18 years ago by basket_cas
11 replies | jump to latest

There is one scene where Anna draws Marc some legs, but when she goes into her dream world, the legs fall down and turn into dust. Why didn't they let Marc walk?
"I've seen ugly, but even I wasn't prepared for that."

[–] griffmailz 18 years ago

I think it's because Marc didn't want to walk or excercise at that point?... I think it has something to do with the conversation Annie has with the house call doctor about Marc towards the beginning.

[–] missyamerica18 18 years ago

(SPOILERS)

I think it was because Mark wasn't meant to walk again. Also, as the former post said, he didn't want to either. He was only able to walk again once he had died because he was in a happier place and healthy again.

[–] jasonay 18 years ago

I think it's because Marc himself wasn't a drawing, so a picture of himself with legs wouldn't make any difference. Anna could draw objects, but she couldn't make miracles happen with her pencil.

[–] griffmailz 18 years ago

uh.. well she drew her dad, and her dad wasn't an object, and he happened to appear in the dreamworld exactly as she had depicted him... I think you should re-evaluate your thoughts.

[–] jasonay 18 years ago

You're right, I guess she could draw people and have them come to life in her dreams, but she knew couldn't work miracles, and her dreams reflected this. In a dialogue with her doctor shortly before she draws the two legs, she is told quite firmly that Marc can't walk. In her next dream, this fact must have resurfaced in some murky area of her subconscious, and just as she is opening the door she is confronted with a pair of free standing legs. This is a wonderful example of how our dreams are affected by subconscious doubts and fears from waking life.

[–] glitz702 16 years ago

Because she didn't have total control. A lot of the machines didn't work as shown when Marc was trying to fix something.

Its the whole 'be-careful what you wish for' thing

[–] zombiesushi 14 years ago

Alot of the things wouldn't work because Anna herself probably didn't know how they worked, like the computer Marc was trying to fix, it looked just like it was supposed to on the outside, but he mentions to Anna that the insides are all messed up, I think because Anna didn't know how the insides worked it was reflected in her dream.

Copulate me nonviolently with a mechanical gas powered tree cutting device!

[–] polexia 11 years ago

Just watched the movie yesterday and this part was interesting because I hadn't questioned it but hubby (his first time viewing Paperhouse) kept coming up with questions for me. I would say well, they just don't work and he said, "but they had a person attached to them." So I guess yeah, I am wondering now why a new person didn't just show up on the stairs because she drew a whole person there. She made him sad to represent Marc, but not sure how the transition from paper to dream works (what the rules might be regarding what she draws.)

What is the significance of them shattering as they did? They could have just stayed there but they fell apart. Interestingly after she realized the ice cream machine had no cones. Hmm.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.

[–] n-odsal 11 years ago

I agree that the legs Anna draws doesn't work because Marc is actually present in the dream with his "broken" legs. I guess the legs could have appeared at the foot of the stairs with the upper portion of the body like in Anna's drawing and then the legs shatter. But I don't think it mattered either way. The point is that Marc is actually in the dream and cannot be altered. To me the legs shattering is just a symbolism of Marc's "shattered" legs.

[–] StaunchWoman 8 years ago

I am wondering now why a new person didn't just show up on the stairs because she drew a whole person there.

What Anna has in mind as she's drawing affects the dream-object/person. And since she was drawing Mark with legs, a new person wouldn't have appeared since he already existed here. Only legs.

Like the computer, she could draw it's shell but without understanding how it functions, its internal components were useless. Could be the same case for the legs, which is why they weren't flesh & blood, and ended up shattering. Like something she may have made from plaster or paper maché.

We've met before, haven't we?

[–] Clairehannah (29) 5 years ago

Few years too late. It's because she hadn't drawn them originally. They weren't attached in the drawing.