I loved this movie but there's one thing I didn't get... Who was the mysterious man who sat alone in the basement, with water and frogs all around him, and was eating snails? Did he have any important part in the history or what? I just didn't get who this guy really was and why he was there...! Any help please! :)
sharehe was the most single important character. He tied together every storyline in the movie. Watch it again and you'll see what I'm talking about.
share"he was the most single important character. He tied together every storyline in the movie. Watch it again and you'll see what I'm talking about."
What?? did i miss something?
I've always thinked that he was just a simple character wich it was used to show that bizarre, post-apocalyptic world.
madseacow.
that made me laugh.
thank you.
I also thought he lived in the basement, but he actually lives on the second floor. I have the commentary and Jeunet said that he didnt get that through to the crowd vey well, he also said people complained about all the dead shells of the snails, reminding them of the holocaust, which he also didnt mean. But yea that guy's cool.
sharethe point of the frog man, was pretty important, if not very vague. the fact that he could survive on his own, in his own room without resorting to cannibalism like the rest for one. and it also introduces us to the notion of water, which we see at the end. you just need to pick up on the little peices put in by the director.
shareHow DID the frogman survive on his own? I know he ate the snails, but what did the snails eat? As far as I know, snails can't live on air and water alone. They need plants, and lots of them.
sharethey might eat mould or moss or whatever else you might find in a damp place...
...as for the complaints about the Holocaust, with all due respect to its victims you cannot be serious!
the point of the frog man, was pretty important, if not very vague. the fact that he could survive on his own, in his own room without resorting to cannibalism like the rest for one. and it also introduces us to the notion of water, which we see at the end. you just need to pick up on the little peices put in by the director.
He IS a damn weird and funny character.
I also noticed the sequence when he is irritated by a fly buzzing around his head. He puts on a couple of fake "eyes", big and bulging, like frog-eyes, then catches the fly with one of those silly little paper-squeaker thingamawhatsits.
Is he believeing himself to be a frog?
Is he sending his children" out in the world, now that it has become hospitable for them (i.e. wet).
Is he eating his own children (like Saturn)?
I'm not even sure there's any explanation to be had, but I still find it hilarious.
the point of the frog man, was pretty important, if not very vague. the fact that he could survive on his own, in his own room without resorting to cannibalism like the rest for one. and it also introduces us to the notion of water, which we see at the end. you just need to pick up on the little peices put in by the director.
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I got the part about him eating the snails and nothing from the outside, and not wanting to be like all the other inhabitants of that house, but I must have missed him eating the toads. I thought that when he was upset about Tapioca's kids huntig them, it was because he loved them like pets, not to protect his food. And YES, it is weird, what would the snails eat when it is just dark and wet and no plants, but then again this is surreal and the people are not really people, so maybe these are a special breed of snails that live on mould and water alone. But I do like the guy a lot, just cold animals and loud music and no human contact, and it is so great how they have the water dripping through his floor and from the ceiling of the workshop below.
The audio commentary is, of course, in French, but I'm sure there would be English subtitles. (I watched the whole thing with German subtitles, on the DVD we get in Europe, which has laods of subtitle tracks.) In my opinion Jeunet is one of the better audio-commentary-makers, see Amelie, Alien, he seems to really enjoy that. And in this particular one he is speaking not too fast, and enunciating, so that not-french people might even understand him.
My take on the frogman is that he represents the apartment building itself...eating the snails (guests) while being tormented by the flies (the "troglodists") with the frogs representing the long term inhabitants of the building.
The troglodists could also be represented by the frogs (the shiny green costumes with goggles, from a watery environment).
Idk I just thought he added color and humor to the movie
shareOne of the great ironies of the film is that this guy is practically self sufficient in the most delicate of french delicacies, snails and frog legs. He just sits there in his damp apartment and pluck the apples as they fall into his lap. In a world with nothing to eat, he enjoys a royal treatment to every meal. And at the end, he releases his "invention" for the world to see. Perhaps the whole building could feast on snails afterwards? Perhaps they could grow them in the cellar? It should be sufficiently damp, after all that water...
Jefferson, what a great point. I like that.
share