er i think your way of the mark about Johnneys mother, she did not sexually abuse him, the "i'm still wet" thing is a connotation or should i say, saying in Northeren england ( where i'm from) as in "wet behind the ear", which basically means that jonney is stil in utero ( as in a baby), when they're in their mothers wombs they are wet because of the fluid protecting them, if some one is acting childish we refer to them as being "wet behind the ears".
Jonney's saying it because he's letting out depressed feelings towards his fathers physical abuse, it's like Jonney's asking for answeres, he's using rhetoric, asking for the answers.
I believe anyways, i guess it's open to interpretation but yeah that is a saying in northern England.
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ibuck-2
18 years ago
i'm not from northern England, but that was my reading of the line as well. there's a lot of discussion about that particular scene, but i think the performance is a million times more important than the words. i think i read somewhere that leigh himself can barely understand half of what thewlis is saying. he's raving and only semi-coherent, and what's important here is not the actual words, but the fact that he has completely fallen apart. louise cries because she's watching someone she love break down utterly and completely. this is rock bottom. which makes the end that much more heartbreaking, because after having hit rock bottom so dramatically, johnny has donned his mining helmet and is likely setting out to see just how much futher down he can go.
how anyone got from johnny's ravings to "my mother made my brother and me go down on her" is beyond me.
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zacharyrobbins
18 years ago
the oral sex interpretation, while fine as one POSSIBLE, if not obtuse, interpretation, is utterly ridiculous if presented as fact. Even if Mike Leigh said that that was what he had intended, film like litterature, is open for several interpretations. This seems especially true here given that Johnny is perhaps asleep, on his last legs (no pun intended (zing)), and his ramblings may stem from his unconscious.
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bongogal
18 years ago
It's not the dialogue but the performance that is important in this scene. Film is art and art is subjective. Often an art form takes on a life of its own and especially so in this case, with an actor improvising so much of the dialogue. This scene, hell, the entire movie, is open to interpretation. No offense intended, but it seems silly to ask the person next to you in the art gallery to tell you what you are seeing when you look at a painting. Don't let your need to pigeonhole, label or otherwise confine artistic intention keep you from enjoying this scene. Sometimes things just are what they are. The answer to the question is the question itself.
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lindy_luwho
18 years ago
Bongogal, I like what you say about art and how you have to enurprit it on your own but sometimes it is hard to figure it out. I read and listen to many peaples veiws on things such as movies, songs, and art in order to help myself come up with my on thoughts about what I'm seeing or listening to. I'm open minded that way and like to think about the many different possibilitys. I don't do this just to label the art, just to understand it. To many peaple in my opinion are doing unesisary labeling.
"It's not how you pick your nose, it's where you put that booger that counts." -Tre Cool
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Camoo
18 years ago
of course he wouldnt sleep with that older woman because she looked like his mother..
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Camoo
18 years ago
of course he wouldnt sleep with that older woman because she looked like his mother..
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