Re: the glasses, I agree with Simon - I think it's meant to show that the father is too poor to have his glasses fixed. I don't think it's particularly relevant to the story, perhaps just a reminder of David's meagre upbringing.
I took the encounter to be genuine. I'm guessing that David's father saw the newspaper article (which comes up in a cutaway during the montage of David playing the piano for punters in the bar) and came to visit him in order to make peace. It's probable that he never knew about David's nervous breakdown, and figured that he had become a well-adjusted man during the many years they had not talked with one another.
But when he finds David to be the nervous, stammering, slightly unhinged man that he has become, the father realises that David is 'broken', and since his repeated adage throughout the film is "only the strong survive; the weak get crushed like insects", he perceives David to be weak and can't find it within himself to make peace.
That's how I took it, anyway. I never thought that it may have been a hallucination - as far as David is concerned at this point, his father was a distant memory, partly responsible for driving him towards his breakdown and making him what he has become.
reply
share
redbaron1080
14 years ago
the encounter was real, his father brings up the story of the violin, david realizes the story and that his father will always try to control him and never change, knowing this and for the sake of his freedom and happiness (his father always told him what to say/do/act, even in the same scene the father stops david from talking and says "get to the point") david makes the tough decision to make believe he doesn't remember the story to let go of his father and finally be happy and free (trampoline scene after)
PS this movie is brilliant and has much replay value... keep a lookout for colors of outfits and rooms they represent alot ex. red = passion/david's desires, green and yellow and also used alot for different resions also the rain and water = the burden of his father........ absolutely genius film
reply
share
michelebruce26-1
9 years ago
I agree with Kinggimped. I thought that maybe his father was disappointed to find that David no longer agreed with and repeated everything his father said to him, and that that was why he walked out of the room without saying anything more to his son.
It really was a touching film, I'm afraid I didn't notice the symbolism with the colours, or with the broken glasses, I just took them to show the poverty of the family, and maybe the amount of times they were broken by David in his later years.
reply
share