I had a thought that the loss of gravity had something weird to do with the world coming to an end. I felt like the writer was trying to get across a suble allusion to the rapture and people supposedly being taken up. Did anyone else get that or???
shareThomas Vinterberg said in an interview that this movie is about the world present day.
The people of Uganda losing gravity was a symbol for the hunger in Africa today. And remember that in the movie no one cares.
"Well, maybe the Ugandas are beginning to fly or dying of hunger - but I have to drink my coffee." - Thomas Vinterberg in the interview.
In 2007 JASON VOORHEES is back and in August 2007 AVP2 comes!
Wasn't there a quote in the film about angels and flying something like:
I don't want to fly
Angels fly
We're Humans.
Loss of gravity in Uganda, 3rd world country, no one gave a crap about them.
They're flying..
I don't know, I guess it may have something to do with that?
Vinterberg does specifically say in a interview I read that the Ugandans reference how we can watch hundreds of thousands starve on TV and yet remain emotionally removed.
However, he also talks in the interview about the world's jet set upper-class experience of flying - Belgrade to Vancouver in half a day, rootlessness, etc. I'm sure this is why the Ugandan says, "We're human, we don't want to fly": modern globalized culture (as epitomized by jet travel) is seen as "inhuman" in that it disinherits us of our roots, but everyone on the planet is being sucked up into it (pun sort of intended) whether they want to be or not. Maybe this is why John and Elena and their brothers are all Polish, yet have clearly not been there in a long while. (EDIT: This may not be true for John, now that I think about it.)
Yeah, with that everything lines up neatly: John's brother (Penn) used to be afraid to fly, but then overdosed on the anti-fear-of-flying drug and now he can't stop, to the point of hitching rides on cargo planes. Thus his (cellphone) connection to his brother fades and he's reduced to leaving messages, if he's getting through at all from his doomed, self-contained, miniature world.
It also explains the in-and-out accents: they're losing their individual identities in the global melting pot. Unintended perhaps, but it fits.
At least it's a LITTLE more subtle than "people dying of loneliness."
I think film-allen is right. I mean, filmmakers can say whatever they want - sometimes they say things to confuse people and make them think. Well, that's not the case this time. What Vinterberg said is what I saw and what I felt it was about in the movie. There was lot of that going on in the movie - sad sad things happen in the world today and no one seems to see or care about that.
share...completely get what he said through the film and also thought about the possible symbolism of the ugandans "becoming angels" and floating in the sky while americans were freezing and lying dead on the ground as the ambivalent attitude 1st world countries have towards poorer nations - the combined ignorance and compassion...where the guilt of disregard necessitates them to hoist the unfortunate up as "angels"....when john is watching the news one man says...we dont want to be angels we just want to live.....(or something like that)....loved this film! just saw it yesterday on tv for the first time....just beautiful.
"some people never go crazy, what truly horrible lives they must live" -bukowski