I liked this movie, and I dont know if this has been discussed or not, I just dont get 2 things at the end.
1. Where did the janitor go? It made it seem like he just vanished.
2. The very last scene it pans up from the street and you see phillipes imagined city, which shouldnt exist anymore.
These things depends on your own personal interpretation of things...
Was the Janitor real? or was he a figment of imagination same as Meanwhile city, or the red headed Sally?
I have my own interpretation of things which connects both 1 and 2 together.
In the movie, the characters live a sort of delusional imaginary life apart from their regular "real" life... Jonathan/David imagining Meanwhile City and many of the characters parallel between the real world and Meanwhile City, Emilia is using her art as a sort of imaginary escape from reality, her overbearing mother and her issues with her father, Milo is a delusional romantic that creates an imaginary person to protect him from suffering great heartache either from the death of his father or the breakup of his fiance and of course theres David's father Peter who uses religion as a delusion and an excuse to the death of his daughter.
What connects both the Janitor and the juxtaposition of the real city with Meanwhile city is that the janitor was a figment of these characters imagination that connected all of them and that show cases that people live their lives filled with delusions and imaginary thoughts rather than with open eyes...
The fallacy of religion plays a strong role in this movie as you will notice...
Hope this helps.
Was the Janitor real? or was he a figment of imagination same as Meanwhile city, or the red headed Sally?***********************
What connects both the Janitor and the juxtaposition of the real city with Meanwhile city is that the janitor was a figment of these characters imagination...
On the contrary, the janitor was all too real. When he disappears, his mop and bucket are still in the hallway. His and Sally's character are less about our imaginations and more about the unseen, the mysterious, and the mystical elements of life that, for all of our modernity and technological advances, still play a part in human existence, if in no other way than in our need for them.
The fallacy of religion plays a strong role in this movie...
One could say that the fallacy of religion plays a big part of this movie. Preest's narration certainly supports that. But I think it would be more accurate to say that it is the exploitative nature of religion that is more of the villain here. Religions that are endorsed and manipulated by the State and/or that revel in superstition rather than a connection to the spiritual component of our nature.
BTW, musiclover111, Gerald McMorrow, the script writer and director of this film has said in interviews that the janitor and Sally are spiritual creatures who pass in and out of human life when they are needed. And as for that last screen shot of Emelia's flat (oh, how I love that shot), remember what Sally told Milo, "If you believe in something enough, who's to say if it's real or not?"
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."