MovieChat Forums > The Limits of Control (2009) Discussion > Oh I get it! (SPOILERS)

Oh I get it! (SPOILERS)

posted 15 years ago by Yves-15
35 replies | jump to latest

Saw the movie in Cambridge last night. It is very much an art film. Don't go if you expect any form of narrative. But if you are a Jarmusch fan, you probably expect that. I give it a 3/5 as I'm not much for art films. It was nicely shot and acted, and lasted about 2 hours.

SPOILERS BELOW

An outside force can control almost everything, but it can't control the imagination. The hit man represented us, watching, working, listening. Bill Murray's character signified the controller, dictating what is real. The hit man imagined him dead, and so he was. He used his imagination to get in, and that was the only way to get inside the compound. The Murray character couldn't stop it, and couldn't control it. You can't control what goes on inside people's heads.

[–] The_Manchurian_Nominee 15 years ago

So the film is largely a dream?

I like to remember things my own way...

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] The_Manchurian_Nominee 15 years ago

I don't think it's a dream so much as someone wrestling with his own consciousness and imagination.

I like to remember things my own way...

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] buff-29 15 years ago

The flamenco interlude woke me with a real start. I jumped so that I nearly spilled my popcorn. I couldn't get back to sleep until the singing had stopped. When I did wake up for good, I noticed that the extremely attractive girl sitting across the aisle from me had left. Damn.

[–] tallard 15 years ago

I took Flamenco lessons for two years, loved it, thought I was OK, til I saw her. On a scale of 1 to 100, she was a thousand. Her hands were possibly the most expressive words of the film. La Tucha I thought I saw in the credits, but that's not what imdb states for her...

thoughts?

***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**

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[–] tallard 15 years ago

I do miss him, haven't watched him in a long time. Been living in the land of scarce non Hollywood films, but I'm back now.

Her movements were the very essence of fluidity and power, moon and earth each at their expressive heights.

***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**

[–] ignominia-1 14 years ago

i agree, her hands were like birds... mesmerizing!

[–] comamental 14 years ago

for something similar with more humor and actually better cinematography (no hating on chris doyle-he's one of my favorites but credit where it's due) is Revolver. At least the original UK cut.

[–] jimmiescoffee 15 years ago

buff-29

classic. i enjoyed the movie. but it was sleep enducing.

[–] pad264 14 years ago

Yves, I agree completely with your assessment. I thought the film was brilliant...and astonishingly unique. The only masterpiece I've seen released this year.

Not only is it possible, it is essential
http://paulopicks.blogspot.com/

[–] ryan-brogan 14 years ago

I just got done seeing it myself and I've got to say I'm very impressed with your analysis. Thank you. Quite an intricate film but I think you're on to something.

[–] Rez7 14 years ago

I'm impressed too, thanks, nice assessment.

[–] jamesmolloy 14 years ago

That interpretation is all wrong.

It's a simple message. Have sex with the hot chick when she offers it on a plate cos if you put it off till later she'll be dead (i.e. not putting out anymore).

I really didn't enjoy this movie at all. If you're going to decide to have no narrative you'd better have interesting characters and dialogue. It was just staggeringly repetitive.

[–] clive-ihd 14 years ago

****possible spolier****

I have a theory that what we see is what's going on the mind of the main character who is undergoing treatment for a mental illness, or an operation for a physical illness.

The bit where he strangles Bill Murray is where he gets cured, or the malignant tumour is removed. The bit where he opens tha matchbox and finnds a blank slip of paper represents getting the all clear. And when he changes clothes at the end it represents going back to his normal life.

[–] Amadio 14 years ago

Thank you for that. I had wondered.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] Holden27 14 years ago

Then why not simply deliver the viewers 2 hours of nothing? Now that would engage our imagination! What a unique masterpiece, an instant cult film that would be! You can use the same argument to defend a commercial for a detergent. It does have a profound meaning, it's just not shown on-screen and the viewer must find it himself and thus practice his imagination and enrich his inner life - that was the true intention of the director of the commercial. 9.9

[–] marcjacobspants 13 years ago

You asked "what's the meaning of the messages..." and I could be wrong, but if you notice the very end of the film he is storing his bag in the lockers in the train station after changing into the green sweat suit. He puts 2 coins in the locker and the locker prints out a code. He reads the code and puts it in a match box which he then places face up in a trash bin.

I could be stretching here, and certainly too literal, but you notice each city he puts on a different set of clothes. Does he have 3 or 4 suits and shirts in that bag? Or does he get a new bag at every city? Is slip of paper in the match box the combination to the locker where he can get a new bag and a new suit?

Under the literal level, each new suit is a new persona, a new personality, a new air, a new mission, a new quality, a new idea, a new perception, a new awareness or whatever you want to read into it. But why does the code he reads and chews and swallows with the second cup of espresso have to be something critically important? If you take a glimpse at them they are just 3 lines of code - and I say they are just the locker location, locker number, and locker code. He goes to the train station and opens the locker, gets a new bag, and changes his clothes and starts on the next step of his mission.

What that means beyond the literal is up to you...

He places it in a trash can, face up, perhaps the next person will get it and pass it on to the next person, or the next iteration of himself.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] marcjacobspants 13 years ago

Well I'm certainly not selling anything, just riffing. I often post here thinking aloud. It is very open to interpretation, I think everything we see is but some things are absolutely intended to be and the rest is just differing perspectives.

Anyway, take a close look at the notes.

Each city seems to be a different mission, or an accumulation of tasks to accomplish one final mission. Trade the diamonds for the guitar for the woman who knows the way to the fort or some such. But if each city is a different mission, then perhaps each bag has more than just a new set of clothes. It has the tools for the mission in that city, it has more instruction. And it is "baggage" in other senses too.

And if you look at the notes, that printout he gets at the very last station looks awefully like the notes he gets along the way. And he puts in into the matchbox, which is exactly how he received every other note previously. Don't buy it if you don't want it, but, I believe it that last scene is intended to reveal exactly what was in all those match boxes - a code to open the locker to obtain new clothes (also a metaphor). The bag looks the same, which has a practical need as well as a metaphorical one.

Locker location.
Locker number.
Locker code.

[–] snakeford 13 years ago

I must say, your interpretations resonate with my own...the film for me was very much about the power of art, intellect, and human endeavor over the systems of control which are in place in the 'real' world. I thought this film, especially the flamenco scene, was entirely mesmerizing.

[–] iinnqqiitt 10 years ago

I think these codes tell locations of next places to stay. Also, I think he got only one bag with suits. Last unformal dress was about quitting this movie, this game he imagined. And maybe finding another. In the end, when Lone Man left airport, camera just felt like disabled.

[–] e-nelson 14 years ago

Great! Now if only it were a short film it would not be half bad. Films arent about taking something simple and cryptifiyng it. Jim is like; hey look how clever I am, look at this riddle I made.

Films are about capting emotions and the like. Sorry but this movie stunk up the entire place.

[–] pat_batman 14 years ago

Films can be about anything...hence imagination...

[–] storm_420 14 years ago

I didn't really like the film because I agree with e-nelson, but the flamenco scene was beautiful, I loved that.

[–] PRiiCEY 14 years ago

I love the film. I love films like Fight Club that make you see your life in a different light but I love films even more that make you question your actual reality.

[–] kevtron3000 14 years ago

Your boring definition of film is probably why you were bored watching this film.

[–] e-nelson 14 years ago

I would never try to define film though...

[–] AndyInThePieWithAlmonds 14 years ago

I felt like I got it for the most part. There's a guy who seeks total control - his mannerisms, his t'ai chi (or whatever it was), his obsessive double espresso, his same suit every day... it all tells of a character with a deep need for control.

What we then see is some sort of psychological battle against this. He is visited by a number of people, each offering him a different argument for a free and exciting life that rejects such limitations. The first guy talks excitedly of music, Tilda Swinton talks fondly of old movies, the nude girl clearly embodies sexual possibilities (she is one of the biggest giveaways that this isn't reality - whenever he thinks of sex, alone in his bedroom, she appears, regardless of the town he's in), Gael Garcia Bernal's thing is halluconegenic drugs, the Japanese girl is excited by science, John Hurt points out 'bohemians' living a free life. The one thing that really seems to break through and make an impact is the Spanish flamenco performance - the thing that finally makes him smile. And he therefore takes a guitar - associated with many of the above; music, dance, the past, sex (it's referred to as his "beautiful black girlfriend") - and, taking a string from it as his weapon, with the power of his 'imagination' he confronts the figure identifying control and order and garottes him. In case we didn't get the implication, that guy (Bill Murray) first says angrily that 'they' have been trying to turn the main character's head with 'music, film, hallucinogenics' and the rest. It is presumably Murray's forces of 'order' that have earlier escorted Tilda Swinton away to some terrible fate, and cause the nude girl to die just before the final act.

I don't get it all - the matchboxes and diamonds remain obscure, whilst I imagine that all the staring at paintings embody his ongoing examination of possibilities. The final image of the blank canvas shows that he can now move on to paint any picture he chooses with the life he lives. It is important that this begins with him finally abandoning the suit, and putting on his own casual (and still very cool) clothes.

Whaddyareckon?!

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] frequency-2 13 years ago

AndyInThePieWithAlmonds,
I like your take on it. I saw it the other way around, kind of tilted.
The one seeking control was the corporate master who gets garroted. He was in control of power over others. He represents corporate power. The few people with all the money who want to control everything but themselves. The Lone Man sought only to control himself. It was others who were guiding him to take out the master.
I also play out the title- the Limits of Control- No Limits-No Control- If you put no limits on yourself you will go out of control. Limit your temper, limit your appetites. The garroted man had no limits, and that lack got him killed.
Another view was that the whole picture was to set up the Flamenco sequence, which alone is worth seeing the picture for.

[–] 13 years ago

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