some more questions and observations - spoilers

Another thing I noticed when Ricks arrives at his daughter's house was a woman in the background suspiciously putting a red object (handbag?) in her luggage. It's clearly not Margit, but Margit does carry a red handbag when Ricks first meets her.

You're right about the addresses. Also, it seems as though he rips all of the content from the letter, leaving only 'love dad', before posting it. A number of times he refers to his way of seeing the world as Chloe does in relation to their spectacles, and this seems to be tied in with Oscar the owl quietly observing.

The Polish girl specifically mentions being six in the photo (Chloe's age). Also, the dress she wears when they lay in the grass resembles the pattern on Chloe's red jacket. Maybe she contains components of his daughter, rather than being a complete embodiment.

Margit appears to act as some kind of mothering, comforting figure, healing the writer's ego and nurturing his creative impulses. Helping him to cope with life's failings and pretending that everything is perfectly fine in some romantic realm.

This film is perplexing, and it's very hard to get a grasp on what narrative strands are real, if any. I think it's best to view the film as a facade incorporating elements of the writer's life into some sort of reconstruction of the truth. The constant bars framing him throughout the film (particularly in his scenes observing his daughter) do seem to indicate his imprisonment, probably real as well as metaphorical. Maybe the film is essentially a failure, even if it's exactly what the director wanted. It's certainly interesting to me, and has qualities. I think it's at least partially successful, but possibly too oblique for it's own good.



"Just forget you ever saw it. It's better that way."