Does absolutely NO ONE besides myself -
i just finished this movie and I have to say that I'm on the fence about how I feel about it.
On the one hand, beautiful and artful... on the other, it leaves you "hanging"... I knew that this would probably be the case when I picked it up so I didn't mind "hanging" so much at the end. However, I am still contemplating the rest of the film and ( as I usually do when seeing a movie for the first time) I decided to come here and see what other people are saying...
I find it a tad strange that when people are asking about the "clothes hanging in the trees" that no one guesses that they are the man's at the end of the movie... does this not make sense? I understand that most of them looked like "dresses" but we don't at all know his story. Maybe he was trapped there with a daughter? Or a wife? or sister?
When we see "the man" he seems to have been in a similar situation. He's pretty torn up and ragged and it's fairly obvious that he's crazy and starving and that that's the only reason that he kills the calf.
Regardless of how he "got" behind the wall (personally I think it's implied that he was always there) is it not a logical thought that he was the one who hung the clothes in the tree to dry or something?
Which brings me to some of my overall thoughts about this film...
Towards the middle, there is a very (in my opinion) narrative about how the main character can not imagine "killing" ... She does it, but each time she is horrified and it is only an action to her. She reiterates this later on that she will have to do more "killing" ... and it's said in a way that is derogatory in regards to the action. She also clearly states that she tries to imagine what a killer feels like and becomes sick. She states that she will continue to do the action of killing but will NEVER become like a killer and like it.
HOWEVER, when she "kills the man" (the only other human that she's seen in what seems to be over two years) she states that she is "GLAD" that he's dead.
Interesting... She'll NEVER feel like a killer... and yet, she's GLAD that he's dead... She also states that she wouldn't have let him live... uh, why? He would have provided companionship, help, etc.
If you want my opinion of this movie... I believe that it's about a woman who in all actuality WANTS to be alone and separate from everyone in the world. I'm not even entirely sure that the wall exists.
There are things that point to this as being truth... she even states towards the beginning that a "temporary moment of insanity would have been easier to bear than this..." as if pointing to the fact that she is "NOT INSANE!!!"... well, maybe she is. Denying something that we never questioned to begin with is ... odd if nothing else.
She also states at some point that she wanted/ DREAMED to live among people but that now that fantasy seemed silly/ridiculous.
When the movie starts off, she seems to be a loner even with her company. She doesn't like the music in the car, doesn't seem to like the dog, and covers herself even MORE to avoid the wind/song/singing, whatever.
It was her who decided to stay at the house to begin with (the man clearly says that they keys are in the ignition if SHE CHANGES HER MIND) meaning that SHE said no to going back.
Which brings me to my last thoughts/ conclusions...
At the very beginning of the film, she states very clearly that she can't say what day it is... she's lost track of days for a while now. She's chopped all of her hair off in an odd way.
She talks at the very beginning about how if she writes, she will not go mad... and that if she doesn't "the fear" will creep over her and overpower her. She starts writing in November (as far as she can tell) and she states that she'll write to "get through" the winter months.
She has obviously gone mad.
Shortly after she says these things, we are introduced to a flock of crows whizzing past her house...
This is something else that I don't really understand why anyone is questioning. Why crows? It's the freaking forest. Why not falcons, or blue jays, or something else...
Crows represent darkness, sure... but you know what they also do? They wait around for someone to die so that they can eat them.
So, let's talk about the white crow...
I believe that symbolically the white crow is her. She talks about how it's been ostracized, and that it always flies behind the others settling alone in a tree avoided by it's companions...
Well, that statement sort of contradicts itself... Is the crow ostracized or does it decide to be on it's own?
I believe it, like her, decides to be on it's own, and I believe that she can't see that because she sees the crow as herself. She BELIEVES that people don't like her/ want to ostracize her, but in reality, she is doing it to herself. She talks about how SHE thinks that he's a "beautiful bird" and doesn't understand why the others hate it. Well, there is no reason as a crow would not be able to distinguish between a white crow or a pink crow. The white crow obviously thinks highly of itself, and WANTS to be alone.
Does no one else think that considering everything that I just said that the last line of the movie makes it a DISTINCT possibility that she killed herself?
She words it interestingly too... instead of saying that the crow is "waiting to be fed..." she says, "it's waiting there... for me..."
This is followed by a panned shot of a vast "white"... as if going into the unknown and the sounds of crows had been heard for many minutes.
- My thoughts.