Orlando and Bruno's Relationship

I think Orlando being a magician is a clue about his character. Think of it there are actions we see on the surface and then there is the trick.

Yes he saw her at Ellis Island and said she was beautiful. But that was it. Do you think he didn't really know the men would taunt her and yell crude things when he brought Eva on stage? I think he did know what would happen but played it as if he didn't. He played it as being innocent to gain her trust. When he went to Bruno acting sweet like there was nothing between them he knew Bruno would be mad and act out.



Jo

Evil men do as they please but men who are good can only do as they are allowed.

I loved this movie , saw it twice :)

To me Orlando was the true villain of this movie! He didn't care for Ewa imo, he is manipulative, charming & selfish ! Renner created him "intentional" fake , like a mirage, a make-believe pretty boy , a struggling honest artist! But to me he was more creepy then Bruno! And I think Ewa knew (when she whispered; I shouldn't trust you either...)

I feel like it was Orlando that made Bruno the self-loathing pimp he was (it was Orlando that brought bruno's girl to the theater to show her what Bruno really did for a living...) and Bruno panicked when Orlando came working in Bruno's theater, and took an intrest in "his" Ewa! Bruno is "surviving" while Orlando is living a "make believe" live by putting down and exposing Bruno's so called "true" nature, just to make him (Orlando) look/feel better . just my opinion...

Love the chemistry between Phoenix/Renner! they did great and I loved Cotillard!!
great performances, absolutely stunning cinematography!

I think there was a lot of subtext that you have to be really looking for in order to catch some if the points you mention.

1. Signs that Orlando is flaky:
A. He makes it from his supposed tour to California only as far as Jersey before he gets into an argument with the promoter.
B. He mentions to Ewa that he won a lot of money in a couple card games and he was going to use that money to save her; however he didn't actually have that money on him. He was a gambling addict. It's not a good sign that he was gambling.

2. Bruno mentions that he had stolen his girlfriend. As soon as he found out that Bruno liked Ewa and wanted him to stay away from him, he chased after her.

3. Orlando was just playing with Bruno at the end, which was stupid considering he knew how possessive of Ewa he was. He had taken the bullets out of the gun and was scaring Bruno just to teach him a lesson. He never considered that Bruno would protect himself.

I had a hard time trusting Orlando. He's that leap of faith that immigrants and the impoverished had to take at the time and still are tempted to take. Is his promises for real? Or is he as big of a snake or an even bigger one than Bruno but with just more charm and a bigger smile?

The film never explained what happened to the lady O stole from B. One would assume that it didn't end in marriage.

I think the film purposefully makes you question each cousin. Had O lived, would he have made good on his promises? Ewa forgave Bruno because if how hard he fought for her. How much was he really redeemed?

In my opinion the lack of strong evidence about the true intentions of both Orlando and Bruno is purposeful and serves to make the viewer feel more vulnerable and uncomfortable about the true motives of them ,exaclty as Eva would feel at the time.

I agree with many of the other posters. I felt like Orlando was the real magician, and just as big of a slime ball as Bruno. Probably more so. Like one poster said above, he says she is "beautiful" at Ellis Island. But, it is not until he sees that Bruno really likes her that he steps on the gas. I think the whole thing was Orlando has been taunting Bruno his entire life. He had the showmanship that Bruno obviously lacked. I think they both used women to their own advantage.

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I kind of got the vibe that Emil was a bully and that had been their relationship for their entire lives. Yes Bruno lives a very seedy life and has done despicable things, but he doesn't really live in an illusion that he's this upstanding guy. Emil, on the other hand does present himself as a decent, upstanding person. Emil is an alcohol and a gambling addict, he's also a liar.

He claims that he has given up drinking and gambling, yet he tells Ewa that he has won a large sum of money in a poker game.

He claims that he wants to take her away from his cousin, but if this is the case then why would he instigate a fight with his cousin? Especially when everything is at stake. The normal reaction would be to run away together in secret, if you truly loved someone you wouldn't make trouble for them. The truth of the matter is that he didn't care how Bruno was going to react to Ewa over his presence. It was all about Emil, he wanted to shake up his cousin because that is their relationship. He wanted to fck with his him and to fck with his head.

He's emotionally manipulative. He plays with Ewa's feelings. He knows that she's like most of the other girls who come off of the boat. All she wants is to start a new life and to help her sister. He uses this to emotionally manipulate her, make her believe that he loves her and wants to help her.