MovieChat Forums > Imaginaerum (2012) Discussion > You're all missing the point.

You're all missing the point.

posted 11 years ago by danny-fr-mail
7 replies | jump to latest

Imaginaerum is far from being your standard "introduction, conclusion, development" story type.
It's a vignette, a snapshot of the tumultuous mind of a creative genius struck by dementia.

Intentionally or not, the level of symbolism in this movie is fantastic, but you have to look for every details' meaning before really enjoying it.
A a safe bet would be to say that all the surrealist scenes are representations of Tom's memories, psyche and confusion. A not so safe bet: the dream is not actually Tom's, but his daughter's.

Here are some of the aspects I like the most:

The suicide scene:

Tom looks at himself looking at his father, but his 'traveler' self, as opposed to his 'memory' self, dares looking at his father face to face. Tom finally faces the reality of his father's act buy looking at the scene as a third party.
Then, adult Tom throws the dancer away, in sync with the death of his father, the link between the two events, one triggering the other, is represented in the most beautiful manner.

The rails

"It's lifeless"... the rails are ways through Tom's mind, inside his own head. Now dementia has taken over, the rails are broken. Once again, a beautiful symbol.

The 'song of me'

All along the movie, sheets of that song are scattered around. Tom's most precious memories, being defiled by the snowman, dug-out by the daughter and finally revealed by old Tom.

The snowman

I don't really like the choice of a snowman, neither do I like its design. Its symbolism though, is really strong. The snowman is both Tom's father (as a trigger to his downward spiral into madness) and depression/dementia.

The french soldiers

Someone said Dali? Magritte?

In the end, if there are some flows (the acting could be way better, but then I've seen worse, some green screen scenes are too cheap looking), this movie, which is not completely a musical movie, not a traditional story and not really fantasy, rests on a solid base of memory/interpretation theory and is a gorgeous moving portrait.

[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

And as usual for IMDB, a truly good post recieves no replies. sad.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] mooglemania 11 years ago

WOW! SYMBOLISM! THAT MAKES EVERYTHING OK NOW! Guys it has symbolism we can stop now, we can all go home, it's a good movie because it has symbolism! YEEEEY!

[–] danny-fr-mail 11 years ago

You don't read very well do you?

In the end, if there are some flaws (the acting could be way better, but then I've seen worse, some green screen scenes are too cheap looking), this movie, which is not completely a musical movie, not a traditional story and not really fantasy, rests on a solid base of memory/interpretation theory and is a gorgeous moving portrait.

Where do I say "symbolism saves the movie?".
Nowhere.
But hey, free to you to interpret what other people say and spit it back distorted.

[–] Seventy7 11 years ago

I bet you would be slobbing all over this movie's knob if it were made by David Lynch or Stanley Kubric.

This is what I get from roughly 85% of the IMDB Community:
If it's got surrealist themes, and it's not made by David Lynch or Stanley Kubric, it's trash.

[–] Pythe 11 years ago

I don't think anybody's missing the point. And if "everybody" is, then it's the movie's fault, not theirs.

I enjoyed Imaginaerum for what it is: a ninety minute music video. There are some brilliant set pieces and some imaginative ideas. Does it all hang together as well as it might? No. Is there a lot that can be read into it? Yes. Does that make it entirely successful as a film? No. The acting is pretty terrible, the dialogue is awkward, the special effects look quite cheap at times, and there's not much in the way of real human connection. But it has some nice visuals, and, as you mentioned, the metaphor is often quite successful, and beautifully portrayed. Seen as something like a moving painting it's intriguing. Seen as a film, it's a failure.

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"People either loved us or they hated us...or they thought we were okay."

[–] danny-fr-mail 11 years ago

I like your point of view.
Then again, if you don't write a trollish headline, nobody will read you.
So yeah, nobody's getting the point. NOBODY!

[–] kingramze 10 years ago

I understand your take on the film, but I do disagree that it's a "failure" as a film - because I believe it exactly portrays what it means to in the way it meant to. It speaks quite profoundly to those that appreciate it, but it just doesn't speak to a wide audience - in part because others simply expect it to be something other than it was intended to be.

I don't see it as a 90 minute music video... in fact, I could do without some of the musical numbers just fine as I'm not much of a Nightwish fan. I think the disjointed state of the movie is another layer of symbolism for Tom's mind, and the awkward dialog with poor human connection is a symptom of the characters being estranged without much communication in years.... well, that plus the mental state of the lead character. I think the tension and awkward conversation was intentional.

I agree that the movie is more of a moving painting. There are no strong heroes or villains or even much in the way of a plot... It's about the internal struggles of a mentally ill dying man and his estranged daughter's realization of how much he loved her despite the way he treated her. It doesn't belong in the horror/fantasy section or the drama section... or action/adventure... it's really a very niche movie.

I mean, how many dramas about the depressing topic take place partially in a horror/fantasy dreamworld with piano and metal music scores? The topic alone plus the adult themes ensured it wouldn't be a blockbuster, but then adding in the rest of the mix made it even more difficult to quantify and market to an audience.

Like any rare and unusual work of art, it won't speak to everyone. I find it beautiful even with its flaws, and it speaks to me (perhaps because I have lost estranged loved ones that suffered from dementia and Alzheimer's). And to me, that's enough.