Nah, I think you're wrong. The movie is entirely chronological. When he gets beat up at the end, the remembers that almost the same thing has happened to him before. And he assumes that such things will keep happening to him. That's why he says "au revoir" (till we meet again) as the man walks away. He has no other reason to expect they will meet again, as the man says he is leaving New York and never returning.
You just have to accept that it is a surreal film.
The scenes are indeed uncannily similar, even to the point of having a the same extra pass in the back-ground, during the conversation with Pappi, etc., etc.
But the scenes are still different. And if you focus on the differences, rather than the similarities, it becomes impossible for it to be the identical event. It's like the cat getting out versus the cat not getting out. Editing does not explain the differences, as some of the differences appear in continuous shots; and even where a shot is not continuous, the sound carries over from one scene to the next.
Here's a list:
[1] BEGINNING: Pappi motions him up during the continuing applause for "Hang Me Oh Hang Me" and their conversation follows.
ENDING: Pappi motions him up during the continuing applause for "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" and their conversation follows. This is easiest to explain away by editing, but the continuing applause and other continuing sounds during the relevant scene shifts seem seemless.
[2] BEGINNING: Pappi says "I don't give a $h!t. It's just music. [pause] your friend is out back."
ENDING: Pappi says "I don't give a $h!t. [pause] Your friend is out back." He does not say "It's just music."
[3] BEGINNING: In the alley, after the Man says "You a funny boy, huh?" and Llewyn answers "What?", the Man remains leaning against the wall. The man is still against the wall when the Man says "Had to open your big mouth", and when Llewyn says, "That's what I do for a living". The Man finally steps away from the wall as Llewyn finishes asking "Who? Who are you?" (which Llewyn does not say during the ending scene).
ENDING: The Man steps away from the wall as Llewyn finishes answering "What?" to the same initial question. He is already moving toward Llewyn as he says "Had to open your big mouth" and as Llewyn answers "That's what I do for a living".
[4] BEGINNING: During the same period, their conversation runs
M: Had to open your big mouth, huh funny boy.
L: I had to ... what? That's what I do for a living. Who...Who are you?
ENDING: Their parallel conversation runs
M: Had to open your big mouth.
L: That's what I do for a living.
The man does not say "Huh, funny boy" and Llewyn does not say "I had to ... what?" This occurs during a long continuous shot with no cuts.
[5] BEGINNING: Man, approaching Llewyn, says "What you do?", and WHILE he says it the scene shifts to the man's back, with Llewyn facing forward, as the man finishes his question "...do?". Llewyn immediately answers "I'm sorry, what? What did I ..." and receives his first punch.
ENDING: As the man approaches, the Man says "What you do? Make fun of folks up thar." The punch then follows. An edit COULD have eliminated Llewyn's words immediately before the punch. However, this does not explain the Man's failure to say "Make fun of folks up thar" on the first occasion.
Also, the ENDING leaves out the words "Oh for Chrissake" in Llewyn's "Oh for Chrissake, you yell stuff man, it's a show". I did not look closely to see if this could be explained through editing; because the examples above seemed clearer.
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leonthesleepy
9 years ago
I definitely see your point, theres enough evidence to say its not the same night either.
I think the point is tho the Coen brothers wanted to create the feeling that the same bad stuff will keep happening to Llewyn. Which is why they edited it this way. Either way, the movie ends the same. The last shot, we can both agree is the beating in the alleyway.
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Oh yes, very undateable.
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