Visual Theme of Hands and Barriers

[TheVoxHumanus]

Good stuffs.

Movies really are our part of our new cave paintings.

[TΛPETRVE]

I remember a time (not actually been there, of course, but as a film student you should also take your history lessons) when feature movies were considered nothing but "theatrical play caught on film" and as such regarded inferior to theatre itself. Evolving from classic stage acting over Stanislavskij to Strasberg and further, performances have become more and more grounded in portraying a realistic image of human behaviour and actions as opposed to staging a deliberately overdone farce as is done in classical theatre. Since the latter has been accompanying man for over 3 millenia and, despite way developing in many points, never really left its home called farce, modern filmmaking might indeed be called the first "cave paintings" of a new generation.

[jetboy]

Hello I'm new to this board. I think it's great and am glad that people use it. I am also known as derangedjackal and before that jankaren on imdb. I have to keep changing my name every once in awhile so the cops don't find me . Kidding. I guess I just havent found a really good one yet.

I just wanted to comment on the in depth article I just read on the different meanings of the hands. I just watched the ending last night and one of the most heartbreaking parts of the movie was when after Eli left, Oskar was standing their in his skivvies with his hand on the window just like he was at the beginning of the movie. With all he had been through in between, their he was back to square one, almost as if nothing ever happened at all. Of course that sets up the pool scene nicely.

What does anyone think about the part when he takes his hand away and leaves his hand print which slowly fades away?

[TΛPETRVE]

Welcome in our unholy community, Jetjacker .

[genie47]

What does anyone think about the part when he takes his hand away and leaves his hand print which slowly fades away?

Can be seen in many ways. His time or presence is like the mist from his hand. Temporal and disappears. His life is insignificant now that Eli is gone. Just like the mist from his hand.

[a_contemplative_life]

What does anyone think about the part when he takes his hand away and leaves his hand print which slowly fades away?

Oskar does seem to be back to square one in that scene. He reached out and made contact with someone, then she left him. So he's lonely once again. Maybe the evaporating handprint represents the fading away of the warmth between them. Like so much else in this film, it can be interpreted in different ways, depending on who you are.

No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session. - Judge Gideon J. Tucker, 1876

[TΛPETRVE]

The mist on the window pane is like a scream going unheard - there's no one on the other side to "catch" it.

[Wolfchild]

What does anyone think about the part when he takes his hand away and leaves his hand print which slowly fades away?

Gagh! You're right! I should have addressed that scene.

My take on that scene:

That scene is the first of two false endings where Tomas is leading us to believe that the story is ending (the second is the shot of the falling snow after the pool scene). We once again see Oskar where we first met him: Alone in his room, separated from the world by the same barrier of loneliness. Eli has gone. His hand, which we had previously seen reaching through the barrier to touch and be touched by Eli, is once again stopped by it. When Oskar removes his hand, we see that he actually made a mark on the glass. He has had an effect upon the barrier, but now that his hand is removed the mark fades and the barrier is unchanged.

Now story of the hands is being used to prepare us for the dramatic climax at the pool. The film is misleading us to think that now that Eli is gone, things will go back to the way they were for Oskar. He is once again isolated. Perhaps also it is trying to make us doubt that Eli had ever actually really been there. Maybe Oskar is wondering this same thing himself.

I'll have to go back and edit the article to somehow weave this into it. I had taken almost screenshots for that article and I winnowed them down to the 50-odd screenies that I actually used. Now I guess I have to take just a few more.

[gattoparde59]

My first post here. I joined this forum so I could respond to the invitation to comment.

Wow! This is no ordinary film and you are no ordinary blogger. I sensed there was something going on with hands in the film, but I had no idea how much of a something it was until I read your analysis. I kept thinking that there is a kind of dance between Oskar and Eli but I couldn't say why exactly. You illustrate that it is the hands here that are doing the dancing.

One thing I thought of with Eli's glass door scene was Romeo and Juliet when the lovers first meet and join hands.

"For Saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
and palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."

If this is a reference to Romeo and Juliet is it possible to say that, this far into the film, Eli and Oskar are really meeting each other for the first time?

I need to go back and watch the Leonardo diCaprio version of Romeo and Juliet, I think this and some other versions of the play have images similar to LTROI.

One other thing:

While watching the scene after Eli has cleared out and Oskar puts his hand to the window in a reprise of the beginning of the film I noticed that Oskar's hand castes a faint reflection in the window as though there is another hand pressed to Oskar's. I think this is a way to show Oskar remembering the now absent Eli. Oskar is now alone with his memories of Eli, as someone says here, a heartbreaking image.

I guess I have to go back and watch the whole thing again.

Also, if you have not seen this already, take a look at this essay by a Boston cinephile, which would be of interest to anyone who noted all the doors, windows and walls in the film.

http://people.bu.edu/rcarney/newsevents/aoa.shtml

You need to put up some more "musings" on other topics, such as the images of blood in the film.

[covenant6452]

That was a great little review! Almost up there with Wolfchilds hands thesis. I would like to see her read the book and do on it as well.