Thursday, April 15, 2010
The Music Inside My Head
Toward the end of Pierrot le Fou, Ferdinand encounters a man on a dock who hears a song that Fredinand cannot hear (and we the audience can hear it initially and then we cannot). The man then relates a story of love (and love gone awry) associated with the song. After the story, Ferdinand jumps on a boat and the man is never seen again. What is the purpose of the song and the story? Is it just another odd appendange, an experimental flourish? Or does it highlight an important theme or symbol of the movie?
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I think that the song and the crazed man definitely highlight an important theme in the movie. The title of the movie is “Pierrot Le Fou”, which means Pierrot the fool. The crazed man on the dock is speaking about loves he has had over the years, and he is clearly not mentally stable. In a way, he is a representation of Ferdinand, because he is going crazy for Marianne, and will do anything for her because he loves her so much. The man has gone crazy over love, just like Ferdinand. Also, when the man asks Ferdinand if he can hear the music and the music stops and Ferdinand says no, it is another symbol of Ferdinand’s foolishness. He looks at the man as if he is crazy when he asks if he can hear the music, just like the viewers are watching Ferdinand keep crawling back to Marianne, obeying her every command. So while Ferdinand is thinking how crazy that man is, the viewer is thinking how crazy Ferdinand is and all the foolish things he has done because of his love for Marianne.
ReplyDeletep.s. Thanks for posting another question Dr. Ialacci.
I agree with tizzyd. It is a significant symbol in the movie, but it is a symbol that is very random. The symbol incorporates postmodernism in it because he runs into this random man on some unknown dock. A lot of the other scenes seem very unnecessary such as the beach scenes and walking around scenes. This scene however may seem random at first, but it has a deeper meaning hidden in the man's song and story. The man's song is the story of Ferdinand's life. He sang about all the women he has gone through. Ferdinand already left his wife and he just now lost his runaway girlfriend. The man says, "You can't imagine what it means to me," about the tune, but in reality Ferdinand does know what it means because love is what he revolves his life around. He bases his life on love. He says, "When I hear it, it does something to me." It is analogous to Ferdinand. When he experiences love, it does something to him. I agree with tizzyd's comment on how Ferdinand thinks the man is crazy, but we can see that Ferdinand is crazy as well. The man obsessed over love, the song, and the hand thing. Ferdinand is almost to that point of obsession over love. It is a symbol that Ferdinand will become crazy soon enough after Marianne or another woman gets to him, which we later see when he blows himself up. Ferdinand is that man.
ReplyDeleteThe man on the dock serves multiple purposes. One of his roles is to point out how overused the word love is, both in the film, and in society at large. This man described his “love” for multiple women in the short time that he spoke to Ferdinanad. He went about describing the women casually. It appeared that he believed he loved these women but to the viewer it seemed as if he was stretching the truth. This overstatement of the truth applies very well to the relationship that the movie followed. Supposedly love existed between the two protagonists. Immediately following the betrayal this encounter and its message are especially poignant. Ferdinand is forced to question whether love ever truly existed between the two of them or if it was just another hackneyed, meaningless word. For both men this word became an obsession. It became a driving force and a holy grail of sorts.
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ReplyDeleteI think this man was very important in this movie. What I take from it is that the word "love" is very weak in the idea of bringing two together. The idea of love to many is paradise and everyone aims for it. People would do almost anything to achieve. Our culture is built around love so much that not falling in love is almost impossible and in some cases looked down upon. But in this film, love is thrown around as if it was a game of hot potato. And this scene represents all of that. Ferdinand was married to someone before running off with Marianne. So Ferdinand just throws these years away that he had with his wife (including having a child together) for a life on the road with a crazy woman who he dated once before. This of course doesn’t seem reasonable, but this might be making fun of pop cultures view of love. Then Marianne uses that love to fool Ferdinand for she actually loves someone else. Love in this film has caused emotional strife (which the man on the dock feels) and physical strife (Marianne is shot by Ferdinand and Ferdinand commits suicide). This man on the dock shows that all love leads to is pain and self loathing. In a way, this scene could be making fun of the idea of love, as I mentioned before. Of course this scene was used as comic relief, but it’s meaning is a deep one.
ReplyDeleteTo add on to Nate and rsmitty, I feel the man on the dock was a representation of society as a whole. He talked of trying to find love, of searching desperately for love, and while delivered with wonderful comicality, the character recounts to Ferdinand his inability to ever find love and that now he is alone and miserable. From the telling of his story it doesn't seem the character truly wanted love though, it appeared more that he felt like he needed to be in love, as though it were some rule that society had declared and that he must obey in order to be a normal human being. While this specific situation pertains to love, I feel that this character is a symbol that the accepted system isn't the right system for everyone, just for the right people. Every person has their own unique circumstances which do not all fit within what is accepted and while people can be looked down upon it is often necessary for these people to estrange themselves from society if they wish to be happy. This character is someone who did not separate himself from society's norm and ended up never finding what he truly wanted, and so I feel the autor of this film is sending the message with him that everyone must make their own path and not worry about society's rules
ReplyDeleteTo me, this story looks like something that should be encouraging and reassuring to Ferdinand. Ferdinand has just lost Marianne, the woman for whom he left a stable family life and engaged in a life of crime. It is thus understandable that he is unhappy and feels that there is no hope of ever again finding love. However, the man Ferdinand meets on the dock is an example to the contrary: he has loved several women over his lifetime. Indeed, the tune so recurrent in the crazy man's life might be an expression of an innate romanticism -- of this man's quest for love. So long as this tune is present in his life, it is almost unimportant which woman's hand the crazy man is petting against the backdrop of his romanticism. Thus, the crazy man is meant to serve as an example for Ferdinand that romantic interests come and go and that; Ferdinand, therefore, ought to regard Marianne not as THE woman in his life, but rather as A woman in his life. Through his story, the crazy man demonstrates that it is not any one specific love interest, but rather an overall sense of romanticism that guides one's life. It is apparent, however, that Ferdinand does not pay much attention to the crazy man's message because Marianne's betrayal leads him to commit suicide: clearly the main character cannot view Marianne as only a passing interest.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, the man on the dock is a Shakespearean "fool" of sorts -- the insane one whose words of truth the main character ignores.
The man on the dock represented Ferdinand's frustration with his love for Marianne. The man on the dock tells his story of lost love and unobtainable love. As Ferdinand listens to the man Marianne is on a boat running away with another man while Ferdinand remained in love with her. In a way, his love had even increased while he sat and listened and he was determined to get to her. The man on the dock told stories of he fell in love with a woman who did not love him back and then a woman fell in love with him but he did not love her back. As well as other stories around love. These stories represent Ferdinand's journey with Marianne. At first Ferdinand and Marianne fall in love and then fall apart, which is represented in the man's story-telling. When Ferdinand reunites with Marianne he discovers that he loves Marianne more than she ever loved him. Ferdinand has been sent on a roller coaster of love with his journey in Marianne, often times filled with craziness. The man also represents this craziness because he literally is not sane. The viewer knows this because he hears music in his head that is not actually playing.
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