Was it just me, or were a lot of the scenes filmed at an angle? From below? I couldn’t figure out sometimes if it was the position of the screen, how I was sitting or if that’s how it was filmed. Slightly unsettling. And the water! Just totally unexpected both times. Such a fantastic colour with the white foam and the water’s movement. I’d love a photo of that. The scene with Freddie walking towards lights; hazy glows of circles; oranges, reds, yellows. And when we saw the boat for the first time. Freddie walking front of screen with the boat in the background. I loved those images of the boat. All yellows and golds illuminated in the night darkness. The party on the top tier of the boat and the two figures on the bottom tier. Was it Dodd and Peggy? I can’t recall. They were having a discussion whilst the party was going on upstairs. I really liked that split image. The boat leaving the harbour...the colours, great image. There was another split image I liked too. I think it was Freddie’s boat – left half the deck and rails, right half the sea with that fantastic colour and the foam. Brilliant! I liked that many of the scenes were dual. The main scene going on but a doorway with another scene going on in the background too: a party; people coming and going; discussions; people huddled. It seemed to be a theme in the film. Doorways, windows. Reds & blues too. There was a shot of a big house and the group had arrived in two cars which were parked at front but with a gap between them, like another entrance. Really liked that scene. I jumped and winced when Freddie bumped into the table in the window/wall scene. Ouch! I felt that! And when he was in the cell thrashing about. That really must have hurt! What does Joaquin do to generate so much anger that he can hurt himself like that? I mean, that looked like it really would have hurt! Or kick a toilet to smithereens? Or did the props people crack it first, fill the joins in and thus making it easier? I didn’t wonder that at the time though: at the time, my inner pedant thought *why is there no water spouting from the smashed toilet?* Just a breeze of a thought. Then, when all the anger had subsided, Dodd takes a post-coital piss and Freddie can’t because he’s kicked the toilet to bits! I thought that part was funny.

I don’t get Joaquin being compared to Marlon Brando in this film. Maybe I haven’t seen enough Brando films (very likely). Personally, I thought of Frank Sinatra. I don’t mean Joaquin was impersonating FS or that there was a copy-cat similarity of styles; just that I thought of FS a few times, probably also brought on by the period setting and Joaquin’s weight loss. Have you seen ‘The Man with the Golden Arm’? 'From Here to Eternity'? ‘Anchor’s Aweigh’?







You know, I don’t think there’s anything I can say about Joaquin’s performance to match all the reviews that have praised him. All the words in the world to describe his Oscar-worthy performance. I’ve hardly read any reviews but I’ve read around the buzz and most of it is lauding him so I guess the reviews are too. I don't want him to go anywhere near the Oscars (in my dreams he'll stay at home with his clarinet!) but he's bound to be nominated and might even win too. Maybe that's what it will take to convince him that he's not crap.

Anyway, I only know how I felt, but I don’t know if you can really understand how I felt about Joaquin’s performance if I say – he was sooooo good. Incredible. I was filled with admiration throughout the whole film. I am so proud of him. I’m a fan, so I would say those things (with all the bells & whistles to accompany) wouldn’t I? Well no. It's all inside, as a feeling.

I changed the tail about 3 times!! I m trying to not give opinion, not give advice , and not interpret one thing or another. Im just zen now

Thanks for the info from PTA, Sami. Your comments about the women....I didn’t see it like that. I thought the dancing went with the song (which is an old drinking song I think) but maybe I’ll see it differently next time. Today, we have women who might dance like ‘women’ but they have no pubic hair, like little girls, so what that says about us I don't know. But there are all kinds of women in the world - give it some for diversity!

Peggy was sitting down and clapping but she was not really involved in the singing and dancing. She was looking straight out at the audience. The viewer in the cinema. It was quite a definite look at the viewer through that whole scene.


Admin lets us use this forum for free.

Did you think any of the film was funny? I thought quite a lot of it was. Maybe it's me.


I didn’t say that I wished Joaquin would get an Oscar. His performance is enough for me. If Joaquin does get the Oscar and he's happy with it, then I'm happy for him too.

About the pain....I know! He must have suffered some terrible bruising. I really did wince at times. Ouch!!

I’m looking forward to seeing this scene again because I didn’t think of gnomes and fairies before. Yeah, 'men are not animals' was another theme in the film.

Freddie’s an interesting character. Obsessed with sex but actually, we never really see him getting any until the last scene. The sand woman is unreal and out of all proportion, he’s clothed and then after simulating sex has a violent reaction to it. He masturbates into the sea. He has an encounter in a darkroom but nothing happens. He’s drawn to the woman’s belly. She’s disappointed on the date later because Freddie falls asleep. He gets a sweet kiss from a girlfriend. He gets his leg fondled by the daughter. In the last scene we see him in bed with a real woman. A different experience from the encounter withn the sand woman. Have I forgotten anything? Is he healed from the violence of the opening scene? I still think, at this point, there’s a mother complex with Freddie, but I’m also wondering if he’s a virgin? Dunno. Just realised that as well as all the gathered groups of people throughout the film the sand woman scene takes place with a group of people watching. Is there any significance to this? Dunno.


Do you mean the scene with Dodd and Peggy in the bathroom? What’s your take on that scene? Dodd couldn’t have sex with his wife because she is pregnant but was it Peggy who was aroused first or Dodd? Who was he thinking of, if anyone? The look on Peggy’s face afterwards was…..disgusted? Contemptuous? Had she never heard him come like that before and was wondering why he did? Is there an award for best film orgasm?



I loved the scenes at the department store when Freddie’s a photographer. The colours and fabric of the dress worn by the model. Vibrant and lush. The attention to detail in the store! What can I say? I like this stuff. The whole film was lushious! And when the executive guy comes in for a photo and Freddie asks him if it’s for his wife. Yes. So Freddie starts to adjust the lamps closer to the guy’s face to make him sweat and hot under the collar. Smouldering. Perfect photo for a husband to give to his wife in Freddie’s eyes. Funny and intense. And yet more bumps and bruises for Joaquin!

I kind of missed what Freddie was saying in the final scene but he seemed to be calmer; less troubled. Yes, I think what Freddie found with Dodd was a human connection; being cared for and loved. The scene when Freddie gets out of jail and Dodd comes down the steps to meet him at the house. They’re so happy to see each other, rolling around on the grass. And when Dodd goes after Freddie when he rides off on the bike. PTA has said that the film is a love story and I did get that. Maybe Freddie never did have that feeling of being valued. Being thought of as a human? And I think you’re right; he did have something to give towards the end. He didn’t give it to Dodd though, did he? There are so many different layers to this story!


Oh! I’d forgotten about that! I don’t think we saw that take place did we? Some things probably passed me by because I was absorbed in the cinematography a lot of the time. I’m sure when I see the film again I’ll notice lots of things I missed first time around.


I think that would have grossed me out too! I wouldn’t say the scene was sexy either, but that was a good film orgasm. It was all a bit clinical really and I had an intellectual rather than a sensual reaction to it.


I think the final sex scene was the only one with any tenderness or intimacy in it but it was a snapshot of a scene really. We don’t know how Freddie came to be there or what happened after she laughed and hugged him.


How long have you got? Lol. I think the sexual revolution was as much about a change of attitude to sexual behaviour rather than just about that everyone started to have a different kind of sex. I think all kinds of sex was going on back then including, probably, the kind of sex seen in ‘The Master’. The way sex is depicted in the media, cinema, etc, nowadays has definitely changed from back in those days. Off the top of my head, what kind of sex do you think the characters played by Deborah Kerr & Burt Lancaster in ‘From Here to Eternity’ (1953) had after kissing in the surf? Or Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint’s characters, holed up in train carriage, in ‘North By Northwest’? (1959). Harvey Lawrence and Simone Signoret in the British film ‘Room at the Top’? (1956). I think we can safely say that none of it was catholic. It’s more in your face now. More explicit. More erotic? Can be. But it depends on what you consider to be erotic, I guess.

I'd also say that i preferred the "Rorschach test" scene that was used in the teaser trailer to the one actually used in the film:


Looking forward to the 20 minutes of extras that's going to be on the DVD.

That clip was certainly easier to hear than the one used in the film, Admin. Thank you.


Brotherly love…..didn’t think of that and haven’t read the book or seen the film, so look forward to reading more of your impressions.


I don’t remember much about this scene other than Freddie’s face and Dodd singing to him. I do think Peggy had some kind of controlling influence over Dodd – remember the scene where he’s typing and she’s sitting on the bed speaking feverishly…..Dodd seemed to be typing up what she was saying? Her role in the Cause was bigger and more influential than it appears I think. I wonder if Peggy felt threatened by Freddie & Dodd’s relationship? That somehow it would undermine her? In this scene you mention, Dodd says something to Freddie about if he leaves they will be eternal enemies. So why does Freddie leave? Why didn’t he take the slow boat with Dodd?


I don’t recall the dialogue they had in the bathroom which led to Peggy peeling Dodd’s carrot but the Cause involves not having sex during pregnancy because it can lead to psychological problems in life so masturbation, mutual or otherwise, was perhaps usual in their marriage? I wondered at first if Peggy wanted to do it for her own pleasure as much as her husband’s – she was saying something like “do it/this for me” – or if she did it because she knew her husband wanted it. Then, I wondered if, hearing him come, she’d never heard him like that with her before, and that’s why she had the reaction she did. That maybe she knew he wasn’t really involved with her during the whole act. And like you said earlier, it shows that Dodd had an animal side to him – that he wasn’t made of stone. Whatever, I agree that it’s a strange scene but PTA must have had a purpose in putting it there. Do you have any thoughts on this scene, Admin? From a male perspective.


What do you think Freddie’s burden was?
He’s trying the Cause technique on the English girl, isn’t he? What’s your name? Don’t blink, etc. But whereas with Dodd the technique had been… controlling? This scene with the girl felt like it was something else. Can’t think of the right word. I was thinking of the scene with Freddie and Peggy where she’s asking him to change the colour of her eyes and she asks him to place something in the future for himself. Is this what he placed there perhaps?


No need to be sorry, Sami: I was meaning the universal ‘you’ rather than you in particular. It’s a huge subject….and I’m no expert. Like you, I can only really say what I consider to be erotic.

You're right, Peggie never liked Freddie. It could be what u say or that she was afraid that he would be a bad influence for Dodd. She kinda sees Dodd as a weak person. So she's actually the strong hand .
Freddie leaves because Dodd only will accept him if he accepts the premises of the Cause. Freddie isn't willing to do that even though he loves them as his family. That's why he cries so much , the pain.
The movie got to me a bit in this sense . I've done the same before . I've tried to mold myself to fit in others people's ideas just to be l
Loved. It has always ended badly. This is why I understand Freddie.
What's nice is what John and Yoko had. He said in an interview : " Yoko couldn't rock and I couldn't avantgarde so we decided that what we had in common was love, and from love followed peace." In it nice ?



Those are nice comments Joy. I need to think about it ..




Joy, I don't think u intended this, but it's a bit funny . I imagine Admin going : err ...



Why do I ask me this question ? I just can see he is relieved, that's all I can tell !



Playful ?

Edited by user Sunday, November 18, 2012 1:58:16 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified