Pretentious arthouse bulldoodoo.

[Sqoon]

The same could apply to Salo, although that movie is about as blunt as you can get.

Salo is blunt, but I don't think there's anything significant behind it really. Pasolini was just plain out of his brain and wanted to mutilate the audience.

What gets me is the fact that sometimes things can be so open ended. A symbol for one thing can be used for nigh infinitely many things.

I'm not much a fan of symbolism or repetitive themes as a device to instill meaning, and it's especially obnoxious in spit-in-your-face unsubtle dramas like Lost in Translation or The Hours.

[The_Meach]

I'm not much a fan of symbolism or repetitive themes as a device to instill meaning.

This perspective used to permeate my own thinking about art.

Then I developed an appreciation for Shakespeare.

[sethsez]

There's a difference between using symbolism and repetitive themes because you have a genuine purpose for doing so, and just doing it because you think it'll magically make your movie that much deeper. Shakespeare was the former, but countless film-school dropouts are the latter.

[Sqoon]

Personally, I've never seen a very satisfactory showcase for either (as hard as Robbe-Grillet or Godard or Shakespeare may try). I can enjoy them at a certain face value, but whenever I learn about whatever trickery they employ (whether on my own or through school) nothing meaningful really ever clusters.

[The_Meach]

Give Shakespeare another try.

[sethsez]

Just not Romeo and Juliet. Yes, it's technically great, but I never found it as interesting as Macbeth or Othello.

[Sqoon]

I've read Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew, and The Tempest (the latter two I read on my own, Twelfth Night being my favorite). He runs the gamut of human expression and emotion, but, as I said before, it doesn't add up to anything that affects me in a profound way.

[The_Meach]

Check out Hamlet, arguably the greatest work of fiction in the English language.

[Green]

"Well, this is a movie by Tarkovsky, so it's okay if I don't know what the fuck is going on.").