Today, we are looking at another theme that seems to run through Remember Me.
All the thanks goes to Mils1234, Nautiluswirl, Tedracat, AZ, Calendos, VAgirl and everyone else who took part in the discussions for these fabulous insights into the artwork and the significance.
It will be very interesting to listen to Allen Coulter's commentary on the DVD! I can not wait for that.
THEME OF "2":
Check out the theme of "2" throughout - from the age 22 (Tyler was originally supposed to be 23 in the script and Michael was 22 when he died) to objects grouped in twos, to the way AC shoots characters side by side in 2 shots, to 2 towers, to 2 graves. Even the candles on Tyler's cake are two 2's, side by side. It's interesting to note that Nostradamus's references to "the two brothers" falling was interpreted by some to infer the Twin Towers...
When Tyler blew out his candles he missed the 22 and 3 candles around it. This could foreshadow the twin towers being the 22 and the 3 surrounding buildings being the other 3 candles not blown. When he blew them, they automatically went out, sorta like the ending did when the twin towers were hit.
Other things in twos:
Two glass obelisks on Charles's desk
Two sailboats in the pond at Central Park
What else did you see?
Regards sur le film Remember Me
...Remember Me Saturday
...Spunk Ransom
...Let Me Sign
...Thinking of Rob
...Emilie de Ravin Fan
...Dedicated to Emilie Blog
...Gregory Jbara Official Web Site
...Respect Robert at LetMeSign.com
16 comments:
Reading about all these hidden themes seriously makes me appreciate the movie that much more. I can't wait till it comes out on dvd so that I can go back and watch it with this new appreciation.
Patty, thanks for posting. I would love to share with you the experience of RM before, but you know that here in my country is the June 4. Calendos, Vargirl, Tracy, Twinkle, Az, Nauti, Mils, Tedra , Deanna, and you are the best of IMDb :) Thanks.
I had not perceived this when I saw RM but thinking better, there seems to be more twos in this story: Tyler`s relation with Charles, Tyler`s friendship with Aidan, Tyler`s relationship with Ally, Tyler`s relation with Caroline, Tyler`s relation with Michael and even Tyler and Sgt Craig whose lives are connected, they are alike. This film is becoming more and more interesting through the time and full of possibilities, layers, discoveries. Fascinating!!!
I just realized that this movie comes out on June 22nd in the U.S...Michael and Tyler both died when they were 22, and it also follows the whole "two" theme. Maybe it's just a coincidence, or maybe it really was done that way on purpose, I don't know, but it's something to think about.
Here's some more things I saw, but some may not have any symbolic meaning, so it's hard to tell - however, here goes :
- two identical glass candlesticks on the living-room table in Ally's house
- two identical brass candlesticks in Tyler's flat in the kitchen
- two embroidered seahorses facing each other on a cushion, on the sofa where Ally and Tyler are sitting (beach house Labor Day scene)
- two brass figures of horses facing away from each other on the stairs (Ally's house)
- lots of almost-identical paintings matched two by two in Ally's house
- In Tyler's flat : two identical narrow, rectangular metallic panes which are part of the iron curtains of the living-room windows - they look ominously like twin towers....
- in Caroline's classroom : two globes on the floor, plus two other globes on a cupboard
As to the birthday cake, I have a theory which is slightly different : I agree that the 22 candles represent the towers, but I think that the 3 unblown candles represent the 3 months which Tyler still has to live - his birthday is June 16th so that means mid-June to mid-July, mid-July to mid-August, mid-August to September 11. And now I almost can't bear to see the birthday cake scene any more...it's more like a "deathday" cake. It breaks my heart every time I see it. When all the candles go out, it's like a foreshadowing of his life being wiped away. Anyone sees it like me?
@WhyIstheRumAlwaysGone
About the birthday cake and the candles, yes. The scene broke my heart too everytime I saw it in the trailer ( because I have had read the script and knew about the ending ) and mainly when I saw the film, it is so emotional.
Very interesting points! There are so many different layers and things I didn't see the first **mumbles** times that I watched it. I never thought about Tyler's age on the birthday cake. And I agree that the cake scene is one of the most foreshadowing scenes, both in the film and the trailer. When he blows out the last ones and it goes black.
I've said it before, but I can not wait to hear Allen Coulter's commentary. I think he will be talking non-stop and then some.
Maria, I can't wait until you can see the film and can join in our discussions!!
Riley, interesting about the DVD release date, I didn't even catch that until you mentioned it. Love this movie so much! They rarely make movies so meaningful with this much depth to the story and characters.
I can't read any of this without crying...
I found a few more things - some may be just placed there for aesthetic reasons on the set,
but you never know with this film.:))
* In Janine's office (when Tyler goes out of his Dad's office saying he doesn't want ot be
bailed out of anything) - two black metallic sculptures representing suns, not identical
but so similar it's striking, one slightly larger than the other, set on top of 2 identical square black pedestals (tower-like?). I have a hunch that these sun sculptures represent Michael and Tyler (there's a symbolic ominous sunflower/sun pattern throughout the film but
I won't go there or it would be too long), and they're an ominous black, like death.
* In Caroline's bedroom : two identical small sunflowers or sun-shaped objects on her mirror
* On the shelves in the kitchen of Tyler's mother : 2 identical yellow mugs, 2 identical
blue and white mugs, and 2 identical black pitchers. But maybe it's just decorative here.
* In Tyler's kitchen : 2 candles, a tall, orange one, and a smaller, white one. They are
never lit but they are always there. I wonder if they represent something, maybe again the
brothers. I think (maybe I'm going too far here) there's an echo of those 2 candles on the roof terrace when you see Tyler sitting with his guitar : next to him you can see 2 empty metal pails, or maybe metal flowerpots, one just plain metal (almost white), the other a deep, rusty orange.
* In the first café scene when we see Tyler writing in his diary after the cemetery scene:
the waitress brings him a small cake, cut into 2 small identical triangles.
* In Tyler's bedroom when Aidan comes from NYU with his plan of having him seduce Ally:
there's a plate with food on Tyler's bed and it's also cut into 2 pieces of more or less
similar shape.
* In the boys' flat : there's a black and white poster next to the door picturing a guitar which splits the picture into two identical, symetrical parts on each side( 2 trees, 2 bird-shapes). There's also 2 square framed paintings of identical size, the one on top representing a white spiralling circle, the other beneath representing a white square.
Black and white have a symbolic meaning in the film, and so do the themes of circular/square shapes... but that's for another post I guess. Has anyone seen something else? I'm sure there's plenty more.
Okay, Rum, admit it, you got a prerelease copy of the DVD! How can you see all that?
Seriously, I was looking at the characters' faces, listening to them. I did notice a few things, but you're amazing.
The birthday candle thing. I'm with most of you there. It is f*cking heartbreaking. The second time I saw the film and knew what was coming, I gulped when he blew them out. After that, the foreshadowing is torture.
Off topic but I wanted to vote on RM at the Box Office Mojo site, but the hoops to go through to register are too intrusive for me. Frustrating. Anyone else try?
Holy cow!! That is alot you saw! I agree and don't know how you saw all that. The last time I watched the film, I was looking for groupings of two and the only additional one I saw were the two floor lamps behind Charles in his office. Of course, I was also writing down my favorite quotes in the dark, so I may have also been a bit distracted.
I am very interested in your sun theory. If you want, you could email me it at pattikat.3@gmail.com and I would love to post it in the future.
Oh....And again, I can not wait to hear Allen's commentary. I know he loves the details!
Kat, Jessegirl - I've been to a lot of screenings (no, you really dont want to know how many). Of course I've had the excuse to take lots of people to it. Individually. So I've had a lot of opportunities to keep my eyes wide open.:)) and see all these things. And there's so many more. I even keep a diary where I jot down everything I'ne noticed after every screening, and we also talk a lot on a RM discussion thread we have in France. You can't imagine all the things we are still finding. Actually, it's so fascinating that I'm thinking of opening my own blog about RM -it will probably be in French and for some parts in English (no competition intended... I just wat a maximum of people to discover the film and speak about it). So, Kat, I wonder if you would allow me to translate and/or quote some of what you post here ? It would be lovely if the French fans could discover all this, as there is nothing just now about RM in my country. Just let me know, it would be so great. Oh, and I will of course email you my "theories" about the sun/sunflower motif - for what it's worth - thanks for your email. And, Jessegirl, if I open this blog, would you like to share on it, contribute, and allow me to post/translate some of what we've shared on other sites?
Please tell me ladies if you like the idea. My email is kimtran2@gmail.com
such a beautiful story with such a sad ending yet so true, the 11/9 is a black shadow casting evil over everyone incluing the pure, 11 of september 2001 was a day of pain and death and the movie "remember me" shows how life was for tylor and how many people felt after the many deaths that day.
i hope that people learn from this mistake and sad events like this stop
Does anyone know what the significance of the man staring at Alli on the train was? (after the beach scene, when they are on the train) Was that her mugger recognizing her from 10 years ago???
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