Thread: Help me interpret this scene

well, the restroom itself is completely unrealistic, when compared to the rooms or locations that have access to it - what happens in it could be called surrealist so its probably meant to be symbolic

those gamblers in shady places may be seen as people of low societal strata, whereas renton (boy for rent?) went even further towards the very gutter (the toilet)
once he's there, the director wants another extreme contrast to that and shows the clean ocean (as opposed to the extremely dirty toilet)

this may be seen as a point when someone 'falling down' comes close to hitting rock bottom (rocks at the bottom of the sea), where the extreme conditions cause him to detach from the usual reality and enter a kind of subconscious or dream-like state where one doesn't notice the dirt anymore and only follows his dream or goal (to reach those suppositories)

the object of his dreams, when caught or reached, looks bigger than it physically is, so to him they represent a big achievement, a great success, after which he was ready for the next stage/scene/challenge ('now i'm ready' quote)

spiritually speaking, this could be seen as related to the 'ascending through descending' concept, ie. getting rid of negative materialistic attachments (freedom) through extreme indulgence therein, although i doubt boyle had this in mind as he is probably more into 'shock therapy' for the viewers, where he can score some cheap points of controversy


some mentioned that boyle often uses toilet scenes, thus toilets or the contents thereof could be a weird fetish of his
it could also have something to do with (male) homosexuality, a topic interesting to holywood producers/directors as they seem to be closely connected to it, fascinated by the (male) behind or the contents thereof lol

Originally Posted by anon

I think it's about letting go, or how we spend so much time chasing things that aren't meant to be or we're not ready for. Or perhaps how things that go away by themselves can return by themselves.

the chase is a way to form (or confirm) opinions about those things, to figure out if they really are what we want, its a way towards a clearer picture regarding the subject

things do not come or go away by themselves, the course they take through time is a result of numerous previous causes, it only appears to us that we have nothing to do with them, whereas what we experience has everything to do with us, it can even be said that everything that happens in the world, down to the smallest and most seemingly insignificant action (like mere atomic movement) is relevant to what we will experience, for it is the constellation of all things in the universe which results with the experiences that we have


the balloon in the movie could be viewed as a special thought, idea, dream, goal

it could mean: once you find it, follow your dream (the dream also has a mind of its own, cannot control it, comparable to the balloon from the video), even if it is at odds with what is generally expected from you (societal molds, teachers from the video), or to quote hellman who said: 'do your thing' or the commonly used expression 'be yourself' - there will be many obstacles or adversaries (difficult situations in life, aggressive boys from the video), but in the end, your pursuit will be fruitful (the dream becomes reality in a way that surpasses one's expectations, the mass of balloons from the video)

- the ending scene may be viewed as the 'ascending to heaven' theme (though the video shows only rising in the air, flying above the city)
- the destruction of the balloon may represent abandoning old ideas for new (related) ones
- other balloons may be viewed as getting help from friends (though it was a clumsy solution which shows other people losing their balloons during the ending scene)
- the music was too repetitive/monotonous for my taste
- the usual problem with similar videos or artwork is that they do not give much or clear, understandable information, but contain rather symbolic, ambiguous hints or ideas, so we end up with a lot of confusion or guesswork involved

what others thought of it:

Code:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Balloon