Inception and the Surreal - Between the Lines
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- Опубликовано: 19 июл 2015
- Original Upload Date: 10/18/2014
Which parts were real, and which were a dream?
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I have actually shown this video to my film theory teacher when she noticed some of the similarities between Inception and Man With a Movie Camera and she in turn showed it to the whole class. So congratulations, Kyle, your video was officially taught in some Brazilian college :D
(in all honesty, out of all the youtube reviewers out there you are possibly my favorite and my biggest influence when doing videos of my own. Wish you all the success)
Same thing happened with me!
Jon Vianna I have so much regret I didn't show this video to my film history professor. I know the whole class would have loved it since we also talked about surrealism.
Isn't it funny that we can learn more now from a youtube video , than a college course.
Gah. That last line still gives me chills.
Every single time, even when I know its coming.
It never stops being a hauntingly good line.
I watch this at least once year. And I meet true myself looking at myself to mirror. And I maybe see myself at eternity. Thank you for this video. This is something special.
I know I have seen it months ago, but I am more than willing to watch it again
I'm so glad to see Man With a Movie Camera get some love. Criminally underrated film.
Maybe it's because the topic is my favorite movie but this is one of my favorite youtube videos ever. Subscription earned
God, I love surrealism, it's the type of art that I want to base my writing around, but just watching this makes me realize there's still more I need to study about it. Love that about your reviews, they always get me to think about things in a way I would have never thought of.
Can Kyle just become a film teacher so I can attend his classes everyday? Seriously the passion and poetically analytical thought he puts into his videos are amazing.
Mind f***ing blown 0_0. Can you be the prof in all of my film classes kyle?
Your earnestness, observance, and sound analysis are always a delight. Thank you, Kyle. I've enjoyed your stuff for years, and I look forward to enjoying it in the future.
My joint favourite of all your videos (with the Beatles one). Your voice has such a cadence in this video that this video becomes almost a song itself.
Wonderful. Keep it up.
The is my favorite video that Kyle's ever made. When we got to psychoanalytic theory in my Media Criticism and Theory class, our professor was explaining to us the idea that a movie can be seen as similar to dreams or the subconscious, and all I could think about was how this video explained it so much better than he ever could.
I could have sworn the whole sequence about Cocteau and Vertov in particular was straight from "The Story of Film: An Odyssey," because I specifically remember the "1+1=3" thing.
ohgobwhatisthis This video sounds very similar to Mark Cousins in that film. Just the way he constructs his sentences. I bet he was inspired.
R. Ringshifter Very observant! The use of the phrase "1+1=3" when describing the montage theories of the Soviet Constructivists predates Cousins, but I definitely used Cousin's performance as an inspiration when writing this episode. I love the way he uses that lilt of his to draw the viewer in - just with a simple command of "look."
Omg you played Cinematic Orchestra during Man with a Movie Camera because that's the name of their album. I LOVE THAT YOU DID THAT! #eastereggs
I am coming to this well and truly late, but this video has not just reminded me why I love this move so much, but challenged me to express why I do. I am going to go rewatch this movie now, Kyle. I suspect you've changed my entire outlook on it. Words cannot express how thankful I am at the simple prospect that you might have.
HOW THE FUUUUUCK AM I JUST SEEING THIS ?
Also, why am I tearing ?
How haven't more people seen this ?
an magnificent video from you in the past to us in the present
The amazingness about Inception was the allegorical meaning that man's determination to dominate every aspect of reality will ultimately be his downfall.
What's awesome about that movie is that it alludes to how fragile our very perception of reality is, since after all "reality" as we know it only consists of the information that is gathered by our consciousness by means of touch, sight, sound, smell, and feel. We never stop to think about the fact that the real, objective reality consists of WAY more than that. In fact, just the simple discovery of different types of waves in the air is proof that, with our consciousness the way it is, we're only capable of experiencing an EXTREMELY small portion of the whole of reality. And the more we push those boundaries of our perceptions the more we risk overreaching, thus destroying how our minds currently experience things.
I think it hearkens back to philosophers like Nietzsche, who ultimately died literally insane and alone after spending years trying to dissect the different aspects of life. And I think the most important parallel between those people and the movie Inception is that in both cases someone powerful figured out how to use that knowledge to control others. In fact, Hitler took much of Nietzsche's writing and used it to START the Nazi party.
All-in-all, Inception was amazing because it really made you question what reality is, and how it can ultimately be used. What are your thoughts?
I am once again binge-watching Between The Lines....
You are a fantastic writer. That was just so beautifully done. Subscribing.
surrealism is my favorite artform
Someone bring a mop, because this vid just blew my mind!!!
This is one of the most interesting movie analysis i've ever seen. Good job. Subscribed.
Dude, Inception is so good.
You are good, man.
“When David Nolan dreams, he dreams only of other movies.” 🎉
This is very interesting! I love the idea of believing the lie of films and how you compared that to the unconscious dreamscape. Both exist as reality while they are happening.
An interview with Nolan about "Dunkirk" where he confirms that Inception (and The Prestige) do reflect the process of filmmaking. lwlies.com/interviews/christopher-nolan-dunkirk-70mm/
I recently found your channel, your videos are excellent!
8:32 Their goal is to plant an idea in the audiences head
Wow Wow Wow Wow !!!! Wow !!....
Why does your channel have so less hits. This is so amazing !! Wow !
"Of course it was all a dream. It's a movie, isn't it?"
That's just one of those lines that hits you. The only other ending of a speech I can think of with the same effect is this one by Adam Savage:
ruclips.net/video/O1nSuWztIrY/видео.html
This is making me so relaxed rn
Kyle, a beautiful and beautifully researched review as ever. I learned a lot, thank you. But I disagree with one of your premises. That the question at the end of the movie is about whether Cobb is dreaming or not. And that that question goes unanswered.
Earlier in the film we see how long the top spins in Cobb's reality - twice. 18 seconds each time. In the last scene the top is still spinning after 44 seconds. So even if it were to fall during the end credits, there's no question Cobb is dreaming. The real question is, who performed Inception on him and what idea did they implant?
We see Cobb find Saito in limbo. But then we see Saito reach for his gun ... and Cobb himself has told us that, as heavily sedated as they are, guns don’t kick you out. They send you deeper.
In fact we don't know that Saito and Cobb are in limbo. We only know they are in a dream level below the one with Mal and Ariadne. When old Saito spins Cobb's totem and shoots Cobb, that's what sends Cobb to eternally dream in limbo.
Because that’s the only way a single phone call can eliminate a murder conviction. Doing that is impossible in real life. Saito's only problem is he doesn’t know the physical properties of Cobb's totem - how long it spins. Which is why the idea he implants in Cobb is to care more about seeing the children than checking the totem.
Nolan has implanted the idea in the audience's heads that the ending is ambiguous ...
Cool. Watch the video again.
@@KyleKallgrenBHH Oh, yeah, you got there ontologically just fine. That's also cool ;-)
Fascinating
Great essay👍
Just a film fan...Great review and great catch on the "Man with the Movie Camera".Loved both movies but the latter I haven't seen in over 40yrs.I didn't watch "twin peaks", still I love how you cleverly catch the similarities.About dreams, mine specifically, I dream in action adventure dreams and in very few instances do I not realize I'm in a dream. Often I realize where I am and enjoy it for as long as I can. It is not a surreal as one might expect.
Thanks for making me laugh at the end... I always believed you can hear the spinning top slow down and go out of balance as all spinning tops end their spin cycle, so I would argue that Cobb was no longer dreaming, but you got me dead to rights with the fact that,"Of course it was all a dream, it's a movie isn't it?!
One more thing... why no mention of Dennis Quaid's "Dreamscape"? Which I saw "Inception" as a better execution of the same type of movie minus the villain (David Patrick Kelly who was also in twin peaks)?
Reminds me of when I wrote a report on the adapted film, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (2010). How it's a subversion and somewhat a critique of the typical romantic comedy
*insert mind blown gif here*
The shot of the animated camera on a tripod reminds me of the Wizard of Speed and Time.
If you can find it, Kyle, that might be something to talk about maybe.
I like this theory and analyses more than the other common theory, the top wasn't the totem.
I've watched this video countless times, I had no idea 3:05 was a spoiler until I finished the show last night.
Mind-blowing as always. But I have to ask, in the world of the movie, what do you think happened at the end? Dream, or reality? Me, meh, can't help it, I'll always go for a happy ending.
Still a great video.
8:50 regular reflection.
8:55 screaming guy's reflection.
Takeaway? Fuck if I know
I love your review or should I say a deconstruction of film. I hope to see more of your videos. a movie I suggest is After the Dark. it covers the morality of people choices. It's a kind of movie you might like. Thanks again for the great video.
IMHO (which is a disclaimer that shows that this is just an opinion, and doesn't mean that it is the Truth) Nolan, in the Inception, isn't trying to make a surreal movie. He is trying, like in all of his movies, to produce a time-image, something that he came the closest to achieving in the Memento, but was unsuccessfully trying all throughout his career, to finally come back to it in the Dunkirk. The main reason that the time-image eluded him was, paradoxically (or not), his own success, I mean, he got swallowed by Hollywood, the box-office, etc. (about the time-image see: G. Deleuze, "Cinema I and II", especially II).
Insta-subscribe - this was just such a fckin awesome video!
Ariadne in Greek myth is the woman who provides Theseus with the ball of yarn (a clew) which he uses to escape from the Cretan labyrinth. Cob is an old word for spider, as in cobweb. Do the other names in Inception contain some kind of significance?
Alan Dimes Not all of them, but I'm just going to quote TV Tropes for the relevant parts:
"'Cobb' means 'dream' in Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. It's also an old English word for 'spider' (hence the word 'cobweb'). Fitting, for a man who weaves webs and traps others in them." You already caught the second half of this ;-)
"'Eames' is the last name of architects and designers Charles and Ray Eames."
"Yusuf is the Arabic variant of Joseph (the one who famously interpreted Pharaoh's dreams in The Bible)."
The second movie with the talking backwards is like the scariest thing I've seen
Sierra Issecretlyacat Not a movie. It's a TV show from the early 90's called Twin Peaks. If you haven't watched it yet, you definitely should:)
And the just-finished sequel series was amazing!
song aroud 6:50 please?
liked the video very much. 5*
+lyskiddie that would be The Cinematic Orchestra's soundtrack for Man with a Movie Camera itself. It's one of my favorite soundtracks ever and perfectly captures the film's spirit, so you should watch the film with it!
duuuude
I don't think it's irrational or metaphorical enough to be surrealism. It's a very literal movie; it operates more like the Matrix or Tron or something, but with dreams designed to imitate reality, instead of digital programs designed to imitate reality.
Really good, but I feel kinda itchy about using the word "surrealism" or any other that describe a very specific movement in a very specific point in time as an adjective applicable to potentially anything ever made or to be made...
(Shrugs) I don't think Inception has any surrealist pretensions. It is a science fantasy movie centred on dreams.
Dziga is ukrainian word
In russian it would be "jula" or "yula"
"…is about powerful lies that TRUMP painful realities."
0:28 FYI/ the dream level time is bullshit, it's a nice film its just bullshit
So could you argue that this film in itself is postmodern and uses surrealism as a means to criticize the audience's want for escapism?
It doesn't have any postmodern features really
Cobb's totem is his wedding ring, not the spinnin top.
He wears the ring in the drdam but not in reality, so the final shot of the movie is total bullshit. However, the ending is still open ended because for the entire sequence after waking up on the plane, his left hand is never clearly visible.
This comment is pointless.
His ring appears in his dreams because in his dreams he believes that Mal is alive and they are married but in the climax he accepts her death and lets go of her so the next time he dreams the ring will not appear.
I think Inception's borrowing of surreal imagery from those truly great surrealist masters (Kon, Cocteau, Vertov and others) just goes to show how pale and uninteresting the film itself was. It was a pale imitation shackled by an all too conventional structure and style that, as you said in the beginning, turns the endless mystery of dream into a James Bond or video game. That's what really bothered me about Inception -- it's "dreaminess" was all in the superficial STYLE, not in its deep structure. The films it borrowed from are structured fundamentally on dream LOGIC -- that is, surreal non-logic -- whereas Inception is structured on the predictable, cause and effect, trigger-based logic of the videogame and the surreal touches are merely a matter of presentation. I think it's telling that its most surreal moments happen in the "Ariadne training sequence" (40 mins of spoonfed exposition to establish the rules to the audience) and not the real plot itself. I mean, what kind of dream logic worth its salt requires 40 mins of precise explanation??
+Poetics Hi, I am interested in your first sentence, who else makes good surrealist movies? Bunuel is probably a big one since he is the god of surrealist cinema, but who else is good? Thank you for answering
I find there's nothing wrong with borrowing when creating art. After all, after literally centuries of artistic development and expression, no one idea is truly fresh at its core. It's a matter of adding your own personal touches to it, twisting it around, turning it on its head, changing the window dressing to breathe new life into it. So long as you own up to the fact that you're borrowing and pay your dues, there's been no crime. And watching Inception, I get a sense of earnest respect towards those that Nolan borrowed from.
Of course, I don't think Nolan even set out to create a surreal film with Inception, structurally speaking, so maybe that plays a factor into my not feeling all that strongly about his borrowing of ideas from others. In most of the promotional material surrounding the film that I've found, "heist movie" has always been the term thrown around. I never read an interview where Nolan explicitly referred to Inception as a "surreal" movie. It's less about the surreal imagery and more about the caper. The imagery and use of dreams as a plot device are in service to the story. In all truth, he likely chose to use dreams because he had so many ideas for the film that it was the only conceivable way to incorporate all of them and still have a cohesive whole. And, whatever the complaints in regards to his appropriating surrealist imagery and incorporating it into his vision, Inception is an excellent heist movie, and a very creative entry into the genre. Heat brought intense realism and character study to the heist genre. Inception brought impressive usage of imagery to the table. And I can't truly fault Nolan for that, personally speaking, even if I find Michael Mann to be the better director.
And there's always Kyle's argument, that Nolan borrowed from all these sources and pieced them together to make the argument that film, by its very nature, is surreal.