By: John Holland

John Holland — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 01:55:44 +0000

Talylor thank you so much for considering this movie. It has stuck with me since I saw it too. While I watched the movie I found myself laughing out loud at the sadness/abusrdity or Llewyns misadventures. I think there are two pieces that mix to make this film so haunting and not able to put the finger on it. Part of the story happens in the music. — And the cat is the spirit of Mike AND the spirit of the muse, at the same time. In the beginning Llewyn sings a beautiful song, Hang me, Oh Hang Me, then he gets punched in the face. It is one depressing song but it is so beautiful and getting punched in the face after is just absurd. So after he wakes up we meet the music of Mike and Llewyn and we meet the cat. The whole movie I kept trying to figure out what the deal was with the cat. I read some other reviews and they didn’t sit with me so here is my take on Llewyn’s cat and the role it played in the film. Although on one level Llewyn is the cat – I prefer to think that the cat is Mike – his dead friend and musical partner – Mikes- soul in himself. He leaves the Gorfeins after listening to his record of him and Mike. He thanks them in a note and leaves. Then the cat sneaks out and he is stuck with this cat in the hallway. From that moment on every – single – thing that could go wrong does. He is beat down by the world. He meets another folk singer with promise. He goes through the whole thing with Jean and then, he loses the cat out Jean’s window. When he leaves to go get it he leaves his guitar. He goes off trying to find “himself.” He is faced with the sellout of getting royalties for the gimic song. He passes. Then finds that the thing he needed the money for immediately, the abortion, he doesn’t need it beacuse his last girlfriend didn’t get her abortion. So he leaves the abortionist doctor with a kid AND $200 extra dollars. And all this time he is worried about the cat. He is worried about the Goldfeins until he finds “the cat” while sitting in the coffee shop with Jean as they are arguing about “selling out.” I suspected it wasn’t the same cat but I let it go. He keeps trying to make the magic happen by going to Chicago all the while carrying the cat. The cat is Mike. When he finally leaves the cat behind in the car on the side of the road we know that this is it. The next act of the story will be the deciding factor in Llewyn’s life. He leaves the cat (Mike) then performs for Grossman and hears, “You are not a front man. You need a partner.” (I can’t remember the exact quote.) Grossman tells him what I believe he was already thinking – he will never make it without Mike. But, he has finally “let go” of Mike by leaving the cat in the car. Then on the way home he hits, possibly, the same cat he left in the car. The cat is alive but hurting and probably going to die. Llewyn didn’t mean to hit the cat. It was a terrible thing but he can’t help the cat either. He considers going after him but decides to just let the cat go. He gets home, tries to QUIT using the money from the gig/abortion discount and can’t do that either. He has to go play one more gig to make enough money to be able to afford to quit music. But then something happens. When he sings Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song) he seems to give the best performance, and the most uplifting, of the whole movie. The tonal difference between Hang Me and Fare Thee is so much. He has given up Mike and sang beautifully just because he could, and for no other reason. We know the Times is in the audience, maybe he will get his break, I thought this, even as Dylan took the stage and then I realized, it was the flaw – the sinking self pity that caused him to berate the folk singer the night before that gets him. He won’t make it big. He won’t make a living even but – and this is likely just because I am an optimist and an artist. He has found out how to make something beautiful again for its own sake. I want to investigate the lyrics more and how they interact with the story but I can’t do it right now. Thank you so much Taylor for inspiring some many people to apprecaite the aesthetic (the appreciation of beauty nd being most alive) experience of films with your work.

Comments on: Inside Llewyn Davis Is Impossible To Comprehend

By: John Holland