How hard can it be to install a stupid curtain properly - Insomnia (2002) Discussion

[–] fillshertease 10 years ago

It's perfectly dark in his room; there's a scene near the end which shows that he is imagining the brightness in the room because of the stress he's under...

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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] fillshertease 9 years ago

Yeah ... that's what I thought. Basically the idea was that the brightness in the room was in his imagination. Are you agreeing with that? I'll have to watch it again; it's a great movie!?

**** SPOILER ALERT - The Silence Of The Lambs ****
In other news, you know that scene near the end of The Silence Of The Lambs, where Jodie foster is walking around in a pitch black room and Buffalo Bill is following her with his night vision goggle on? I was watching "the making of" the other day and it turns out that scene was shot with the lights on and Jodie Foster is just pretending to be in the dark. The problem was that if they lit the scene in the normal way, then there would be shadows in the room and that would give away the fact that the scene was shot in a lighted environment. To get around that they had a light on the camera only; which meant that any shadows would be missed because they would be 'behind' the object that was making them. There is a small mistake though. At one stage Buffalo Bill lifts his hand and you can see a shadow from his arm on Jodie Foster's back. It's only there for a fraction of a second so you don't notice it unless you're looking for it. I thought it was interesting anyway...

We're from the planet Duplon. We are here to destroy you.

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[–] GenoWashingline (872) 4 years ago

Wow, I had never realised that about the room being dark, and it being his conscience / imagination making him see it as bright.

I like that, clever stuff

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[–] yesanything 8 years ago

Heck, I learned a long time ago, just put a wash cloth or a sock over your eyes, complete darkness - ball asleep easily.

>the coins in the jar are for charity,
<the coins in the tray are for sharing

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[–] lachancejeanphilippe 8 years ago

The room was dark dummy. That wasn't the reason he couldn't sleep.

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[–] kameeleoned_out (60) 8 years ago

The whole movie is about shifting blame. Dormer shifts blame on Walter for killing Hap, Walter shifts blame on Randy for killing Kay. For his lack of sleep, Dormer shifts blame away from his guilty conscience to the curtain letting in too much light.

In the end, as Ellie is getting ready to shift blame for Hap's death back to Walter, she is stopped by Dormer - in effect ending the blame shifting circle.

PS: Walter also shifts blame for killing Kay, telling himself that it was an accident and something that he simply couldn't prevent in the moment.

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[–] paul-273-129025 8 years ago

Argos have very good black out blinds. I installed one myself recently. Admittedly I haven't been pursuing homicidal killers so I had some spare time to do it.

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[–] Pegasys9 8 years ago

To me, this was my quibble with the movie....if a hotel is in an area in which the sun doesn't go down, wouldn't ALL the rooms have black out blinds and heavy curtains so the patrons could get some sleep?

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[–] The-Animals 8 years ago

Near the end, the hotel woman says it is dark in the room and turns the light on. So don't dismiss the hotel's room-darkening abilities. It was Dormer's imagination.

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[–] kameeleoned_out (60) 8 years ago

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[–] daveyh (625) 3 years ago

thank you - and furthermore, why would they have north-facing windows?! It would also mean that during late autumn and early winter, the guests wouldn't get what little sunshine and daylight there would be because it would all be to the south.

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[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

Thought the same thing, until the final act of the movie confirms that the room is suitably dark.

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[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

During an period of insomnia, you can't help but focus on brighter things in a dark room. The crack in the curtain, the glow of the space under a door, or the white wall against the wood frame. You eyes adjust to the room and you see everything. To anyone who's eyes aren't adjusted to the dark, it looks really dark. To the person sitting there in the dark room with adjusted eyes, the light noise stands out.

That scene really nailed my experience with insomnia. You just can't sleep and you're almost searching for any source of "light" to remove. Funny thing is, you could just throw on a sleep mask... But that doesn't stop the mind from racing.

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[–] daveyh (625) 3 years ago

the problem isn't so much the fact that it's light, it's the fact that during that time, the sun remains at eye level so is beating through the window.
Try sleeping in a west-facing room during the hour before the sun sets - even with blackout curtains, you still feel the heat and you're still aware of the light.
Which leads me to answer pegasys9's comment....

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[–] Ace_Spade (9547) a year ago

Yes, but, anybody who is hung up on the lack of hanging-up is missing the cause of Will's insomnia.

SPOILERS

Ellie is talking to Will at one point, and quotes him, "A good cop can't sleep because he's missing a piece of the puzzle and a bad cop can't sleep because his conscience won't let him." This seems clear to me that Will isn't suffering from insomnia because of the light levels, it's because he is conflicted about his partner's death. The events of the beach are eating him up. If it weren't for that, I think he'd have been thinking clearer, and probably have found some kind of sleep (even if it wouldn't have been the highest quality).

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[–] yvesyves (682) a year ago

HA HA i was thinking the same all along the moive (even though i love the movie)

The sun never goes down for several months and the hotel doesn't have efficient BLACK THICK curtains or blinders?

Any of the cops cannot offer him to come sleep in the basement of their house where it's 100% dark?

It's dumb but this "i cannot sleep" thing is like the biggest plot hole hahaha

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