MovieChat Forums > Everything Is Illuminated (2005) Discussion > Driving towards the moon

Driving towards the moon

posted 15 years ago by JoccoDB
3 replies | jump to latest

Since this film is about Illumination and light according to the tittle and there are these other symbolical references to the sun as like sunflowers around the house of the woman who will illuminate them about the past. etc etc. There is one scene keeps haunting my thoughts because it focusses on the moon. Which isn't radiant by itself like the sun whose light makes things visible for us.
In this one scene they are driving in the car directly towards the moon in clear daylight and the other moment the grandfather sees it in his sidevieuw mirror behind him. Since sun might be symbolical for illumination and making them conscious about the past it would make more sence to me if they were driving towards the sun, but they aren't. They are driving towards the moon at one minute and the next shot it is behind them vissible in the side-vieuw mirror. The moon probably being the opposite of the sun. the unconscious. the supressed passed of the grandfather. they are driving towards that. The unconscious. the supressed past. But the other minute it is behind them seen from the side-vieuw mirror just before the grandfather starting to have his flashbacks about his (I presume) supressed past. Why this shift? Because he is starting to remember?

I feel stil a little bit in the dark here. Can anybody shed some light on this for me or any other explanations to all the sun/moon accurences in this film?

And what is this with this white laundrey in front of the house with the sunflowers?

[–] IIIISmile_its_VivIIII 15 years ago

The reoccuring shots of the through out the film is because he is starting to remember. The moon is important because it is the first thing he sees when he opens his eyes in the pile of bodies. My having shots of the moon earlier on we can link back and see that he hasn't been supressing his memory the whole trip, it has been coming back to him as he gets closer to Trachimbrod.

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[–] jonah_begone 15 years ago

I liked the metaphorical, representation stuff in this film. It adds great depth.

Eyes: The grandfather pretends that he is blind. (Spiritually, he is.) He gazes at the sleeping American Jew who wears glasses that makes his eyes bigger; the American Jew knows very well that he himself is Jewish. At the end of the film the grandfather once again sees, and kills himself. His grandson (who is beginning to see), closes his eyes.

(It oddly ties in with classical Greek drama. Oedipus, a name meaning roughly "I know," wants to see. When he learns his own true identity and his involvement in a past crime, he blinds himself.)

Everyone, including the old lady, has blue eyes, tying them all together visually.

The end of the German rifle is exaggerated in the shot, suggesting an eye.

The grandson wears his shirt inside out. What's in should be out, what's out should be in. At the end of the film the grandson embraces who he is and wears a yamuke. (He exchanges his Kangol cap - a false, adopted heritage - for a yamuke, his true heritage.)

Things are illuminated by the moon and the sun (sunflowers). The facts are revealed in the light of day, represented by the home surrounded by the sunflowers. The past is revealed in the light of the moon.

The dog's affections and loyalties vary, but, in general, he seems to grow to accept those who accept themselves. I haven't figured out the representational role of the dog, however. Perhaps he's just insane!

The grandson is embarrassed to be from Odessa in front of the workers. And he doesn't want to be seen as an American, either. This is dramatic shadowing as he discovers he's a Jew and must decide how to present his outer face to the world.

I'm sure there's more, but what a wonderfully textured work this is...

[–] angelosdaughter (158) 3 years ago

I think the white laundry is because Lista supports herself taking in laundry. When we first see her, she is scrubbing something on a washboard.