The film often showed random empty rooms for like 10 seconds each. What exactly was the point? I found myself forwarding to scenes with Amy Adams, because she's the only reason to watch.
http://thesillywagon.com/blog/uploaded_images/brad-angelina-cannes-200 7-26-743572.jpg
I saw them as effective when they popped up right after the big arrival scene. Everyone's just sitting around waiting for them to get there, they get there, Amy Adams talks quickly for a solid five minutes, and they leave and the house is quiet and empty and like it always is. Her constant dialog for minutes and minutes contrasted well for me with the suddenly death of the house when they all left.
The house is there, whether they're there or not. Just doing its quiet thing. When they're all dead and gone, it'll still be there, etc. I'm just throwing things out, I don't think it had a specific meaning.
I thought they were such great shots because I never think about my house once I leave it. It just sitting there lifeless and silent while I'm gone. I loved all the little details you could see. The exercise equipment next to the bed, lifeless. The little trinkets, silently waiting for action, though I doubt anyone ever notices them even when they are there.
I have never joined IMDb before but I finally did so I could reply to this comment. The same question had been niggling in my brain during/after the movie and I think the above answer is brilliant...definitely worthy of thought.
As a society we are so busy accumulating stuff and things and yet we don't think about them when we aren't occupying the same space. I love it when a movie gets you to think about something in a new way. Thank you to geniusmalemodel for bringing the thought full circle and increasing my appreciation.
It's great that you've joined imdb, but the message which prompted you I don't find too insightful.
To me, it seems that one of the points of the empty rooms was to let the audience get the feel of the values these small town people have. Even though they aren't urban and modern, they are decent people, and their home is wholesome. It is a nice house, however conservative and pragmatic it may be. The film goes a long way not to take a side in the culture clash we have here. The Johnstens are not presented as some Southern hicks, where a lesser film could be expected to commit that mistake. (Likewise, the big city people are not presented as materialistic lost souls.)
Other point is that the scenes make us, the audience, feel like we are sneaking and peaking at these people in Madeleine's shoes. They are her husband's family and, therefore, her family, yet she knows nothing about them. Looking at those ancient cupboards, old tables, the floors, the walls and the window we realize how much previous life that house holds. The life almost completely unbeknownst to somebody who is no less than a wife to the Son. How much of this house is the man whose ring she's wearing? Does she know this guy with a sexy smile, George? Can a person be truly independent of his earlier hometown life? Madeleine doesn't know too much about that; she maybe doesn't even have a hometown, as she spent her childhool on several different continents. Everything she's seeing during those few days is new to her. I feel those scenes of the house help accentuate these things.
And yet another point is to show how deep in "their ways" these people are by showing the routinely garnished small Southern town house. In their routine drops in this outworldy woman like a bomb. Will this old house ever be able to withstand her? This house, the symbol of the collective... against the big city person, the symbol of the individual. In that regard, the shots of the house make us leave the POV of Madeleine. This film is no more about her than is about any other member of this family.
Finally, the shots with an empty house are maybe there to show that nothing exciting is going on in that world. Along with the shots of the house, there are also the shots of the bland, usual lawns, of the usual neighbor, of the neighbors' usual stroll on the grass under the sun. It may be a boring life, but at least there are no surprises, it's safe. (Which is exactly what the matriarch feels is under attack by the woman with a "deadly combination": too pretty and too smart to be safe.)
no i am db
Thoroughly enjoyed your response, rex_ilusivii and find it spot it. I don't think that renders geniusmalemodel's interpretation incorrect as it is accurate in a different light. The house does allow us to take sense of how lifeless our homes can be but in terms of the film, it illustrates how lifeless rural life can be.
shareI enjoyed seeing the house as it was when all straight and waiting to ge lived in. When the famiky is there arguing or talking tbe house disappears. It is only when the people LEAVE that we see where they live. What is of value to the homemaker, etc.
I got the impression that this was not the set. That this was an actual home they used either to film the scenes or maybe used just for the empty house shots.
It looked lime most middle class homes, whether if was north or south. Also madeline had lived all over like an army brat and would not havd a home full of mementos but she might have fine art.
She was as different from them as nigt and day. That marriage might hav a hard road in futue.