Some explanations I haven't seen here...

I think he was already dead and trapped in some sort of purgatorial state.

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."

Some excellent analysis, mate.

Did you also know that the Gate of Horn is from ancient mythology/mysteries? It is the gate through which true dreams pass to humanity (the Gate of Ivory is for lies). So Llewyn set out on a quest, basically, to hear an oracle. Sadly, when he hears it, he cannot stomach the choices that would be needed to follow it, even though he KNOWS "that's good advice."

And on his way home, he sees the animal limping off into the woods in the cold. I wonder if he reflected on himself then, and what loss fate had sent screeching into his own life?

The nautical aspect is also interesting to me. He's a sailor, maybe searching for the shores of Heaven. If we take these shores to mean happiness, I find it tragic that he'll be literally sailing away from them by the end of the movie. If we take them to mean sweet death and rest, then he'll be sailing to them after all, sooner than he'd intended maybe.

These are all great theories and ideas, I love them! I think what the Coen's did great here was walk the fine line of ambiguity. They gave us just enough to allow us to make our own conclusions. I never thought of a lot of what others have proposed on here, but reading them has made me appreciate the film even more.

All the evidence people give makes sense enough for me to not really be able to dispute it. I'm just not sure how deep they wanted us to read here because I've seen explanations all over the place and that vary, but damn they're some good ones!

There are some interesting thoughts there, I do think the music in the film would have been chosen for certain reasons and to convey something.

I do disagree though about the beginning and the ending. From what I remember it is pretty clearly the same scene. Although we don't see Llewyn play 'Dink's song' at the beginning, there is a delay between him finishing 'Hang me oh Hang me' and then him being off stage. Likewise at the end he has been on stage for a while when he plays 'Dink's song' and it seems pretty clear that he has just finished 'Hang me oh Hang me'.
He is also wearing the same clothes in both scenes and the fight outside is more or less identical.


I Sympathise with Lars Von Trier.

Sigh. The differences in the events at the beginning that are shown again at the end are stylistic. Filmmakers wanting to show and scene and then revisit again are stuck with limited options. They can replay that part or refilm it. Coens refilmed it and let the differences remain. The vocals were live, so it was never going to be the same. And allowing for differences for stylistic reasons is hard new.

Too, you see two small clips of him singing out of what would be a whole set. It's hardly enough to build a big theory on the back of.

The vanilla reading of this film - showing an event and then rewinding to a point before it to show the lead up to it (which isn't apparent on the first watch until the end) - showing Llewyn's existential struggles at a time of change in the culture are enough to sustain the film. It doesn't help when people feel the need to jump on every stylistic element to find a (gasp) deeper meaning. It's great as it is.

You make some interesting observations on the songs. I wrote about some of this a while back, but you've added other things about the songs that are interesting. (love the music too BTW).

The movie is like a song/album and is meant to play over and over like a chorus, as in the structure of the film and Llewyn repeating patterns.

I won't repeat everything I previously wrote, but all the leaving clues/songs refers to his journey (to the gate of horn...greener pastures) and "odyssey" as others have mentioned those references and eventual return home to find himself (the poster of "Homeward Bound" shows us this). I feel he finds his true self on his journey and accepts his place and comes to terms with all his problems. Dylan is about the hit the scene and raise the tide for other folk musicians.

I think another overall theme of the film is how we romanticize different periods (midnight in paris), but the realities at the time/place may have felt much different. Decades/centuries later they may be thought of as :golden ages", because of what came out of them, but like many artists, their work is not valued during their lives, and is only later appreciated (financially as well) well after they are dead.

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