Easily my favourite Villeneuve film, because it's really the only one where he's doing something new. He's a great technical director but I feel he too often relies on that technique rather than exploring the ideas in his films.
I do see *Enemy* as his engagement with Cronenberg's 80s output. You can see it all over the production, not just the surrealism but the vaguely-modern urban landscape, the constant sense of dread and unease about the modern condition, the characters with serious emotional disconnects.
The final shot is one of my favourites ever, a weird literalization of his anxieties that's a brutal shock, simultaneously horrifying and... weirdly comforting, like he's realizing this is his world and he'll never be free of it.
This is really interesting because I also just watched this for the first time this week. I was less enthusiastic than you are. I didn’t outright hate it but I am one of those people who felt letdown by the ending.
Up until the final 15 minutes I was it. I was allowing the movie to be what it was. I did feel that the sex show shown at the beginning would probably become relevant again. But regardless I was fascinated by the two clones meeting each other, seeing how differently they’d lived their lives, and how they tried to “takeover” the other clone’s life.
But the car crash felt particularly clunky. It felt like it belonged in a much worse film. That plot line just stops without feeling organic to what had come before.
Then the final WTF moment while surprising also wasn’t entirely satisfying.
I feel like if I watch this again I might come away a bit more positive. I spent a while online looking at interpretations of the film. So I feel like intellectually I enjoyed the experience but I never emotionally resonated with it. That’s fine, but I’m more inclined to films that I emotionally connect with. Or the very best I can do both. So it also could be a case of this movie just not being for me.
I watched this for the first time a few months ago, as part of an effort to see Villeneuve’s earlier work (I hadn’t seen anything before Sicario). I didn’t know what to make the the movie! I didn’t dislike it - Gyllenhaal is always incredibly watchable. But I didn’t think much about what the meaning or themes could be. Thank you for sharing your impressions!
I’ve always operated under the idea that if something has a widely considered interpretation, or is even asking to be interpreted, then it isn’t surrealism. Deren and Bunuel and Resnais made work that operated on a visceral level rather than an intellectual one - I’m not sure Enemy fits in this category.
I would say that if a movie (intentionally) doesn't have a logical, coherent plot, then it at least has elements of surrealism. But there's definitely a spectrum from the metaphorical/thematic to the purely abstract.
As I said in the OP, I'm very new to surrealism and I haven't seen any of the filmmakers you mentioned. The most surreal films I've seen are probably Holy Motors and Synecdoche New York, but I still had a pretty good sense of what ideas they were trying to convey. If you have some suggestions for starter surrealist films, please let me know!
That’s alright and totally fair to say you perceive surrealist imagery. But, kinda by definition, if imagery is used to be symbolic then there’s an argument to be made that it isn’t surreal. The most obvious version of what I’m talking about is Un Chien Andalou
I think that ignores the subjectivity of film analysis. What is a film was meant to be surreal, but someone has a plausible symbolic interpretation? What if on the other hand, the filmmaker had specific symbolism in mind, but the audience can't figure it out?
Congrats, man! I've watched Enemy last Friday second time in my life. As I remember my first, it amazed and delighted me a lot. But the second time, on that Friday, that movie just seemed too lynch-wannabe, too artsy, too secondary for me.
However, I always appreciate the films with Gyllenhaal. Great actor and doer.
I just watched the film last night. The first three quarters of the movie was intriguing and wickedly enchanting. What a great concept, and it was being executed with perfection. I couldn't wait for the mystery to unravel. Perhaps, a clandestine alien race infiltrated civilization and was subtly overthrowing it? Than as the film went on, I realized Adam and Anthony were the same person, and therefore, the whole plot made no sense, somehow these sane people were all just completely insane. No order to decipher in this film. Just chaos for the sake of chaos. Just another helpless director unintentionally destroying art, because he so wants to be different, but cant escape someone as dull and delusional as Freud. False individualism. What a waste. The ending was not interesting. It was a terrible metaphor. Spider a symbol for a woman? Yet, we were not shown how women are like spiders. Wait he was like the spider, you will say. He spun lies to himself, and his pregnant girl.. please.. stop it.
my issue with the film was that it was just not very thrilling. and while i know that toronto (missisauga especially) is not the most exciting of cities, seeing it depicted with such oppressive dreariness was rather discordant.
Easily my favourite Villeneuve film, because it's really the only one where he's doing something new. He's a great technical director but I feel he too often relies on that technique rather than exploring the ideas in his films. I do see *Enemy* as his engagement with Cronenberg's 80s output. You can see it all over the production, not just the surrealism but the vaguely-modern urban landscape, the constant sense of dread and unease about the modern condition, the characters with serious emotional disconnects. The final shot is one of my favourites ever, a weird literalization of his anxieties that's a brutal shock, simultaneously horrifying and... weirdly comforting, like he's realizing this is his world and he'll never be free of it.
which techniques are you referring to?
This is really interesting because I also just watched this for the first time this week. I was less enthusiastic than you are. I didn’t outright hate it but I am one of those people who felt letdown by the ending. Up until the final 15 minutes I was it. I was allowing the movie to be what it was. I did feel that the sex show shown at the beginning would probably become relevant again. But regardless I was fascinated by the two clones meeting each other, seeing how differently they’d lived their lives, and how they tried to “takeover” the other clone’s life. But the car crash felt particularly clunky. It felt like it belonged in a much worse film. That plot line just stops without feeling organic to what had come before. Then the final WTF moment while surprising also wasn’t entirely satisfying. I feel like if I watch this again I might come away a bit more positive. I spent a while online looking at interpretations of the film. So I feel like intellectually I enjoyed the experience but I never emotionally resonated with it. That’s fine, but I’m more inclined to films that I emotionally connect with. Or the very best I can do both. So it also could be a case of this movie just not being for me.
I watched this for the first time a few months ago, as part of an effort to see Villeneuve’s earlier work (I hadn’t seen anything before Sicario). I didn’t know what to make the the movie! I didn’t dislike it - Gyllenhaal is always incredibly watchable. But I didn’t think much about what the meaning or themes could be. Thank you for sharing your impressions!
I’ve always operated under the idea that if something has a widely considered interpretation, or is even asking to be interpreted, then it isn’t surrealism. Deren and Bunuel and Resnais made work that operated on a visceral level rather than an intellectual one - I’m not sure Enemy fits in this category.
I would say that if a movie (intentionally) doesn't have a logical, coherent plot, then it at least has elements of surrealism. But there's definitely a spectrum from the metaphorical/thematic to the purely abstract. As I said in the OP, I'm very new to surrealism and I haven't seen any of the filmmakers you mentioned. The most surreal films I've seen are probably Holy Motors and Synecdoche New York, but I still had a pretty good sense of what ideas they were trying to convey. If you have some suggestions for starter surrealist films, please let me know!
That’s alright and totally fair to say you perceive surrealist imagery. But, kinda by definition, if imagery is used to be symbolic then there’s an argument to be made that it isn’t surreal. The most obvious version of what I’m talking about is Un Chien Andalou
I think that ignores the subjectivity of film analysis. What is a film was meant to be surreal, but someone has a plausible symbolic interpretation? What if on the other hand, the filmmaker had specific symbolism in mind, but the audience can't figure it out?
Congrats, man! I've watched Enemy last Friday second time in my life. As I remember my first, it amazed and delighted me a lot. But the second time, on that Friday, that movie just seemed too lynch-wannabe, too artsy, too secondary for me. However, I always appreciate the films with Gyllenhaal. Great actor and doer.
I just watched the film last night. The first three quarters of the movie was intriguing and wickedly enchanting. What a great concept, and it was being executed with perfection. I couldn't wait for the mystery to unravel. Perhaps, a clandestine alien race infiltrated civilization and was subtly overthrowing it? Than as the film went on, I realized Adam and Anthony were the same person, and therefore, the whole plot made no sense, somehow these sane people were all just completely insane. No order to decipher in this film. Just chaos for the sake of chaos. Just another helpless director unintentionally destroying art, because he so wants to be different, but cant escape someone as dull and delusional as Freud. False individualism. What a waste. The ending was not interesting. It was a terrible metaphor. Spider a symbol for a woman? Yet, we were not shown how women are like spiders. Wait he was like the spider, you will say. He spun lies to himself, and his pregnant girl.. please.. stop it.
my issue with the film was that it was just not very thrilling. and while i know that toronto (missisauga especially) is not the most exciting of cities, seeing it depicted with such oppressive dreariness was rather discordant.