Quote of the day

[iambiguous]

A good movie is one where you really, really don’t know for sure what the hell is going to happening next. Especially in a context this potentially volatile.

Still: Is every working class family in England exactly the same? Well, if all you know about them comes from what you see in the cinema then, yeah, I guess they are.

And, in describing them, dysfunctional is right at the top of the list. And then impoverished. They seem to go together. It’s all their own fault though. Any conservative can explain why.

But everything is really about the gaps between the exteriors some show the world and the interiors that are considerably more vulnerable. People live this way. I once lived this way. And if you never have, what the fuck can you really know about it?

There’s hope though: Hip Hop. Dancing. Being an “artist”. And how hopeless is that? For most of course. And the audition turns out be for “dancers” of an entirely different sort anyway.

Fish Tank

Mia [shouting to Keeley’s father]: Can you give Keeley a message for me? Tell her I think her old man’s a ****!

In a more or less dysfunctional working class community, let's say.

Tyler [little sister]: Whatcha doin?
Mia: Mind your own fuck face.
Tyler: If I’m a fuck face, you’re a **** face.

That kinda working class family.

Tyler [to Connor leaving the house]: I like you. So I’ll kill you last.

She's five years old.

Joanne [Mia’s mother, to Connor]: She’s never had a boyfriend.
Mia: I just fucked him upstairs actually.
Joanne: Oh, that’s nice.

And maybe she actually did.

Joanne [throwing an envelope at Mia]: It’s about your new school. You get to stay there. You can fuck as many ASBO boys as you like there.

Dig deeper?

Mia: I ain’t going.
Connor: That place might teach you some manners.
Mia: It’s nothing to do with you, is it?
Connor: You need sortin’ out you do.
Mia: So you keep saying. But you’re nothin’ to me, so why should I listen?

Though from time to time he's only next to nothing to her.

[iambiguous]

Fish Tank

Tyler: Why do you need so much stuff?
Mia [packing]: Just in case.
Tyler: What about the referral unit?
Mia: You can have my place.
Tyler: I don’t want it. They’re full of spastics and idiots.

Did I mention that Tyler is about 5 years old?

Mia: I’m leaving then.
Joanne [dancing]: This is one of your CDs.
Mia: Yeah. It’s Nas.
Joanne: Yeah, it’s great.
Mia: You can keep it.
Joanne: Well, go on then. Fuck off.

Okay, Mom.

Tyler [burying her face in Mia’s abdomen] I hate you!
Mia [tenderly]: I hate you, too.

Now that takes me back.

Tyler [to Mia in a car heading for Wales]: Bye, you skank! Don’t forget to text me. Say hello to the whales!

Music from Nas over the closing credits: https://youtu.be/c_1-DSzBDwc?si=Ab91nWhKD3ot_rkW

[iambiguous]

The gist:

Ten years ago, after being wrongly accused of a hideous murder of a mother and her twin daughters, Sean Veil became paranoid, filming himself twenty-four hours a day to have an alibi if necessary.

A very strange film to look at. An even stranger one to wrap your head around. You can imagine someone possibly being reduced to this. But you have a much harder time imagining yourself. Or, rather, I did.

It’s a thicket of half-truths and lies. And less than coherent at times. Put your thinking cap away and just tumble down into the fog.

It is less a “psychological thriller” [as it is described] than a psychopathological thriller. A truly dystopian “ambiance” pervades. But probably the kind of world killers like this inhabit. Unless of course they are far more “ordinary” then we would ever care to admit.

It is also a commentary on our tabloid culture. Everything is grist for the entertainment mill. Crime in particular. Individuals become merely characters to be played…parts to be molded and manipulated into whatever “drama” sells the most merchandise.

One thing for sure: No one would ever believe this is based on a true story.

It isn’t, is it?

Look for Tucker.

Freeze Frame

Sean [voiceover]: 24 hours in a day. 1,440 separate minutes in which someone could meet their end at the hands of someone who may or may not look like me. 86,400 seconds in which someone could breathe their last. That’s time to be accounted for. All 31,536,000 seconds of life or death each and every year.

And that's all before Judgment Day.

Sean [voiceover]: Things to remember: 1] Paranoia is a malfunction of the ability to reason. I can reason. Therefore I am not paranoid. 2] the principle characteristics of the paranoid personality are delusions, hostility, suspicions. I am not deluded. I am not suspicious. I may be hostile but that is only because they really are out to get me.

You know, in a free will world.

Sean [voiceover]: 9 years, 11 months, 28 days and 1553 murders since. 975 of which were unsolved. How many more are they trying to pin on me?

Stay tuned.

Sean [to reporter]: I don’t give interviews. Not without editorial control. Words can be distorted, twisted, reedited. Things can be made to seem more than what they are.

Not here, of course.

Sean [voiceover]: Things to remember. 3] It’s everywhere. All around me. The threat. I feel it. You never lose it. They make sure of that.

Actually, I've lost it a few times here.

Sean [voiceover]: If I could, I’d live here. Set up home right on this spot to be surveilled 24 hours a day. My whereabouts always known as fact. Verifiable, indisputable facts. That would be sheer heaven.

He means hell, of course. Or maybe not?

Sean [voiceover]: Things to remember: 4] The first law of forensics. Lockhart’s Theory. Every contact leaves a trace. I leave nothing anywhere that they can trace back to me.

In theory, let's say.

Emeric: The question is Sean how come your tapes don’t match her tapes?

On the other hand, no one can think of everything.

Detective Mountjoy: You seem kind of relaxed, if you don’t mind me saying. For a man who’s about to spend the next 30 years sucking unwashed dick.
Sean: You seem kinda jealous, if you don’t mind me saying.

Who won?

Katie [straddling him]: How long do you think you can hold out, Sean? Come on, let it go. You know you want to.

Oh, boy!

Sean [voiceover]: Things to remember: 5] Never have sex without a condom. Ever. Once they get a hold of your sperm, you’re fucked.

DNA and all.

Katie: Don’t worry, Sean, this is one part of your life that won’t be going on tape.

We'll see.

Sean [voiceover]: Things to remember: 6] Never stop filming yourself. Ever. Off camera is off guard.

One more thing to remember: Make sure the web-cam is working!

[iambiguous]

God

“The ancients were afraid that if they went to the end of the earth they would fall off and be consumed by dragons. But once we understand that Christianity is true to what is there, true to the ultimate environment - the infinite, personal God who is really there - then our minds are freed. We can pursue any question and can be sure that we will not fall off the end of the earth.” Francis Schaeffer

And the part about Hell?

“Anything beyond the limits and grasp of the human mind is either illusion or futility; and because your god having to be one or the other of the two, in the first instance I should be mad to believe in him, and in the second a fool.” Marquis De Sade

Or, perhaps, a whole lot of both?

Omnipotent-benevolent simply means that God is all-powerful and well-meaning.'
'I understand the concept. It's just . . . there seems to be a contradiction.'
'Yes. The contradiction is pain. Man's starvation, war, sickness . . .'
'Exactly!' Chartrand knew the camerlengo would understand. 'Terrible things happen in this world. Human tragedy seems like proof that God could not possibly be both all-powerful and well-meaning. If He loves us and has the power to change our situation, He would prevent our pain, wouldn't He?'
The camerlengo frowned. 'Would He?'
Chartrand felt uneasy. Had he overstepped his bounds? Was this one of those religious questions you just didn't ask? 'Well . . . if God loves us, and He can protect us, He would have to. It seems He is either omnipotent and uncaring, or benevolent and powerless to help.'
'Do you have children, Lieutenant?'
Chartrand flushed. 'No, signore.'
'Imagine you had an eight-year-old son . . . would you love him?'
'Of course.'
'Would you let him skateboard?'
Chartrand did a double take. The camerlengo always seemed oddly "in touch" for a clergyman. 'Yeah, I guess,' Chartrand said. 'Sure, I'd let him skateboard, but I'd tell him to be careful.'
'So as this child's father, you would give him some basic, good advice and then let him go off and make his own mistakes?'
'I wouldn't run behind him and mollycoddle him if that's what you mean.'
'But what if he fell and skinned his knee?'
'He would learn to be more careful.'
The camerlengo smiled. 'So although you have the power to interfere and prevent your child's pain, you would choose to show your love by letting him learn his own lessons?'
'Of course. Pain is part of growing up. It's how we learn.'
The camerlengo nodded. 'Exactly'” Dan Brown

I'm sorry, but that may well be nothing short of preposterous. On the other hand, whatever works?

“'All of a sudden, we’ve lost a lot of control,’ he said. ‘We can’t turn off our internet; we can’t turn off our smartphones; we can’t turn off our computers. You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts with g-o, and it’s not God…'” Steve Wozniak

Who could it be then?

“How can you expect humans to be fair, if life itself is unfair!” Mouloud Benzadi

That's their problem.

“Define the word exist, and you'll know whether God exists.” Bill Gaede

Define the word define?

[iambiguous]

Jeffery is right: It’s a strange world. But, come on, how many of us ever find it this strange? More to the point though is that we know it can be. It’s out there. And the more it’s depicted in films like this the more it is likely to spread. A paradox?

We never really know just how close we are to Frank. Maybe he lives next door. Or maybe you’re Frank. One of them. I’ve bumped into some strange folks right here la la land. And, of course, they’ve bumped into me.

And then there is Dorothy. Is she a creature of Frank or did she come into that world predisposed to move it along? And who would have thought that Isabella Rossellini was as spooky as Dennis Hopper. In “real life”. At least back then.

Basically, I think it is all just a metaphor for the mystery of existence itself. Why things happen in one way and not in another. And what lies below the surface of any particular understanding of it. The stuff underground. The stuff “civilization” is just a veneer covering up. Lots of films like that, of course. But this one is especially effective in juxtaposing them.

In one ear and out another.

Blue Velvet

Radio announcer: It’s a sunny, woodsy day in Lumberton, so get those chainsaws out. This is the mighty W.O.O.D., the musical voice of Lumberton. At the sound of the falling tree, it’s 9:30. There’s a whole lotta wood waitin’ out there, so let’s get goin’.

It's just around the corner from Twin Peaks.

Jeffrey: I found an ear.
Detective Williams (matter of factly): You did? A human ear?
Jeffrey: Yeah. I’ve got it here in this bag. I thought I should bring it to you.
Detective Williams [looking in the bag]: That’s a human ear all right.

That's why he's a detective,

Jeffrey: There are opportunities in life for gaining knowledge and experience. Sometimes, in some cases, it’s necessary to take a risk. I got to thinking. I’ll bet a person could learn a lot by getting into that woman’s apartment. You know, sneak in and hide and observe.

What could possibly go wrong?

Sandy: I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.

That's before they fall in love and live happily ever after.

Dorothy [to Jeffrey]: Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!

That threw him for a loop.

Sandy [after Jeffrey tells her about Dorothy, Don, her son and Frank]: It is a strange world.
Jeffrey [fiercely]: Why are there people like Frank?! Why is there so much trouble in this world?!
Sandy: I don’t know. I had a dream. In fact, it was on the night I met you. In the dream, there was our world, and the world was dark because there weren’t any robins and the robins represented love. And for the longest time, there was this darkness. And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free and they flew down and brought this blinding light of love. And it seemed that love would make any difference, and it did. So, I guess it means that there is trouble until the robins come.

Right, robins.

[iambiguous]

Madness

“How can you tell who are the clever men and who are the madmen in this world, where reason and folly, madness and genius are often confused.” Guy de Maupassant

Next up: clever women.

“There is a ghosting software that enters the brain and makes the person view multiple realities/dimensions of the same thing even with truth or without truth. This causes the madness effect of an uncertain gaze and renders this person unbelievable.” Maria Karvouni

Next up: the uncertain post.

“Sometimes going mad is the only path to freedom.” Alistair Cross

I'll tell you about it when I get there.

“Joseph recalls his mother who was 'mad and screaming like birds were sewn under her skin'.” Evie Wyld

Raptors.

"The mystic and the madman have some similarity. All madmen may not be mystics, but all mystics are mad. By “mad” I mean they have gone beyond mind. The madman may have fallen below mind, and the mystic may have gone beyond mind, but one thing is similar – both are not in their minds.” Osho

Uh, you tell me?

“At a certain point in my life, I realized that there were only two options: either I was completely losing my mind, or I was finally getting closer to the truth.” Lenka Dvorcakova.

If there's a difference, of course.

[iambiguous]

Blue Velvet

Dorothy [to Jeffrey]: I looked for you in my closet tonight.

Carerful, Jeffrey...

Sandy: You’re not going back to her apartment, are you?
Jeffrey: Yeah.
Sandy [very concerned]: Jeffrey, why?
Jeffrey: I’m seeing something that was always hidden. I’m involved in a mystery. I’m in the middle of a mystery and it’s all secret.

That and all scripted.
Not that we don't know better.

Dorothy: You think I’m crazy don’t you?
[pauses]
Dorothy: I want you to stay. Don’t hate me.
Jeffrey: I sure don’t hate you.
Dorothy: I’m not crazy.
[pauses]
Dorothy: I know the difference between right and wrong!
Jeffrey: That’s good.
Dorothy: You’re my special friend.
[walks toward Jeffrey, a knowing smile on her face]
Dorothy: I still have you inside of me!

Remember Sandy?

Frank: Hey you wanna go for a ride?
Jeffrey: No thanks.
Frank: No thanks? What does that mean?
Jeffrey: I don’t wanna go.
Frank: Go where?
Jeffrey: For a ride.
Frank: A ride! Hell that’s a good idea!

Heads he wins, tails you lose.

Raymond: He’s a pussy, Frank!
Frank: Yeah, but he’s our pussy.

If not literally?

Dorothy [to Jeffrey]: I love you! Love me! [To Sandy] He put his disease in me!
Jeffrey: Sandy, please…
Sandy: Jeffrey, what is going on here?
Jeffrey: I’ll tell you…
Dorothy: He put his disease in me.

A couple of times.

Sandy: Where is my dream…?

Cue the robins.

[iambiguous]

I grew up in a dysfunctional family myself. Nothing like this though. This one is more fucked up than the folks in Fish Tank. And it’s not even from England. But what’s England got on working class families from the deep South?

Here of course the rich are even more fucked up than the lower middle class. And it takes an unemployed football coach from South Carolina [who, if nothing else, is colorful] to nudge them in a more satisfying direction.

And then there is The Incident. Some families have one and some don’t. Or some have a series of less traumatic events. One of this magnitude though can put whole future in the crosshairs. There is before and there is after. Period. End of story. And nothing is ever quite the same. But the movie unfortunately barely scratches the surface here.

To wit: The movie vs. the book:

Those who have both seen the movie and read the book say that the novel is much richer in detail, as well as more disturbing, than in the movie. Savannah’s story, as well as the tiger’s role, were larger in the novel. Luke, who is the real ‘Prince of Tides’ in the book, was almost entirely left out of the movie and the bonds between the three children were played down, while Tom’s love affair with Susan was made the central theme. The killing of the three escaped prisoners also was handled differently in the book, such that Tom killed one and the tiger killed the other two. Several viewers have commented that there were so many stories in the 600-page book that at least 4-6 different films could be shot and never repeat the same information. IMDb

The Prince of Tides

Tom [narrating]: There are families who live out their entire lives without a single thing of interest happening to them. I’ve always envied those families.

Me too. Sort of.

Tom [narrating]: From my mother I inherited a love of language and an appreciation of nature. She could turn a walk around the island into a voyage of purest discovery. As a child, I thought she was the most extraordinary woman on earth. I wasn’t the first son to be wrong about his mother.

My guess: and probably not the last. Dad too.

Tom: Now girls, have I ever told you the facts of life?
Jennifer: Oh, not this again.
Tom: Stay away from boys 'cause they are all disgusting, self-indulgent beasts that pee on bushes and pick their noses.

And then that other part.

Tom [narrating]: It was only my sister who could force me to come to this God-awful city. This city that roars down on you. She loved it all. The muggers, the winos…the bag ladies, the wall-to-wall noise. She loved it because it had nothing to do with our childhood. Luke and I hated it for exactly the same reason.

Different folks, different strokes. Even from the same dysfunctional family.

Tom: I’m sick of my sister’s attraction to razor blades - and I’m sick of shrinks who can’t do a fucking thing to help her!

You know, on this side of the grave.

Tom: What the hell is going on here? Why is she strapped down?
Susan: Her team felt she had to be restrained…
Tom: Why? She has enough drugs to anesthetize a whale!
Susan: Her team decides…
Tom: Quit calling them her team! Sounds like she’s trying out for the Giants.
Susan: What should I call them?
Tom: Let’s be creative. Let’s call them assholes.
Susan: Let me tell you something about those assholes. I’m grateful because they saved your sister’s life.
Tom: Well, I don’t like to see her strapped down!
Susan: I don’t care what you like. She’s still a threat to herself. There’s no point to this unless we keep Savannah alive. And I don’t care if it takes drugs or voodoo or reading tarot cards…I want her alive.

Next up: the team here.

[iambiguous]

Prince of Tides

Tom: It’s the Southern Way; when things get too painful, we either avoid them or we laugh.
Susan: When do you cry the Southern Way?
Tom: [laughing] We don’t.

Next up: the Southern Way here.

Susan: So you feel your mother betrayed you?
Tom: I was talking about my wife!
Susan: Oh…

Ask me about mine.

Eddie: How’s Savannah? When can I see her?
Tom: I don’t know, Eddie. It’s like talking to a fern.
Eddie: Well, I’m glad she’s improving.

No joke?

Tom: What if I’d done the same to your son?
Susan: It’s not the same thing!
Tom: I’ll make him a Presbyterian quarterback!
Susan: It’s quite different. My son didn’t try to kill himself.
Tom: Give him time, Lowenstein. Give him time!

A low blow, let’s call it.

Tom [to Susan]: Mother got the island in the divorce settlement. She immediately sold it to the government for a lot of money. They wanted to put up a power plant. Luke went crazy. He made some threats. The government laughed. He blew up a construction site. They quit laughing. He went on waging his own private war. Hurt some people. Savannah and I tried to stop him, but the government stopped him first. Shot him in the head.

Dead as a doornail.

[Luke blows the TV to hell with shotgun]
Luke [to Henry]: TV’s broken you son of a bitch. Now you can watch your kids blow out their candles.


In a flashback.

Tom: How about Luke? Do you ever think about Luke? Does he ever cross your mind?
Lila: Who taught you to be so cruel?
Tom: You did, Mama, you did.

Then, one way or another, it’s Luke all the way down.

Susan: How old was Savannah when this happened?
Tom: Thirteen.
Susan: What were you doing while this was going on?
Tom: I don’t know.
Susan: You don’t know? Maybe you ran for help?
Tom: I don’t know. I don’t know.
Susan: Why do you think you didn’t?
Tom: I don’t know. Just because.
Susan: That’s a child’s answer, Tom.

Unless, like Bartleby, you prefer not to know.

Herbert: That Stradivarius is worth over a million dollars!
Tom: Well, if I drop it, it won’t be worth shit.
Susan: Don’t do it, Tom.
Tom: Apologize to your wife, Herbert.
Herbert: You’re bluffing.
Tom: I may be, but its a powerful bluff, isn’t it, asshole?
[Tom throws the fiddle high in the air over the penthouse balcony]
Herbert [screaming]: I’m sorry, Susan!
[Tom catches fiddle]
Tom: Sincerity becomes you, Herbie. Now apologize to me for your unforgivable breach of etiquette at the dinner table tonight, you possum-bred cocksucker.
Herbert: I’m very sorry, Tom.

Uh, read the book.

[iambiguous]

Nicolas Chamfort

If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor.

Next up: if you must loathe your neighbor.

Having lots of ideas doesn’t mean you’re clever, any more than having lots of soldiers means you’re a good general.

Tell me about it. And a few others here too.

In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen, in small things they show themselves as they are.

So, how great or how small is what we do here?

In a country where everyone is trying to be noticed, it is better to be bankrupt than to be nothing.

I hope like hell we never get that way here.

Feeling creates thought, men willingly agree; but they will not so willingly agree that thought creates feeling, though this is scarcely less true.

Yo, Mark!

We must know how to perform the foolishness our characters require.

Personas are us.

[iambiguous]

Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. The seven deadly sins in order of severity. Most of us have committed them, of course. If not in that particular order. And with a greater or a lesser degree of malice aforethought. But then that’s what rationalizations are for. To explain it away.

Or how about these: Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility. The seven cardinal virtues. Aside from the first, no doubt, we’ve all been down these roads too.

Another religious nut doing God’s will. Just considerably more inventive this time. Oh, and also “independently wealthy”.

The thing about Detective Somerset is this: he has earned his cynicism. It’s not just a jaded, nihilistic “philosophy of life” rooted in the intellectual equivalent of ennui or existential angst. He has seen the worst life can dish out. But how far is that from all the other things life can be?

Seven

Somerset: I meant to ask you something before, when we spoke on the phone: Why here?
Mills: I don’t follow.
Somerset: Why all the effort to get transferred? It’s the first question that popped into my head.
Mills: I guess the same reasons as you. The same reasons you had before you decided to quit, yeah?
Somerset: Y… You just met me.
Mills: Maybe I’m not understanding the question.
Somerset: Very simple. You actually fought to get re-assigned here. I’ve just never seen it done that way before.

Let's bring that up with him later.

Police Officer: Nothing’s been touched. Everything’s like I found it.
Somerset: What time was death established?
Police Officer: Like I said, I didn’t touch anything… but he’s had his face in a plate of spaghetti for about forty five minutes now.
Mills: Wait a minute, no one bothers with vital signs?
Police Officer: Did I stutter? This guy ain’t breathing unless he’s breathing spaghetti sauce.
Mills: So that’s how it’s done around here.
Police Officer: I beg your pardon, Detective, but this guy’s been sitting in pile in his own piss and shit, if he wasn’t dead, he would have stood up by now.

Yeah, Mills, what about that?

Mills: Fuckin’ Dante…poetry-writing faggot! Piece of shit, motherfucker!

Yeah, Somerset, what about that?

Somerset: In any major city, minding your own business is a science. First thing they teach women in rape prevention is that you should never cry “help.” Always scream “fire,” because people don’t answer to “help”. You holler “fire” they come running.

And, perhaps, the equivalent of that here?

Mills: Honestly, have you ever seen anything like this?
Somerset: No.

And that's saying something.

SWAT Team cop [preparing to break down a door]: SWAT goes before dicks.
Somerset: They love this.

Let's explain why.[/i]

Mills: Has he tried to speak or communicate in any way?
Dr. Beardsley: Even if his brain were not mush, which it is, he chewed off his own tongue long ago.
Somerset: Uh…Doc, is there absolutely no chance that he might survive?
Dr. Beardsley: Detective, he’d die of shock right now if you were to shine a flashlight in his eyes. He’s experienced about as much pain and suffering as anyone I’ve encountered, give or take…and he still has hell to look forward to.

On the other hand, what if the world we live in now is Hell?

[iambiguous]

Stanisław Lem from Solaris

We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors. We don't know what to do with other worlds. A single world, our own, suffices us; but we can't accept it for what it is.

Let's resolve that.

Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.

Well, you do have my own explanation.

On the surface, I was calm: in secret, without really admitting it, I was waiting for something. Her return? How could I have been waiting for that? We all know that we are material creatures, subject to the laws of physiology and physics, and not even the power of all our feelings combined can defeat those laws. All we can do is detest them.

Here on Earth especially.

I know only one thing: when I sleep, I know no fear, no trouble no bliss. Blessing on him who invented sleep.

And, if I do say myself, dreams.

How do you expect to communicate with the ocean, when you can’t even understand one another?

That ocean in particular.

We don't want to conquer the cosmos, we simply want to extend the boundaries of Earth to the frontiers of the cosmos.

Tell that to the capitalists.

[iambiguous]

Seven

Somerset: For a long time, the F.B.I.'s been hooked into the library system, keeping accurate records. They monitor reading habits. Not every book, but certain ones are flagged. Books about… let’s say, how to build a nuclear bomb, or maybe Mein Kampf. Whoever takes out a flagged book has their library records fed to the F.B.I. from then on.
Mills: You got to be kidding. How is this legal?
Somerset: Legal…illegal. These terms don’t apply. They can’t use the information directly, but it’s a useful guide. It might sound silly, but you can’t get a library card without i.d. and a current phone bill.

I'm probably okay. Now, anyway.

Somerset [Reading from one of John Doe’s journals]: “What sick, ridiculous, puppets we are, and what a gross, little stage we dance on. What fun we have, dancing and fucking, not a care in the world. Not knowing that we are nothing. We are not what was intended. On the subway today, a man came up to me to start a conversation. He made small talk, a lonely man talking about the weather and other things. I tried to be pleasant and accommodating, but my head hurt from his banality. I almost didn’t notice it had happened, but I suddenly threw up all over him. He was not pleased, and I couldn’t stop laughing.

Praise The Lord!

Mills: You didn’t see anyone with a package, a knapsack, something under their arm?
Massage parlor employee: Everybody that comes in here has a package under their arms. Some guys are carrying suitcases full of stuff.

What do you carry in yours?

Mills: Do you like what you do for a living? These things you see?
Massage parlor employee: No, I don’t. But that’s life.

One way or another, the bills get paid.

Somerset: This isn’t going to have a happy ending. If we catch John Doe and he turns out to be the devil, I mean if he’s Satan himself, that might live up to our expectations, but he’s not the devil. He’s just a man.

Tell that to Tracy.

Somerset: People don’t want a hero, they want to eat cheeseburgers, play the lotto and watch television. I just don’t think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.
Mills: You’re no different. You’re no better.
Somerset: I didn’t say I was different or better. I’m not. Hell, I sympathize; I sympathize completely. Apathy is the solution. I mean, it’s easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It’s easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It’s easier to beat a child than it is to raise it. Hell, love costs: it takes effort and work.

Just leave it at that?

[iambiguous]

Seven

Mills: We are talking about people who are mentally ill, we are talking about people who are fucking crazies.
Somerset: No. No, we’re not. We’re talking about everyday life here. You can’t afford to be this naive.

Besides, if they are crazy, isn't it all beyond their control?

Mills: I don’t think you’re quitting because you believe these things you say. I don’t. I think you want to believe them, because you’re quitting. And you want me to agree with you, and you want me to say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re right. It’s all fucked up. It’s a fucking mess. We should all go live in a fucking log cabin.” But I won’t. I don’t agree with you. I do not. I can’t.

We’ll see about that.

Somerset: If John Doe’s head splits open and a UFO should fly out, I want you to have expected it.

Nope, didn't happen.

John Doe: Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.

And, of course, the equivalent of that here.

Mills: Wait, I thought all you did was kill innocent people.
John Doe: Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? An obese man…a disgusting man who could barely stand up; a man who if you saw him on the street, you’d point him out to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him; a man, who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn’t be able to finish your meal. After him, I picked the lawyer and I know you both must have been secretly thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!
Mills: Murderers?
John Doe: A woman…
Mills: Murderers, John, like yourself?
John Doe: [interrupts] A woman…so ugly on the inside she couldn’t bear to go on living if she couldn’t be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer, a drug dealing pederast, actually! And let’s not forget the disease-spreading whore! Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that’s the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it’s common, it’s trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I’m setting the example. What I’ve done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed…forever.

Next up: the John Does here.

John Doe: Don’t ask me to pity those people. I don’t mourn them any more than I do the thousands that died at Sodom and Gomorrah.
Somerset: Is that to say, John, that what you were doing was God’s good work?
John Doe: The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Even He doesn't understand them.

Mills: What was in the box? What was in the box?

Anyone here forget?

John Doe: She begged for her life…
Somerset: Shut up!
John Doe: She begged for her life and…
Somerset: Shut up!
John Doe: She begged for her life and the life of the baby inside her.
[Somerset punches him]
John Doe: Oh… he didn’t know.

We did.

Somerset: David. If you kill him, he will win.

If that's what you want to call it.

Somerset: Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.

Still...

The ending narration of Somerset quoting Ernest Hemingway was an added compromise that neither David Fincher or Morgan Freeman particularly cared for. The decision came from New Line after poor test screenings regarding the dark ending. IMDb

[iambiguous]

The beautiful weather girl torn between two womanizing cads. So: Will she choose the one with considerably more substance? The one who is rich but not idle? Oh, and a renowned intellectual.

But the other is even more fabulously wealthy. And prettier than she is. But with a bigger flaw still: being borderline crazy.

So, she picks the right one, but it turns out he is addicted to all the pretty young things.

And then it is back to the other one. But that’s murder.

A Girl Cut In Two [La fille Coupée en Deux]

Marie [Gabrielle’s mother]: He’s a high liver…
Gabrielle: Meaning he loves women?
Marie: He loves his wife. One of his best works is dedicated to her.

And she does pop up from time to time.

Gabrielle: My mother works in this bookstore.
Charles: So, you were brought up on books?
Gabrielle: Yes. That’s why I make it a point of honor never to open one.

Uh, wink, wink?

Gabrielle: What do you do for a living?
Paul: I live.
Gabrielle: So, you live on your private income.
Paul: More or less.
Gabrielle: More than less?
Paul: Does that bother you?
Gabrielle: No, it’s rather nice. As long as you don’t feel useless.

Wait 'til you meet the rest of the family.

Charles: I come here to work when I can’t bear the silence of the countryside.
Gabrielle: You think I’m stupid?

She knows what we know: It’s his love shack.

Gabrielle: I must have seemed clumsy to you.
Charles: I’ll teach you.
Gabrielle: I get the feeling I’m not the first one you’ve brought here.
Charles: You could be the last.

Yes, he actually takes himself this seriously.

Gabrielle: Meet you here later?
Charles: What do you mean?
Gabrielle: Not tonight?
Charles: Whoa little girl. You’re going too fast. I’m not a free man. I’ve been married for 25 years.
Gabrielle: So what?
Charles: I’m nearly 30 years older than you.
Gabrielle: So? Does that bother you?..What’s up?
Charles: “I dare undertake all and achieve all.”
Gabrielle: At a loss for words, Pops? You need to quote?
Charles: Trust me, Gabrielle. It’s for your own good.
Gabrielle [tossing the book he bought her at him]: Here, take you’re filth back. You know what? You make me sick.

And out she goes. This is a masterful scene. She absolutely thumps him! Utterly turns the tables!