Honestly, what's with the mirror
-
ToastedCheese — 3 years ago(May 29, 2022 11:14 PM)
It was explained in the dvd commentary. Hackford explains it was based on some painting. It was an insider reference, but it was alluding to being faceless and this is how Selena felt. I got this metaphor without knowing what the film-makers intention was when I first saw the film.
Norman! What did you put in my tea? -
-
bingoboss — 14 years ago(October 22, 2011 04:29 AM)
Lots of interesting answers on this board.
My interpretation: the mirror scene depicts the split in Selena's psyche.
There are lots of flashbacks in the movie; in fact, I think Dolores Claiborne is pretty much a master class on how to use flashbacks to advance a story. But during the boat scene, Selena (in the present) actually walks into a flashback and watches her younger self it as if she were watching a play. She stands around like a ghost. Selena's not just remembering what happened, she's witnessing it as if for the first time, because as a young girl there was a split in her mind while her father was abusing her.
When the captain interrupts her unexpectedly, she runs to the bathroom to gather herself. Literally. Yes, it's a weird scene, but I don't know how else you would depict this on film. -
Zuider_Zee — 12 years ago(March 24, 2014 06:42 AM)
I see two things. The first thing is the large amount of pills Selena was taking. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if what she saw in the mirror was a hallucination. Secondly, I see her inability to face herself and after realizing that she has lied to herself for much of her life. She had turned her back on her mother and had put her father on a pedestal.
-
spookyrat1 — 11 years ago(May 10, 2014 08:12 AM)
Secondly, I see her inability to face herself and after realizing that she has lied to herself for much of her life.
I agree. She hasn't been honest with herself nor her mother and the mirror simply doesn't lieliterally. The reflection turns her back on her, revealing her shame and sense of self-loathing. -
kr-write2 — 11 years ago(June 01, 2014 06:36 PM)
When I saw it I thought she was having some sort of dissociative state like some victims of incest do and it wasn't the first timeremember the "rough patch" after her Dad died? I liked how they made that moment linger so you would wonder if she is going to go off the deep end for good but then she snaps out of it and she appears normally in the mirror as she leaves the restroom. Great scene.
I think it could serve two purposes in the film. It is symbolic of how she was split on the topic of her father and how she turned her back on her mother. -
edonovan2 — 11 years ago(October 21, 2014 05:53 PM)
I remember watching a TV review of the movie that featured that part and the critic commented that it was the worst scene in the movie, which was otherwise very good. It was bad enough to keep that scene in the movie, let alone use it for preview purposes!
-
RumourdProd — 11 years ago(November 15, 2014 05:15 PM)
Jesus Christ. Read more books, see more foreign films, view more art. If you can't figure out why this is such a powerful, potent image within the story's context, then you're probably a redneck. Or uneducated. Or you need every goddamn thing in a movie spelled out for you because you're too lazy to do it yourself.
Avoid watching "Inception"; your head might explode. Or turn its back on you. Heh. -
eweland — 10 years ago(October 27, 2015 08:25 AM)
La reproduction interdite, 1937
(Not To Be Reproduced) is a famous painting by Ren Magritte, the Belgian surrealist.
Taylor Hackford borrowed this visual concept from Magritte's painting, for his film. Magritte invented the image back in 1937 - NOT the other way around. Those familiar with the artist's work will immediately recognize the shot.
It absolutely represents Selena's mental breakdown over her repressed sexual abuse from her father. Even the mirror will not look at her, face-to-face. What a great way to show a person's denial of their past! One of the most incredible scenes in the film. And it is shocking, but whoever has used similar ideas in more modern horror films owes the surrealistic concept of it, to Magritte.
_
Kubrick's film -
will always be the definitive version of
THE SHINING
. -
Dragonfly — 4 years ago(July 12, 2021 09:26 PM)
Because you cannot see the back of your head i was disappointed and annoyed with what I immediately thought outrageously careless and stupid.
Even though you can draw different conclusions to its meaning it was unrealistic and very lame hurting the integrity of this film. Big turn off. Didn't fit with the rest of it. -
StrangeReason — 3 years ago(May 29, 2022 04:09 PM)
I think it's brilliant and the first time I saw it, it terrified me!
Basically, and I speak from experience, when a person who has a 'dissociative disorder' looks in a mirror, often they literally cannot recognize themself. It's as if you're staring at a stranger or an alien. It can be VERY disturbing and disorienting.
This movie scene does an excellent job of symbolically representing that exact disturbance in identity with the resulting disorientation.
Mirrors usually assure us of who we are, but when our world has become unstable, what we seek in the mirror is unaccessible.
The narrative establishes that Selena can't remember things that happened to her. We know she drinks and medicates to alleviate symptoms of repressed trauma. But, on that ferry ride, she "witnesses" and thereby remembers what her father did to her. Forced to confront the truth, she feels unsettled and is overwhelmed by this breakthrough. This causes her to have a brief dissociative episode while trying to see herself in the mirror.
Further info:
According to the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Dissociative Disorders are characterized by a ‘disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior.' -
ToastedCheese — 3 years ago(May 29, 2022 11:16 PM)
Selena remembered, she just tried every darn thing she could to block it out, hence all the booze and the pills.
With what had gone before with her mother and being on that ferry, it took courage for her to face up to her past and accept it. It helped her to understand the blame she was placing on Dolores and that she had distorted judgement due to her own trauma.
Interesting subplot segue that opens out the film, as adult Selena is not a character in the novel. She is only mentioned by Dolores and her other 2 sons, one of whom had died.
Norman! What did you put in my tea?