Caveat: Subconscious Disconnect

One comment

1. Peter J.

   2013-01-26 at 18:09 12 years ago

   Very original premise! And well-executed, too.
   [Spoilers]
   Is this an existentialist short-film? It seems to me that both of the ‘imaginary’ characters are faced with an “existential terror” — that they apparently do not actually exist. The two men take drastically different approaches to self-affirmation, if we can call it that. One man tries to sedate the dreamer indefinitely, to preserve the pair’s sweet life (any life is sweeter than no life — even if it is ‘imaginary’). Conversely, the other imaginary-man grabs a chair and attempts to smash it on the dreamer’s head, perhaps attempting to kill him, or at least startle him into waking up? (Which may be what happened, it’s unclear — i.e., the dreamer did wake up). The chair-smashing is the ultimate act of self-affirmation: “I exist!!!” Or perhaps better called self-affirmatory rage. Even if the only true ‘real’ act he ever performs is to startle and awaken the sleeping dreamer (whose mind is actually the protagonists’ entire universe), THAT is a declaration of Existence in the face of Non-Existence. Isn’t this existentialism? I don’t know, but it makes sense to me.

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