- Bolek
- May 1, 2003
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Gladly!
"This Rembrandt over here. People come from all over the world to see this. It's a fake. People believe what they wanna believe. Cause the guy who made this was so good that it's real to everybody. Now who's the master? The painter? Or the forger?"
That's Rosenfeld's speech about the painting, or at least an approximation of it. (I transcribed it it from this teaser and don't recall how much got elided from the actual film) The idea is that people want to see a Rembrandt here, they expect to see a Rembrandt here. It's a prestigious art gallery, Rembrandt is a prestigious painter, this painting looks very much like a well-known Rembrandt, so it's the painting in question. People project their expectations and demands onto the object, regardless of what it actually is. This is the core of the boxing-in theme, the idea that people will see what they want to see in others and act accordingly, to the detriment of those they box in or themselves.
So: Rembrandt the painter is somebody comfortable in his own skin, who has his own creative output and presents it to the world. He's not playing any games, he's just an incredibly talented guy whose paintings were well-received. The forger is somebody who picks up on the need of the observer to have their observations conform to their expectations, and thrives on it. Rosenfeld suggests that the forger the "real master" because he operates with a deeper understanding of human nature. Presenting your true self, that's an unnecessary risk, because God knows how people are going to react to your true self. Presenting yourself as Rembrandt, that's the smart play. Everyone loves Rembrandt. We already know that.
DiMaso is the character that most actively does this boxing-in, though Rosalyn deserves an honorable mention when she talks about her new boyfriend as being so sweet and dedicated, willfully ignoring the fact that he's an obvious mobster and obviously partially using her to get information on the true nature of the Sheikh's proposal. But DiMaso's the motherlode. He wants to hear the ending of Thorsen's story badly enough that he keeps asking him about it, but not badly enough that he ever lets him finish it, because DiMaso feels confident enough to extrapolate the ending and moral after a few details. He wants to put Polito in the box of "dangerous, scheming, corrupt official" (and so does the camera, at points! See my first post in this thread, talking about the trunk shot) so he focuses on Polito as a big get even as our perspective increasingly aligns with Rosenfeld's, that Polito is largely a sympathetic and idealistic victim in all of this. And then there's his ultimate fate, wherein his insistence on seeing the "mob lawyer" as exactly that, his insistence on believing something too good to be true, is what causes him to overreach hugely and get zero credit for the operation. This is Rosenfeld taking the role of the forger in the allegory: he knows what DiMaso wants to believe, he gives it to DiMaso, and he profits off it.
DiMaso projects his beliefs and expectations onto everything, regardless of what it actually is. To the detriment of those he boxes in (Polito) and himself.
Nicely put.
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Dec 27, 2013 11:10
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May 10, 2024 20:13
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- Bolek
- May 1, 2003
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I don't think a character with an entirely constructed personality that she's barely able to keep intact wearing gaudy clothes that normal people wouldn't wear is a flaw in the film.
Ah yes but have you considered the fact that Jennifer Lawrence is unsexy and that the movie is Goodfellas and I am unsure whether this David O Russell is gonna make it in this tough film racket?
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Jan 6, 2014 18:58
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Dec 27, 2013 11:10
