Editing Mystery Man
From Lost Highway
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- | "Observations" should remain neutral toward the interpretations | + | "Observations" should remain neutral toward the interpretations below. Add to and edit the "Observations" and "Interpretations" at will. |
== Observations == | == Observations == | ||
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'''Mystery Man as surreal devil figure''' | '''Mystery Man as surreal devil figure''' | ||
- | One | + | One interpertation of the Mystery Man is that he is a figure who brings Fred’s repressed fears and desires to their realization (akin to the role sometimes played by the devil). Fred’s desire to sexually satisfy Renee is realized through Pete and Alice. Fred’s fear that he does not possess Renee is realized through Mr. Eddy’s virtual possession of Alice. Fred's jealous fears that Renee is cheating on him and his vengeful desires about catching Renee with another men are realized though Pete's murder of Andy, who had been upstairs with Alice, and the murder of Laurent, who Fred finds with Renee at the "Lost Highway Hotel." |
Fred first sees the Mystery Man immediately after Fred describes his dream to Renee, in which Fred appears to attack Renee. In describing his dream, Fred says to Renee "It looked like you, but it wasn’t." Fred describes his dream in this way because he cannot accept that he has a repressed desire to kill Renee. At Andy’s party, when the Mystery Man says "We've met before... at your house... you invited me," he is referring to Fred's dream (which was the Mystery Man’s invitation) and Fred's vision of him after describing the dream (which was their first meeting, at Fred's house). | Fred first sees the Mystery Man immediately after Fred describes his dream to Renee, in which Fred appears to attack Renee. In describing his dream, Fred says to Renee "It looked like you, but it wasn’t." Fred describes his dream in this way because he cannot accept that he has a repressed desire to kill Renee. At Andy’s party, when the Mystery Man says "We've met before... at your house... you invited me," he is referring to Fred's dream (which was the Mystery Man’s invitation) and Fred's vision of him after describing the dream (which was their first meeting, at Fred's house). | ||
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The Mystery Man is the source of the videotapes that arrive on Fred and Renee's doorstep. The first videotape that films ''inside'' the house arrives the morning after Fred describes the dream about attacking Renee and sees the vision of the Mystery Man, the dream that "invited" the Mystery Man into Fred's house. | The Mystery Man is the source of the videotapes that arrive on Fred and Renee's doorstep. The first videotape that films ''inside'' the house arrives the morning after Fred describes the dream about attacking Renee and sees the vision of the Mystery Man, the dream that "invited" the Mystery Man into Fred's house. | ||
- | The first of Fred's repressed desires that is realized is murdering Renee. Fred first becomes conscious of the murder when he watches the videotape the following morning. See [[Scene_Analyses# | + | The first of Fred's repressed desires that is realized is murdering Renee. Fred first becomes conscious of the murder when he watches the videotape the following morning. See [[Scene_Analyses#Dream_and_video_tape|Scene Analyses: Dream and video tape]]. |
- | A complementary interpretation is that the Mystery Man enables the realization of Fred's fears and fantasies by means of a swapping of identities and bodies. Fred transforms into Pete immediately after Fred, in his jail cell, has a vision of the Mystery Man at his cabin. In the role body and | + | A complementary interpretation is that the Mystery Man enables the realization of Fred's fears and fantasies by means of a swapping of identities and bodies. Fred transforms into Pete immediately after Fred, in his jail cell, has a vision of the Mystery Man at his cabin. In the role body and indentity swapping, it was the Mystery Man who was with Pete "the other night" that Pete cannot remember, the man referred to when Pete’s father says "There was a man with you.... I’ve never seen him before in my life." Then, it is at the Mystery Man’s cabin that Pete turns back into Fred. On this interpretation, the Mystery Man enables the transitions between Fred and Pete. |
Alice identifies the Mystery Man as a black market "fence." A "fence," in the sense of a physical boundary, separates yet connects two spaces, just as a "fence," in the sense of a black market dealer, serves as an intermediary or bridge between buyers and sellers of stolen goods. Similarly, the Mystery Man can be seen as an intermediary or bridge between the two world of Fred-and-Renee and the world of Pete-and-Alice. | Alice identifies the Mystery Man as a black market "fence." A "fence," in the sense of a physical boundary, separates yet connects two spaces, just as a "fence," in the sense of a black market dealer, serves as an intermediary or bridge between buyers and sellers of stolen goods. Similarly, the Mystery Man can be seen as an intermediary or bridge between the two world of Fred-and-Renee and the world of Pete-and-Alice. |