Heheh, it's good to know that I'm not the only one who saves film fest ticket stubs. Now if I can only get organized and put them into a neat scrapbook or something. :)

By the way, I see that you were an a Denis binge recently. My favorite is probably I Can't Sleep.

Oh good, because I Can't Sleep is sitting on my table right now asking me to watch it.

My wife pastes her tickets stubs for concerts, movies, etc into a little scrap book. It's pretty neat. Me, I usually just throw them away after I notice them piling up.

So, any plans for sharing tidbits from your Denis interview? You *did* ask her about those damn sled dogs, right? ;)

Hey Darren. Yep, I will certainly be posting the interview. I'm planning to post the article and leftover tidbits, like I've done in the past.

Paste very graciously lets me share content between this site and the magazine, but things that I write specifically for them, such as the Denis piece, will appear in the magazine before I post them here. It's only fair.

I did ask Denis about the ending. Not directly, since I'm not sure I want an explanation, really, but we were talking about the physicality of her characters and I mentioned that the Béatrice Dalle character was still a mystery to me.

She said, well, maybe the character doesn't belong at the end, but she just wanted to return to the cold North and wanted a character who rejects Louis. Dalle is an independent woman who raises dogs and lives behind a barrier, someone he's attracted to but who he can't reach, someone who has no attachment to him, someone who sees him realistically, coldly. Denis said many of the characters help Louis in some way, the nurse, his contact in Tahiti, but Dalle's character is the only one who rejects him, as he rejects his son.

I mentioned that the dog sled reminded me of the scene when he's pulled by horses, and she said, "Yeah, like maybe she's a part of that."

My own take on the movie is that by the end, Louis has made a discovery. He's not an island. In his life, he has rejected his son in favor of a kind of mythical son and mythical past, and he embarks on a journey to find that (possibly non-existent) life. With great fanfare he crosses oceans, which convey so much distance, physically and emotionally, and he even wades, carrying mattresses and supplies, to an island where he'll construct the perfect place to greet his son, after having bought a new lease on life. (How perfect that Denis found 40-year-old footage of Subor in Tahiti, from a movie that was never finished!)

But strangely that home on the island feels a lot like the home he left, the cabin in the woods. This is supposed to be the polar opposite, warm and sunny instead of frozen white, but it's just as isolated. His search for the son becomes a farce. There's another scene with horses that recalls the snow scene, but this time they seem to pull him into the ocean.

When he finally sees his real son, when he realizes that prolonging his own life, this way, equates to his son's death (isn't this the movie's second scene of death?), when he sees that he's been given something he didn't ask for, maybe it's fitting that he flashes back to the unattainable woman in the North, bolting through boundaries with not a concern in the world for him. What can be further than an ocean away, what can be closer than an internal organ? (Me: "How long is that shot of the ocean near the end?" Denis: "It's a minute and seventeen seconds, I think.")

I've thought briefly about Louis's comment that he doesn't want a woman's heart... I wonder about that, but I'm not sure what to make of it.

Great comments, Rob. I was so frustrated by the last fifteen minutes of L'Intrus, when it became increasingly obvious that it wasn't going "come together" in the way that I had anticipated. And, unfortunately, that frustration colored my response to the entire film. Your comments, along with Doug's and my conversations with Girish, have me chomping to see it again. And hopefully my new Paste subscription will kick in by the times your piece is printed.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid seeing it again any time soon is going to be easier said than done. I'm hoping it'll be selected for our local festival in April, but other than that, I'm not expecting many opportunities, sadly.

Hey Rob--Love your posed "Still Life with Movie Tickets". And the public viewing log's a great idea!

Joanna and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary on March 30. I'm thinking that maybe a week in San Francisco would make a good gift. Does the SF fest usually put together a good lineup?

Hey, Girish, I think you should start a movie log.

Darren has one.

Yeah, the SF fest isn't bad at all. It's no Toronto, and many of the movies have already played at better-known festivals like Sundance or Toronto or Cannes, but who cares? By the way, it was supposedly the first film festival outside of Europe and is the longest continually running festival in the country. This will be the 48th. Factoids for your amusement.

Of course, it would be great to meet up again, too. I know Doug is planning to come for a few days.

Thanks for the suggestion, Rob. It sounds like a great idea. And thanks for pointing me to Darren's log.

I'm on sabbatical in the spring, and the SF filmfest is looking like an attractive way to spend a few days. Especially if the FilmJourney caravan is heading that way!

Hey, seriously that would be cool!

Anyone who needs somewhere to stay can stay at my place. Houses are small here, but we have a little extra room. We're walking distance from both of the festival's theaters, if you don't mind a few hills. (Of course there's a bus, too.)

Rob--
Thanks for the offer.
So kind of you.