was gonna post this in the topic of the week re the windows but I was to late so I will post here instead and sorry if its already been covered/mentioned
could the windows symbolise wanting something you can't have? literally something in the way of what you want (a door/window)
the two window examples of this i can think of right now
Alma looking out at Jack and Ennis's kiss, she loves ennis, hes the father of her children, her first love and yet she can see him kissing his 'friend' Jack Twist, shes wants ennis to love her the way she loves him but at that moment she knows that she has never had that and will never have it
Ennis looking out of Jacks old bedroom window near the end of the film, in a refelctive mood knowning that he has lost the love of his life forever and he will never see him again and they will now never have that 'real sweet life' together, Jacks gone at he's *in his head) got nothing (cos of course in reality he has his kids Junior and Jenny)
Hi Marz,
I was going to respond earlier, but...
As far as your two examples go, in the film Alma and Ennis are looking through a window to something outside, yes. But the shots differ. We see Alma from the outside looking out, but we're
inside with Ennis when he looks out the bedroom window, as he is when he's waiting for Jack at the reunion, and also in the final shot of the film, when he's in the trailer, except this time he doesn't look at the window, he closes the cupboard door and moves left, and goes offscreen.
It could be said that, in Alma's case, she's inside because she's trapped, as is Ennis in the final shot—neither of them can have what they "want," because the glass represents a symbolic barrier (and Ennis doesn't even bother to look out, anyway).
But when Ennis is waiting for Jack we don't see him
through the glass; we're in the room with him, as we were in Jack's bedroom, but we're not looking outside with him, we're just watching Ennis.
If he "wants" Jack shouldn't we see him from behind, looking out, as Jack drives up?
Giving windows in a particular film a symbolic meaning could tend to have repercussions as far as other films are concerned. It depends a lot upon who is looking, why they're looking, and from what viewpoint we see them looking—are we "inside" with them or do we see them looking out from outside (as if they're looking at us, the film audience)? If consistency is important then every film with someone looking out of a window, not just one, should have a symbolic meaning. (Every house in a film usually has windows.)
Of course, a director decides which way such a scene should be shot, whether from inside or from outside a room, and often it has nothing to do with symbolism. It all depends. If you’ve seen Hitchcock’s
Rear Window, you’ll know what I mean. Apart from a short section at the end the main character is always shown inside looking out because he’s confined to a wheelchair; that’s not symbolism, we see (mostly) only what he sees, and from his point of view.
Just some thoughts.
