Here are some notes of my thoughts about themes which are open to interpretation in the movie. If you haven't see it yet, you may want to stop reading now.
The main theme was the father's (Parnassus's) fear of his daughter growing up and losing her innocence. When she turned 16 she could start making choices, and so had the capacity for "sin" which meant that the devil could take her (At the end, the "his" mirror for Valentina said "sin" in the reflection (the "H" had a slant that became the "N")). Parnassus wanted to prevent her from becoming an adult and preserve her childhood, but that would be impossible. She just wanted a "normal" life, and at the end Dr. Parnassus had to acknowledge that this was OK.
Tony (the Heath Ledger character) may have been Valentina's projection of her perfect man. So there was an element of the Fight Club two characters in one. She only slept with Tony in her imaginarium. Anton was intimidated by Tony's presence. When Anton "dies" in Tony's imaginarium, this is Anton and Valentina growing up. Then Tony is killed by Parnassus in P's imaginarium. Tony represents the transition to adulthood for Anton and Valentina, which is Parnassus' fear.
At the end of the movie, Valentina grows up, and she realizes that she really wanted a real person, Anton, not Tony from her imagination, and Parnassus lets her go live her own life.
Does this make any sense?
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1 comment:
It makes sense, and I have nothing to respond except I wouldn't have thought of that myself. I'm not a guy who writes with overt allusion/analogy so I'm not a guy who reads that into things; I'm more the Homer Simpson "it's just a bunch of stupid stuff that happened" kind of guy; but your argument is congruous, and that's statistically impossible in a Gilliam film without being true, so more power to you.
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