These are some comments about the film you are going to watch tomorrow. As you can see, as usual, reactions to Paul Auster’s films are different and controversial. So I am curious to know your personal response to the film.
A fanciful and engaging metaphysical mystery about a writer, two beauties, love and the challenges of the creative process.
What starts out as a clever exploration of consciousness quickly descends into underplotted folly.
The inner life of Martin Frost reeks of misogyny and the film that enshrines his egomania makes half-assed aspirations to Goethe.
Paul Auster’s suffocating romance makes you feel as if you’re helplessly stuck inside the head of the most pretentious person you know.
Paul Auster’s latest film is about the love story of a gruffly antisocial novelist (David Thewlis) and a strange young woman (Irene Jacob) with nonstop whimsical philosophizing about the subjective nature of reality.
This is a review I found and changed a bit to make it more comprehensible to you.
They meet paranoid — at least on his side, since Claire has a radiant smile that just won’t quit. Introducing herself as the niece of the house’s owner, seeking refuge to work on her philosophy thesis, Claire proceeds to charm the pants off her unwilling host and enable his process.
As Martin’s prose progresses, Claire visibly weakens, until Martin, having apparently read Poe, sacrifices his art for his muse and fights to keep her in the "real" world, leading to Orpheus-tinged variations on "Ghost."
Auster throws in Michael Imperioli as a plumber-cum-amateur writer for comic relief. Imperioli, as it turns out, has his own otherworldly "muse," Anna (Auster’s lovely daughter Sophie), who appears as floppily inchoate as Imperioli’s unfocused writing.
The script inserted into Auster’s 2002 novel "The Book of Illusions" and finally expanded to its present form and was shot in
Auster’s frequent voice-over narration clarifies just whose "inner life" haunts the enterprise, while Christophe Beaucarne struggles to find nuance in Auster’s vision of paranormal creativity.
As you are already used to, I would like to refer you to youtube so that you can watch the trailer and other scenes from the film. Enjoy. See you tomorrow. J
The Inner Life of Martin Frost – Official Trailer
The inner life of Martin Frost
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
DVD menu design (this is quite interesting! You will tell me why!)
Arnoldi Martina
quite interesting…yes!I think this is interesting because it underlines WORDS,words are the main theme of this film.Claire is the power for Martin,thanks of her he can write.so write is the objective,write is put lots of words together in a creative way!this dvd menu disign is excellent!
I am not able to analize very well a movie because, concerning films, my culture is very low.
That film faces with a particular theme and thanks to the links between the love for the woman and the words of the writer, the film adopt an atmosphere of unhappiness and lack of achievement. Very characteristic is the last video where, through the geometry, the sounds, the shapes and the armony of words you can explain tha characters and tell theirs story.
Guarino Ilaria
Already reading the title you can guess that “The inner life of Martin Frost” is a “spiritual” and “intimate” film.Is a film that develops itself between reality and imagination, and, till the very last scene, you can not separate the truth from mystery. For the way it procedes and the shots “Te inner life of Martin Frost” appear to be a French film.Is a very intellectual movie and full of philosophical references and this film requires to be watched carefully by the viewers to grasp these references.
Very interesting is the way Paul Auster has been able to represent in a film the relationship between the two characters that are nothing more than the writer and his muse.
He managed to transmitts this close tie between the “creator” and his “creation” that a normal person can not understand.
Personally i don t like so much that film.I found it quite slow and to much methaphisical and paranormal.
Despite this i recognize the intellectual and film value of this movie.
Dvd menu design is quite interesting.
The words seems a swarm first compact and then gradually becomes rarefied.The muse incorporates the words that are the power of the writer.
I liked the movie also if I think I hasn’t understood very well its sense.That’s why,as I pointed out last wednesday, I’ ve first thought to a parallelism with Auster’s romance ‘the oracle night’. In this book the main character(a writer) discovers the power of the writing because the things he wrote, happened in real life,his life. So I initially thought that the movie’s story was similar to the book one.I was convinced of it, watching the scene when claire died while martin finishing his novel.I liked this idea of parallelism, of link between the two works.
whatever is the sense,this strange story appealed me, and since it is a fantastic story, I liked it only for this reason and maybe it doesn’t need rational explications because it is only Auster imagination.
I think there will be an interesting discussion on it tomorrow during our class.
-erica-
I hope that what we discussed in class about the film has somehow clarified lots of your doubts. As we will see in the two novels we are going to read, namely “Travels in the Scriptorium” and “Man in the Dark”, Auster develops the theme of writing. In his works there is often the figure of a person (generally a man) who is writing, or who is obsessed with the idea of writing. Writing becomes a way of preserving oneself, of pinning down oneself, so that you do not get lost in life. Then there is the blurry boundary line between reality and imagination, between the real world and the imagined world. The oniric dimension plays an important role in the film “The Inner Life of Martin Frost” too. It is about metafiction (the way a writer writes, the way he is inspired and the way he lives, etc.), therefore there are different layers of meaning.
The inspiring muse is a beautiful woman and the engergy that she releases is often conveyed through sexual intercouses. It seems, as we tried to come up in class, that a writer absorbes creative energy from nature, from the interaction with other people, and from the intimate relationship with a partner. All these elements fuel his creativity. When his inner “tank” is full, then he can write and in order to do that he needs somehow to isolate himself in order not to get distracted by these outer sources of energy. Should there there be any doubts do not hesitate to ask in class.
Cheers.
When I saw “the inner life of Martin Frost” I didn’t like it immediately,because I didn’t understand it.I have already saw a film like this because the last scene made me remember something but I don’t know what.In spite of this, the film was a little bit strange,a little bit philosophical,well there are two figures:in one hand,Martin Frost,a writer,who needs to stay alone to write and who goes in a house that his friend lends to him and on the other hand,Claire Martin,who always reads books,who loves philosophy and who pretends to be somebody else,to be the niece of the owner of the house.They both fall in love each other and begin a relationship that continues even if Martin knows that she is not the person she says to be.Suddenly Claire takes ill,seriously,and here there is a scene that underlines the sense of the film:you see at the same time,Martin Frost who is writing a new story and who is finishing it,then Claire who is dying and the fire in the fire-place is going out.Obviously Martin saves Claire.Claire represents the muse who inspires Martin in writing.When she goes away he can’t continue to write but at the end they meet each other again.This time Martin must wear a scarf over the eyes not to see her otherwise she disappears.At the end there is the last scene where Martin can get off the scarf and see Claire.I don’t understand why he can,now,do this.The scene where he can’t see her made me remember about the story of Orfeo and Euridice:Orfeo went in the Ade to free his wife Euridice but he mustn’t turn around to see her when they are going out of the Ade otherwise she disappears.He is so in love with her and so happy to free her that he can’t wait,he turns to see her and he condemnes her to stay in the Ade forever!
Santarossa Barbara
All the short film is caracterized by the theme of the memoris because of the fog ffect that accompany all images and the white background. About the words and the fade effect I think that could stand for the futility of all the things are written, bot I’m very puzzled by this comment because is in contrast with the main theme of the film. There is also the typewriter that Paul Auster use to write his books.
MrLory1990
“The inner of Martin Frost” is a film based on the figure of a writer set against his writing, on the link between the creator and the creation. The protagonist, Martin Frost, after having finished a new book, decides to take refuge in a calm and peaceful place where find a new inspiration. On the other hand there is a strange and beautiful, intriguing and unknown woman. “The writer writes to live, the woman lives to read”. They immediately fell in love. From their relation and spiritual and sexual, the writer takes inspiration: he transforms the produced energy in ideas for a new work. With the carrying on of the film, we understand that the woman is his muse, his inspiration: when he finished the work, she died; so Martin decided to burn all the pages and the girl appeared. Then for a period he can’t say his muse. Only in the last scene he can take off the blindfold.
The all screenplay is constituted from the juxtaposition between the real world and the Imagination. In all the film we don’t understand (or I don’t understand) if a scene is real or imagined. Only at the end some of our doubt become revealed.
Paul Auster makes the choice of having his characters share some parts of their name/surnames. Also there are some references to himself. An example is the choice of a writer protagonist. As in all his works, there is the presence of this kind of man. I think that it can be a link with his life of writer. The proposed characters have always an extreme and oppressing need of writing. They don’t live if they don’t write over and over again. In “Che Tempo Che Fa” interview, Paul Auster said that he is oppressed by this continuous need of writing. He said he will feel lost if he had no a pen or a pencil with him. Writing is some like oppressive, from what a writer can’t avoid.
Finally I want to say that I don’t understand the role of Sophie Auster, the daughter of the director and writer Paul. For me she is superfluous; she hasn’t a specific role. But maybe (or I must say certainly) I wrong, because in Paul Auster’ work every thing has a specific role.
Monica Santi
I confess that this is the only Auster’s film, out of the 4 we have watched, that i didn’t like. Not because of his themes that are really powerful and interesting, psychologically and literary speaking; but i can’t understand how a director could think about shooting a quite long film based only on a almost normal love story, not so involving in my opinion. I know, there is also the subject of the comparison and fusion of reality and imagination, which permeates all the most important scenes, but it’s not so catchy as in “Smoke” or in “Music of Chance” (I think the latter it’s the most striking and schocking Auster’s film, as far as psychologically issues are concerned), perhaps also because of his obscurity and difficulty of comprehension.
But there are two things about “The Inner Life of Martin Frost” that i really appreciated:
First, the scene where Martin dreams to be behind a locked door talking to Claire, who is on the other side of the door. So they are very close one to the other but they can’t see and touch each other. In my opinion it’s a very important scene, as it shows the little but radical distance which stands between Martin and Claire: the first is a real man, a writer who can approach the world of imagination by means of his works; whereas Claire is a muse who belongs to that unreal world and went into ours just to inspire the writer she chose as the most suitable for her. So they are very close in their minds and thoughts, but they can’t remain together as they belong to so different places. They can feel one each other, but that’s all they can do.
Then, I love the setting of the film, the beautiful nature that surrounds the enormous mansion house where the author lives. I have to say that when i watched that scenery, that green landscape, it didn’t seem or look like new for my eyes. And I’ve just discovered why: The whole film is set in Azenhas Do Mar, a lovely village of fishermans near the historical city of Sintra, in Portugal. I’ve been there this summer!! and i drove along the same road Martin Frost covered to reach the fuel station, because that is the road that goes from some villages scattered in the luxuriant up-country, to the wild coast near Sintra and not so far from Lisboa. The vegetation and all the enviroment appeared to be very healthy, as all the area is included in a big Natural Reserve: a really wonderful place to shot a film! When i read the movie setting i was really shocked by this fact!
Simone =D
siincerely, for me the film was difficult to follow so i didn’t understand some scenes, for example i didn’t understand the figures of Auster’s daughter and the figure of the other man.But as Simone i appreciate the scenes where Martin and Claire talk obstructed by a door. they couldn’t see and touch each other. As Simone i think that these scenes emphasise the contrast between the reality and the imaginary world, and the distance between Martin (writer=reality) and Claire (Martin’s muse=imagination). their love could be only platonic, and since they are cultural person, they are happy and satisfied. personally, i can’t imagine a thing like that…i don’t know how explain it…well…i thing that in the reality there isn’t someone like Martin, with his experience with his muse, but at the same time there is something near to reality…i’ve thought for days about this, but i haven’t found out an answer…when i found it, i’ll let you know..=)…i’m surprise about the story of Martin Frost, because it’s different by the other films that i’ve watched..is based on the feeling and philosophy of characters and i like very much, but i have found a little difficult to understand also because a lot of things i didn’t understand for quickly english, without subtitles.
Laura Sist
If I hadn’t known this was an American movie, I would have said it was German…I mean, the colours, the rhythm, the face of the writer are European, not to mention the fact that the actress who plays Claire is French and the film-setting is portuguese. This can not be a coincidence (even if Auster seems to love it). Perhaps he wanted to create an intellectual atmosphere, soft and unfocused, and our culture does probably suit better this description. I would guess he chose a “French muse” because he started working as a writer in France and he translated french poetry, if I don’t mistake. Then at the very beginning of the movie we can see photographs of his family and he is always present through his narrating voice: is it a sort of autobiographical movie? Or is this movie just a sign of his egomania, as written above?
Anyway, I think this film has got two detached parts, and the second one begins when the plumber appears on stage. I don’t like this choice, the real (and interesting) plot was already extinguished, he added an appendix and the result is a fracture, not very nice to see.
Federica Zille
In my opinion , Paul Auster is one of the author more self-centred in the history of literature. In the film “SMOKE”, he took only few themes from his life: the smoke, his necessity to write a Christmas tale… but in “The inner life of Martin Frost” Paul Auster tried to show the inner conflict which catches him when he writes. I consider the Paul Auster’s meta-literature a subject used too much in his works. I write it as I have already found signs of it in his books. Both, “Man in the dark” and “travels in the scriptorium” are centred around the human capacity to write; furthermore the writer is like a god, who has the power of life and death over his creatures. In conclusion, Auster wants to put himself in his works; it is legitimate for an author, but obsessive for Auster.
Anyway “The inner life of Martin Frost” is a fairly good film, neither sublime nor particularly bad. The symbolism used by director is very simple, allowing an instinctive understanding of the film (maybe a little bit common, making the film foreseeable in some passage). The worst scene in the film is the entrance of Shopie Auster. As far as she is pretty, her appearance in the father’s film and her display of her singing ability make the film a publicity of her image.
Nicola Truant
I enjoyed the film because of the themes and the deep treatment of human psychology .Martin is the expression of the rationality and irrationality of all human beings at an extreme level. He is first very sceptical with Claire who ,after falling in love with him, becomes his Muse giving him inspiration but also producing in him the suspension of the rationality. Then he fall into irrational things.The plumber is so an help to make him conscious that the Muse can be reached only by closing the eyes, by suspending rationality. The protagonist is at first similar to Will Hunting, but, differently from him, does not become mad because he has not a rational mind ,but an abstract one.The fire extinguishing represents so the dying of a concrete person, of the material, of something which can not come back. The movie is slow fasten to point out the real consequences of the troubles of Martin and to make them more real and concrete. Also his dreams become concrete in their abstractness :the door ,which stands between them symbolizes the term of his perception and his incapacity to make his statements flowing. Next to deep themes there is the ironical hand of the author who gives to the movie the form of the real life of a mad in order to break the distance of the door.The scene I liked the most is the one in which Martin destroys his book in order to save the Muse,to do not let die her.
Telling the truth, this film really affected me because of his introspected point of view and his slow pace, which contribute to create a mystical and mysterious atmosphere. The viewer is projected in a unknown protected world, which does not represent the everyday reality, but it seems like a dream. Martin Frost “accidentally” finds Claire Martin in his bed one morning, but nothing is put into the hands of Chance. In fact, during the film we would discover that Claire embodies the “Muse” which inspired the writer Martin in order to create a new novel. But while I was watching the film I have thought that the story Martin was typing was told by the images of the film; so, the love story of Martin and Claire was, in reality, the story which the writer was composing. When Claire , after having fallen ill, died, was saved by Martin, who immediately burns the pages of his just finished novel in order to make her alive. Since that moment he would never see her, but he could hug her and talk to Claire being blindfolded. One of the message I picked up from this film is that we are social animals, so we need love, we need social relationships to survive. We cannot live dedicating all our life to work or having only one objective. If we did not care our inner life, our consciousness, we would pay our mistakes.
Carolina Braghin
I found this movie full of references to other writers or stories and this element is really interesting. Anyway, I think this is the film I liked less, because of many reasons…. Until the first half, the movie can be seen as a metaphore of a writer’s life, centred on work and also involving a muse in the meanwhile. Love between the writer and his muse can be seen as a symbol of the author’s love for his work. But then Clair begins to feel bad and one day she disappears. In this moment the plot begins to become absurd to me… Starting from the plumber, who’s a ridiculous figure, and going on with the dreams of the main character (he dreams his lover but he can’t see and touch her). But the worst thing is the end…It really disappointed me! Paul Auster’s daughter appears and shows to the main character the way to keep in touch with his lover… But, are you kidding? It doesn’t make any sense to me! Don’t misunderstand me, I like “supernatural” films generally, but I think this one lacks of continuity and clarity. A part from that, I have a good note: I really liked Auster’s daughter and I think she sings very well! Good for her!
Giulia Marcassa
15 Perin Marco
Very interesting in the movie “The Inner Life of Martin Frost” is the metaphorical and symbolic use of language. In the story, which develops between reality and imagination, Martin is the protagonist, a writer (it isn’t casual the reference to writing in Paul Auster) in search of inspiration for a new work. He meets “by chance” (another not-casual reference in Auster) a mysterious young woman, with which he established an extraordinary relationship (spiritual and physical) that proves to be an exceptional source of vital energy (then forwarded in writing). Clare, in fact, is the inspiring muse of the writer, destined to die when the work is over, but Martin manages to subvert the order of events, sacrificing his work to bring back Clare to life. From that moment, Clare becomes a presence ineffable, which can be seen only as a mirror image: this doesn’t discourage Martin, happy to have saved Clare at the expense of his work.
The film is totally different from those seen earlier, because in this prevails the aspect of imagination and invention of an author (it is no longer a description of external events, as in “Smoke” and “Blue in the Face”, but the creation of a fictional story, in which the author has power to change the events to his will).
Federica Cozzarin
“The Inner Life of Martin Frost” is a very unusual movie, and also his title is not so evocative. However, I enjoyed the movie, because the story it tells is quite absurd and also a bit irrational, but it makes you believe that it is not difficult it could be true. The film analyzes the mysterious process of art in a way that is inexplicable but also incredibly clear, and at the end it seems you have understood a important truth but you cannot just remember it. I have to watch again this film to have a more precise opinion, even if we discussed a lot about it in class. There are a lot of different levels of understanding in this movie, and the only way to find them all is to watch again this movie.
Damiano Verardo
In my opinion in this film Paul Auster manages to convoy almost all his favourite themes. There is chance, coincidence and above all there is imagination. He has made up a movie in which real and unreal live together.
On the one hand there is Martin Frost who is a writer and he stands for the real world. On the other hand there is Claire Martin who is the Muse of writing and she represent the world of imagination and dreams…she is essential for Martin’s work.
At the beginning they can stay together as they were normal people and they felt in love each other, but then the Muse, Claire, can not stay anymore in the reality and she becomes invisible to Martin’s eyes. He can not see her anymore and he starts to dream her as if she was near him. He feels somehow her presence.
It is a strange movie…Anyway I find it very interesting and fine. I liked it more than “Blue in the face ” or “Smoke”, there are lots of differences between them, first of all the setting. It was no more set in a busy city where there are only buildings around but it is set in a wanderful place, in a house surrounded by nature. There are not houses more than that of Martin and all is quite and calm. Here Martin can give himself up to the writing of his book, here he can find the right peacefulness necessary to think to his novel.
In this film there are very few charachters and the plot , also if it is fancied, is somehow linear.
I liked the appearance of Sophia Auster and i enjoyed the comparison between a good writer with his own wanderful Muse and a bad one with his unable Muse.
Marson Chiara
Serra Pierluca..
“The Inner life of Martin Frost” is a research about the human’s psychology. The film mixes together Illusion and Imagination and gives to the spectator an impression of truth. All the film is based on the contrast and the likeness between the reality and the not-real world. Martin Frost is a man that need a transcendental help, a need that he can’t find in the reality, so Paul Auster faces once again the human mind and in this case the mind of a writer that is, of course, more complex that a common mind.
The love of Martin Frost toward Claire is the love of the author toward his muse. I found absurd the fact that they wake up in the same bed but she didnt’ realize the night before that there was a man in her bed. Moreover the film may be seen as a metaphore of life of writer. When a writer is ina dead point he can turn his head toward his muse and he finds a new love that makes him continue his work. During the story Clare starts feeling bad, taht because Mr. Frost is near to the end of his novel. The plot becomes absurd at the end: the Auster’s daughter appears as a “deus ex machina” to resolve the author disperation. And I didn’t understand why Martin Frost before Clare disappear he can touch her and after he can’t any more. I noticed the fact that the plumber wear different clothes every day, may be he’s mad or has a psycological disfunction.
Giulia Raineri
Whole the film focuses on almost divine power of writing. Paul Auster believes that poetry and writing are not a simple action like many others, but thinks that poetry and writing are deeply linked with the metaphysical and the transcendent. Through poetry, the poet (and poet also mean Paul Auster because his writings are much deeper than just stories and go to investigate the state of mind and feelings) is in contact with the “noumeno”. Besides writing Paul Auster puts near the love and friendship and other values, all bound together by writing. For the writer the purpose and meaning of life are: to love, to speak, to think, to imagine and to write .
FRAncesco MARSon
Correction to #19 (first row): The metaphorical and symbolic use of language in “The inner life of Martin Frost” is very interesting.
I’m sorry, I was thinking in italian…
Federica Cozzarin
I didn’t like the film so much, because I didn’t understand many things. On one hand I didn’t undertand some dialogues, because characters spoke too fastly. On the other hand I didn’t understand the role of the plumber, the reason why his nephew goes to live with Martin Frost and why in the end the protagonist can’t look at Claire anymore.
There is the theme of the difference between reality and appearance. He thinks to live with a woman, he has lunch with her, he can touch her, but then she disappears and he can only speak to her. She is not real, she is a creation of his imagination that gives him the inspiration to write.
In my opinion some scenes make the film quite stupid: the scene in which Claire laugh in an exaggerated way, or the scene in which Martin Frost runs after the wheel…
Fortunately there were some aspects that made the film nice: the extravagant clothes the plumber wore, the fantastic scenery, the beautiful voice of Sophie Auster.
Pietro Perin