I love the detail where had to pay for the licence to get on a boat. Like in Greek mythology, those who could not pay Charon's fee were said to have wandered for hundred years haunting it as ghosts. He's in a loop and just 'exist' and maybe in that beating he dies, and loops again like the ending.
I don’t agree that Lewyn lost his love for music - music is something he is very protective about - he doesn’t hate other musicians for being successful, he hates because what they do (commercial recording) is in his eyes diminishing music and, more importantly, memory of his partner. For Lewyn his musical career was deeply tied with Mike, and he is constantly reminded about his loss. His tantrum during the dinner isn’t because he hates playing, it’s because it’s painful for him. And he snaps when host sings Mike. Lewyn’s musical career reflects his personal life - his depression after loosing Mike and ability to move forward, connect with others. He is not able to exist alone, but he is not ready to trust others either - he refuses a promising band. What Lewyn wants is to return to the times when Mike was alive - he still performs the repertoire he played with him, but by himself. As to the cat - I am at a loss as to a specific symbolism. I saw it as a reflection of things Lewyn is abandoning and potentially killing throughout his life.
I think it's significant that the cat's name is Ulysses, might be a reference to James Joyce's rambling novel. To me the cat symbolizes his hopeless dream, his drive to push himself into more and more opportunities while all of his experiences and logic tell him that he won't succeed. After he gets turned down in Chicago, he runs over the false cat, symbolizing the death of his dream to get commercially successful through music. The "real" cat shows back up on Llewyns chest after he decides to go back to the Gaslight and continue singing after losing the opportunity. The cat is the weight of Llewyns hopeless, rambling dream
Interesting, especially the cat representing Mike idea. But here are a couple non-cat thoughts that no one seems to talk about: 1) the scenes that start and end the movie, where Llewyn sings and then gets beat up in the alley, have some differences from each other. Watch the beginning, then the end, and you'll see. 2) At the end, Llewyn doesn't say goodbye. He says "au revoir," and a more accurate translation of that is "until we meet again." This ties in with the circularity of Llewyn's life that the first and last scene represent. Or at least, based on the fact that the two scenes differ a little, it's a circularity that seems to alter a little each time. Am I completely off the mark here?
Beverly Wroxeter thanks for watching. I think you’re totally right, it shows that his life is cyclical, and while the details of the situations he finds himself in are different, they’re always essentially the same, his life is cyclical because he’s flawed and has hang-ups he can’t move past. And thanks for pointing out the au revoir note, maybe he’s not ready to move on after all!
It reminds me of Stephen King's Dark Tower book series (not the film) seeing the protagonist's journey as a spiral instead of a circle, altering and hopefully getting a little closer to the goal with every revolution.
@@filmbolism1097 Well a circular story is pretty much the most fundamental structure of a folk song. It ends the way it started, but the singer is a little wiser. Not a lot, but a little
Great analysis! On an unrelated note, I think the ending is a bit more optimistic than people give it credit for. This is probably going to sound a bit simplistic, but I think the ending of the movie implies that while Llewyn repeats a lot of his mistakes, he’s slowly healing and making less mistakes, as he remembers not to let the cat out of the apartment. His life still moves in a self-destructive circle, but it gradually gets less self-destructive. Anyways, I just thought I’d share, and I like both theories about what the cat symbolizes. If you read this far, have a great day!
One thing I also found very interesting is at the end of the film, Bob Dylan gets on stage and starts to play after Llewyn and during Llewyn’s attack. This to me show’s Llewyn’s disconnection to the music and how he keeps getting himself into the same problems when Bob Dylan of course wrote from the heart and changed music forever
Mhmm, I also think it’s important because Dylan didn’t succeed due to luck of the draw, it was because he innovated and made truly new things, take for example his version of house of the Risin’ sun setting the industry standard. Llewyn doesn’t know how to change, he doesn’t want to, at first at least. Dylan is what he’d be if he embraced change instead of staying in this cycle. . The thing is, in my eyes the movie ends in an hopeful note. He realized Jean had been sleeping around with more than just him. He remembers to stop the cat. He plays the song only Mike and him would play at the end. He’s getting better mentally, slowly, and it might take a few more cycles, but he’ll be like Dylan if he learns to embrace change and get better.
Its pretty good, but not great. I love the Coen bros but they are also overrated at times. They’ve already done an on-the-nose Odyssey/music based film w/Oh Brother where art thou? (Which was a much better movie w/better music)
@@pts5217 Okay but "O, Brother" was much more comedic and on-the-nose regarding the Odyssey. This film felt like a fresh take on some subject matter from the Odyssey but mixed in with other elements. It's also very depressing and has quite a grayish color pallette throughout the whole film.
Great interpretation! Honestly, I thought the cat represents Llewyn's dreams of success. Some evidences: - When Llewyn and the cat are on the train, the cat seems to observe the stops' names and then slips out of Llewyn's hands to run away, as if he was dreaming of listening to his instinct, leaving everything and following his dreams all around the world. The cat often try to escape from his cage: he waits for the right occasion to jump out the window or the door. - Later Llewyn finds the cat wandering around the neighbourhood, as if he lost himself. - At the end of the movie, Llewyn passes by a poster of the 1963 Disney Classic "The Incredible Journey", and the camera dwells on the tagline that recites: "nothing could stop them - only instinct to guide them across 200 perilous miles of Canadian wilderness" - When Llewyn's audition fails, the dreams of success are frustrated, and Llewyn himself "kills" his dreams (he runs over the cat with the car), he fails, in fact we see the cat voluntarily returning to the cage. The dreams are killed by the music industry and life's toughness.
Ooh that’s interesting. I always thought it was symbolic of his happiness? And that the cat that’s the wrong cat is symbolic of a happiness he could have outside of chasing his dream of music. He chooses to leave that cat behind in the car when he goes to Chicago, and later when he decides not to get involved in his child’s life, he immediately hits the cat, this destroying his chance at that happiness. Then at the end when he shoves the cat back into the apartment, he’s choosing to protect and hold onto his happiness within music, and his ambitions in that. Dang there’s so many ways to interpret this
There are two different cats in the movie. There is Ulysses who finds his way back to his loving home and there is the female cat that he abandons and ends up getting hit by his car. The latter could represent the women in his life who are always kind to him despite him having a negative impact on their life. Also, typically redemption only happens to men in stories.
Also I want to add that the song the death of queen jane, which Llewyn sings in the movie, is about the queen of England who sacrifices her own life for her infant boy.
The cat doesn't need to symbolize anything. It IS the only thing in the movie that Llewyn consistently shows love for -- allowing us to see that he is capable of that emotion, and he's not just an angry, ambitious asshole. I think that getting beat up twice by the mystery man does symbolize how he is treated by the artform he loves so much. I think the second beating at the end and his "au revoir" line ask us if we think he will continue the fight, and gives us the answer. BTW, I lived in the Village from 69 on, and visited it a lot from 65 on. The Village they built and filmed felt so much like the one I remembered! It always seemed to be cold, with filthy snow in the gutters, cracked plaster walls, and the wind blowing God-knows-what in your face.
There so many facets to "What or who is the cat? What does it stand for? Explain the cat.". The cat is Llewyn. Llewyn is the cat. The cat is Mike. The cat is Llewyn's hopes and dreams. The cat is Llewyn's soul. I like to add: the cat is his duo with Mike. The duo got castrated. Llewyn has to leave the duo behind. But he can't. To me the most heartbreaking scene in the whole movie is when Llewyn denies to let the cat come with him to Chicago and leaves it in the car with Roland Turner. Mighty Roland Turner is a representation of Charon the ferryman. Charon carries the dead over the river Acheron(!) into Hades. Llewan has let Mike and the duo go, he reached the next stage of grief. As a musician, he has to start from scratch. A whole new story begins.
i always thought that the cat was the happiness that he was chasing, and that he chasing the wrong cat represented that he was chasing the wrong type of happiness, never thought about it like you did. Great video!!
I like your interpretation a lot more. I tend to have to rewatch movies over and over to get the meaning. On my second watch through yesterday my conclusion was that Llewyn was going to kill himself. Maybe the goodbyes to his friends and family, “Fare Thee Well” lyrics, and the “au revoire” scene were a little on the nose for that kind of conclusion, but tied in with the theme of his partner having committed suicide. The lyrics tacked on at the end rendition of “Fare Thee Well” are what solidified this in my mind at the time: “Now one of these mornings, it won't be long You'll call my name, and I'll be gone” To be honest, I hadn’t even given much credit to the existence of the cat, other than that I saw the death of the “wrong” cat as symbolizing his partner. To some extent he feels at fault for not being there for his partner when he died, just like when he abandons the cat and accidentally runs it over. There’s that uncertainty of whether he’s responsible that eats at him. The man sleeping in the back is the relative indifference of everyone around him. Llewyn is the Gorfein’s cat. The beauty of this film is how much like a song it is. Completely open to interpretation. But then, you’ve raised some good points. Time for a third watch!
I came to a similar conclusion that you described with the cat being a symbol of Llewyn's true self, but your point about it representing Mike was really interesting. Excellent work!
The scene when Llewyn leaves Ulysses in the car is particularly haunting, almost creepy. Cats are notoriously difficult to work with, but they somehow got that cat to look at him in a… I don’t know… accusatory way.
Thank you so much for this video. Don't know it took me so long to find it. You seem to be deeply touched by this movie just like I was. Thank you and you earned a subscriber.
Great analysis! This definitely one of my favorite coen brothers movies. Something about it really connects with me. I think artists of all disciplines should watch this movie! Hell! Even if you arent an artist! Blown away by the performances and tone and humor of the movie
This was a really good video! I never really thought of the cat as a metaphor for baggage but that makes a lot of sense. Ive always thought of inside llewyn davis as a story about how hard it is to overcome your own self destruction. In a lot of ways i feel your video lines up with that. Good job!
The cat being mike is interesting. If you have seen A Serious Man there is a lot about Schroeder’s cat, were a cat is poisoned and put in a box and is both dead and alive because you can’t see it. I think this also could apply to Llewyn Davis, there are 2 cats, one of them he might have killed, and this could be Mikie and Llewyn. It also works with a view of the film being about suicide, with Llewyn’s final Au Revoir being to life itself, and depending on how 2 different people view it Llewyn is both dead and alive. Its very complicated movie, one of my favorites.
As Arlo Guthrie once quipped: "Ain't nothing hap'nin' for that cat.".. But Van Ronk's cat was on the cover of his album.. ;) Git it? "It's a joke, son" thus spake Foghorn Leghorn... aka John Goodman's character... "Open for interpretation" Great job. I love your analysis. "in harmony, with a Kosmic C / true love need no sympathy" ~• Llewyn IS as success. He makes us cry.
My interpretation was the cat represented a reflection of the difficulty that artists face within the industry, where opportunity and happenstance play a large role in their success. He loses a cat, and abandons the other. The cat escapes and then comes home, it represents Llewyn's own personal struggling of abandoning music and home like the cat abandons his, but is forced to return likewise the cat. The cat is also replaced by an identical ginger, an imitation of how musicians are often picked up and replaced by labels, both cats display a musicians desire need their support but also the desire to go beyond, all in ranks with those how appear identical to themselves.
I think the cat was his wrestle with hope and charity in the face of real adversity. I think the cat also represented his own redemption from his past careless choices. The best of him was in his caring for the cat (and all others whom he cared for in the film who in some way failed him as much as he failed them, including his own luck and art.) But by the time of the crucial moment of keeping or letting go of the cat, he was beat. He was caught between a rock and a hard place on the side of the road in a midwest winter... trying to thumb a ride in one hand, carrying his baggage in another, with no more hands to carry the cat: his higher ideals, goodwill, and hope itself. The movie makes for a parable of caring too late.
Nice assessment. I do think the frame story bookending the film is significant. Not only in the cyclical nature as mentioned in a comment below, but (as alluded to in that comment) with the increased presence of Dylan, in sight, being noticed by Llewyn (?), and audibly during the beating. Perhaps accentuating Llewyn's feeling of being inauthentic, and we the audience recognizing he's known that all along..
Dammit. I thought you were going to explain how the cat got from downtown back to the gornheimers apartment again! I'm not smart enough for this movie but I like it.
Very nice analysis! The interpretations of the cat is very interesting, and indeed fits nicely with the details you mentioned. However, I disagree that Llewyn doesn't really like music. What he dislikes is sellouts. The reasons we see him disgruntled when playing with Jim, or for the Gorfein's friends, is the lack of originality (in the first he was playing some dumb popular song, and in the second, he felt he was being used as a ''trained poodle''). He only wants to play music on his own terms, and the songs that really express him. He always seems really emotionally invested when he plays his own songs. I would even go as far as to say he self-sabotaged his own audition... There is no other explanation why someone would choose to play such a graphic song when auditioning, plus he rejected the offer by Grossman to play as a trio.
this is an interesting theory - but i think the pivotal thing with the cat is that at the end of the film he DOESNT let it out. he is now mindful, something missing throughout the movie. He constantly makes rash decisions (the royalties, throwing his stuff out) that land him in bother, and but at the end, he is mindful of the cat and doesn't let it escape.....he has learned something.
I'm thinking Ulysses as in the James Joyce novel, the cyclical everyday existence yet also a celebration of it. Perhaps the cat can enjoy that existence because it's simply an animal
Must see this film. Reminds me of 'THE GHOST OF NEIL DIAMOND' , a dark comedy about a fading folk legend, who's homeless, who goes through constant rejections, including his partner, who finds himself completely alone, but it's all different because it's set in the Far East, where the only option left is to impersonate - though it gnaws his soul - the one and only Neil Diamond. Published in 2008, with revised edition in 2010, predating this film a few years. But must see this Llewyn. Sounds such a terrific movie and it's such an amazing and wonderful coincidence.
قط عائلة غورفاينز يمثل نفس لوين الضائعة و التي استمر طوال الفيلم باحثا عنها ؛بينما يمثل القط الاخر نفس صديقه مايك و الذي تخلى عنه في اخر المطاف و تسبب في جرحه عن غير قصد بعدما صدمه بالسيارة ،نرى في ذلك المشهد القط ينزف ربما قد مات بعدها كما حدث مع مايك و كان لوين سببا غير مباشر في انتحاره ربما, في الاخير يعود قط ال غورفاينز الى المنزل كما يعود لوين الى الموسيقى بهمة جديدة في اخر الفلم كأنما قد وجد نفسه من جديد .
The Cat is Llewyn's grief over Mike. He DOESNT WANT IT...but he chases it to no end. When he leaves the cat in the car the next song we hear is Fare Thee Well. Finally letting go of that pain that he was clinging onto. THEN he gets punched and its pretty much the end for Llew. Dylan inside killing it and Llewyn outside in the gutter. (I hated this movie but i KNEW i was missing the point) Also...I love how he doesnt like the Kennedy song, Mike jumped off the GW. And then the whole queen jane dying from child birth...thats also a metaphor for Llewyn's life. He gave EVERYTHING HE HAD and never got to see it. Llewyn is Queen Jane and Mike is the Cat. in a nutshell. lol
I wondered whether it was about cats and nine lives. Also, why the reference to the Disney movie about the three animals travelling across America? Loved your analysis btw. Arn't we all Llewyn Davis?
I know this came out almost 3 years ago, but I would highly recommend putting instrumental songs in the background, at least during the sections when you’re talking about and explaining things. When you add a song with vocals in it, then those vocals are fighting over your narration and it’s pretty difficult for the audience to concentrate on what you’re trying to say, because we’re trying to hear what the song is saying. I like your theories, the cat could easily be himself just as easy as it is to be mike.
It's partly a joke imo...There is a famous guidebook for screenwriting called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. Snyder says that we automatically connect to and emphatize with a character who we see saving a cat. The Coen brothers, in wanting to make Llewyn a gigantic unsymphatetic asshole, have him LOSE the cat. For two times. And still, amazingly, we emphatize with Llewyn.
I think the cat represents responsibility, normalcy and/or decency. Every time he loses the cat, something happens to the cat, more calamity in his own life follows. The worst being when he runs over the cat(one of the cats), foretelling him passing up a chance to visit his recently discovered child(Akron offramp). It's a very good movie, that definitely sticks with you. But it is also a bummer, hardly any redeemable characters in his world, including himself. The cat seems to represent the bad karma/sorrow that follows him around like the shitty weather in every scene.
I have another theory that John Goodman’s Roland Turner actually did curse him like he said he would and he’s stuck in limbo being unsuccessful and under appreciated. Also in doc done for the film T Bone the producer of the music in the film says the movie is kind of structured like a folk song. You have the first scene = verse Llewyn gets beat up. 2nd scene another story = verse Llewyn and the cat. So on and so then the end of the song goes back to beginning verse Llewyn getting beaten up.
Attachment to another sentient being IS baggage. It’s heavy and weighs us down, but who and what are we without it? (Cue: Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”)
Llewyn Davis is not based on Dave Van Ronk. Dave Van Ronk was NOTHING like Llewyn Davis is portrayed. Though certain events in the film may resemble things that actually occurred to Van Ronk, it is inaccurate to suggest that this somehow extends to Isaac's portrayal of Davis as somehow a representation of Van Ronk.
A cat was on the cover of the Inside Dave Von Ronk album, signifying that he would have a successful career. A cat wasn't on the cover of the Inside Llewyn Davis album. Draw your own conclusions.
Totally missed out on the Bob Dylan part they show at the end. Dylan's young and the folk era didn't break out yet. Therefore the struggle Llewyn has to sell his music.
To me the cat represents financial success. He can never really possess it. He gets to have it, for a while, sort of, then it's gone again. When he does finally have it, it isn't real success. Anyway, that's how I interpret it.
The female cat he brings back without the phallus, seems to be a Freudian reference to castration. He feels emasculated by the women in his life - his ex-girlfriend and his sister who treat him with contempt.
This is the comment I was looking for but not smart enough to put into words myself. On the car ride to Chicogo the fat heroin addict makes a comment about his dick as well.
What I thought that the cat represents the soft and human side of LLewyn. Throughout the movie, Llewyn seemed to be a rude guy who completely lacks sympathy. Only his care for the cat establishes that he is able to care.
I love the detail where had to pay for the licence to get on a boat. Like in Greek mythology, those who could not pay Charon's fee were said to have wandered for hundred years haunting it as ghosts. He's in a loop and just 'exist' and maybe in that beating he dies, and loops again like the ending.
If it loops then why does he stop the cat from running out the 2nd time?
I don’t agree that Lewyn lost his love for music - music is something he is very protective about - he doesn’t hate other musicians for being successful, he hates because what they do (commercial recording) is in his eyes diminishing music and, more importantly, memory of his partner.
For Lewyn his musical career was deeply tied with Mike, and he is constantly reminded about his loss. His tantrum during the dinner isn’t because he hates playing, it’s because it’s painful for him. And he snaps when host sings Mike.
Lewyn’s musical career reflects his personal life - his depression after loosing Mike and ability to move forward, connect with others. He is not able to exist alone, but he is not ready to trust others either - he refuses a promising band. What Lewyn wants is to return to the times when Mike was alive - he still performs the repertoire he played with him, but by himself.
As to the cat - I am at a loss as to a specific symbolism. I saw it as a reflection of things Lewyn is abandoning and potentially killing throughout his life.
Totally agree
I think it's significant that the cat's name is Ulysses, might be a reference to James Joyce's rambling novel. To me the cat symbolizes his hopeless dream, his drive to push himself into more and more opportunities while all of his experiences and logic tell him that he won't succeed. After he gets turned down in Chicago, he runs over the false cat, symbolizing the death of his dream to get commercially successful through music. The "real" cat shows back up on Llewyns chest after he decides to go back to the Gaslight and continue singing after losing the opportunity. The cat is the weight of Llewyns hopeless, rambling dream
Always thought the cat partially represented his 2 year old that he can't take care of because he can't even take care of himself.
Interesting, especially the cat representing Mike idea. But here are a couple non-cat thoughts that no one seems to talk about: 1) the scenes that start and end the movie, where Llewyn sings and then gets beat up in the alley, have some differences from each other. Watch the beginning, then the end, and you'll see. 2) At the end, Llewyn doesn't say goodbye. He says "au revoir," and a more accurate translation of that is "until we meet again." This ties in with the circularity of Llewyn's life that the first and last scene represent. Or at least, based on the fact that the two scenes differ a little, it's a circularity that seems to alter a little each time. Am I completely off the mark here?
Beverly Wroxeter thanks for watching. I think you’re totally right, it shows that his life is cyclical, and while the details of the situations he finds himself in are different, they’re always essentially the same, his life is cyclical because he’s flawed and has hang-ups he can’t move past. And thanks for pointing out the au revoir note, maybe he’s not ready to move on after all!
Also the scene towards the end where Llewyn stops the cat from escaping, unlike in the beginning where the cat gets by him and escapes.
It reminds me of Stephen King's Dark Tower book series (not the film) seeing the protagonist's journey as a spiral instead of a circle, altering and hopefully getting a little closer to the goal with every revolution.
@@filmbolism1097 Well a circular story is pretty much the most fundamental structure of a folk song. It ends the way it started, but the singer is a little wiser. Not a lot, but a little
Great analysis! On an unrelated note, I think the ending is a bit more optimistic than people give it credit for. This is probably going to sound a bit simplistic, but I think the ending of the movie implies that while Llewyn repeats a lot of his mistakes, he’s slowly healing and making less mistakes, as he remembers not to let the cat out of the apartment. His life still moves in a self-destructive circle, but it gradually gets less self-destructive. Anyways, I just thought I’d share, and I like both theories about what the cat symbolizes. If you read this far, have a great day!
One thing I also found very interesting is at the end of the film, Bob Dylan gets on stage and starts to play after Llewyn and during Llewyn’s attack. This to me show’s Llewyn’s disconnection to the music and how he keeps getting himself into the same problems when Bob Dylan of course wrote from the heart and changed music forever
Mhmm, I also think it’s important because Dylan didn’t succeed due to luck of the draw, it was because he innovated and made truly new things, take for example his version of house of the Risin’ sun setting the industry standard. Llewyn doesn’t know how to change, he doesn’t want to, at first at least. Dylan is what he’d be if he embraced change instead of staying in this cycle.
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The thing is, in my eyes the movie ends in an hopeful note. He realized Jean had been sleeping around with more than just him. He remembers to stop the cat. He plays the song only Mike and him would play at the end. He’s getting better mentally, slowly, and it might take a few more cycles, but he’ll be like Dylan if he learns to embrace change and get better.
This is the best film of the decade
Its pretty good, but not great. I love the Coen bros but they are also overrated at times. They’ve already done an on-the-nose Odyssey/music based film w/Oh Brother where art thou? (Which was a much better movie w/better music)
@@pts5217 Okay but "O, Brother" was much more comedic and on-the-nose regarding the Odyssey. This film felt like a fresh take on some subject matter from the Odyssey but mixed in with other elements.
It's also very depressing and has quite a grayish color pallette throughout the whole film.
This film is genious
@@pts5217
The Coens are not underrated
They’re always solid
And this film is high in the running for best film of the 2010s
Great interpretation! Honestly, I thought the cat represents Llewyn's dreams of success. Some evidences:
- When Llewyn and the cat are on the train, the cat seems to observe the stops' names and then slips out of Llewyn's hands to run away, as if he was dreaming of listening to his instinct, leaving everything and following his dreams all around the world. The cat often try to escape from his cage: he waits for the right occasion to jump out the window or the door.
- Later Llewyn finds the cat wandering around the neighbourhood, as if he lost himself.
- At the end of the movie, Llewyn passes by a poster of the 1963 Disney Classic "The Incredible Journey", and the camera dwells on the tagline that recites: "nothing could stop them - only instinct to guide them across 200 perilous miles of Canadian wilderness"
- When Llewyn's audition fails, the dreams of success are frustrated, and Llewyn himself "kills" his dreams (he runs over the cat with the car), he fails, in fact we see the cat voluntarily returning to the cage. The dreams are killed by the music industry and life's toughness.
Ooh that’s interesting. I always thought it was symbolic of his happiness? And that the cat that’s the wrong cat is symbolic of a happiness he could have outside of chasing his dream of music. He chooses to leave that cat behind in the car when he goes to Chicago, and later when he decides not to get involved in his child’s life, he immediately hits the cat, this destroying his chance at that happiness. Then at the end when he shoves the cat back into the apartment, he’s choosing to protect and hold onto his happiness within music, and his ambitions in that. Dang there’s so many ways to interpret this
He missed the cat however.
There are two different cats in the movie. There is Ulysses who finds his way back to his loving home and there is the female cat that he abandons and ends up getting hit by his car. The latter could represent the women in his life who are always kind to him despite him having a negative impact on their life. Also, typically redemption only happens to men in stories.
Also I want to add that the song the death of queen jane, which Llewyn sings in the movie, is about the queen of England who sacrifices her own life for her infant boy.
The cat doesn't need to symbolize anything. It IS the only thing in the movie that Llewyn consistently shows love for -- allowing us to see that he is capable of that emotion, and he's not just an angry, ambitious asshole.
I think that getting beat up twice by the mystery man does symbolize how he is treated by the artform he loves so much. I think the second beating at the end and his "au revoir" line ask us if we think he will continue the fight, and gives us the answer.
BTW, I lived in the Village from 69 on, and visited it a lot from 65 on. The Village they built and filmed felt so much like the one I remembered! It always seemed to be cold, with filthy snow in the gutters, cracked plaster walls, and the wind blowing God-knows-what in your face.
only thing he consistently shows love for? he literally left him with a drug addict on the side of the road
There so many facets to "What or who is the cat? What does it stand for? Explain the cat.".
The cat is Llewyn.
Llewyn is the cat.
The cat is Mike.
The cat is Llewyn's hopes and dreams.
The cat is Llewyn's soul.
I like to add: the cat is his duo with Mike. The duo got castrated. Llewyn has to leave the duo behind. But he can't.
To me the most heartbreaking scene in the whole movie is when Llewyn denies to let the cat come with him to Chicago and leaves it in the car with Roland Turner.
Mighty Roland Turner is a representation of Charon the ferryman. Charon carries the dead over the river Acheron(!) into Hades.
Llewan has let Mike and the duo go, he reached the next stage of grief. As a musician, he has to start from scratch. A whole new story begins.
i always thought that the cat was the happiness that he was chasing, and that he chasing the wrong cat represented that he was chasing the wrong type of happiness, never thought about it like you did. Great video!!
I like your interpretation a lot more. I tend to have to rewatch movies over and over to get the meaning. On my second watch through yesterday my conclusion was that Llewyn was going to kill himself. Maybe the goodbyes to his friends and family, “Fare Thee Well” lyrics, and the “au revoire” scene were a little on the nose for that kind of conclusion, but tied in with the theme of his partner having committed suicide. The lyrics tacked on at the end rendition of “Fare Thee Well” are what solidified this in my mind at the time:
“Now one of these mornings, it won't be long
You'll call my name, and I'll be gone”
To be honest, I hadn’t even given much credit to the existence of the cat, other than that I saw the death of the “wrong” cat as symbolizing his partner. To some extent he feels at fault for not being there for his partner when he died, just like when he abandons the cat and accidentally runs it over. There’s that uncertainty of whether he’s responsible that eats at him. The man sleeping in the back is the relative indifference of everyone around him. Llewyn is the Gorfein’s cat.
The beauty of this film is how much like a song it is. Completely open to interpretation. But then, you’ve raised some good points. Time for a third watch!
I came to a similar conclusion that you described with the cat being a symbol of Llewyn's true self, but your point about it representing Mike was really interesting. Excellent work!
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the scene where llewyn hit the cat with his car, I thought that was a major turning point. Great analysis!
The scene when Llewyn leaves Ulysses in the car is particularly haunting, almost creepy. Cats are notoriously difficult to work with, but they somehow got that cat to look at him in a… I don’t know… accusatory way.
thanks for the great video! this is one of my fav films as well, and it's nice to see multiple interpretations
Thank you so much for this video. Don't know it took me so long to find it. You seem to be deeply touched by this movie just like I was. Thank you and you earned a subscriber.
Thank you! It's such a beautiful film.
You deserve a lot more views mate. Well done. Short, to the point and very sensible
Great analysis! This definitely one of my favorite coen brothers movies. Something about it really connects with me. I think artists of all disciplines should watch this movie! Hell! Even if you arent an artist! Blown away by the performances and tone and humor of the movie
This was a really good video! I never really thought of the cat as a metaphor for baggage but that makes a lot of sense.
Ive always thought of inside llewyn davis as a story about how hard it is to overcome your own self destruction. In a lot of ways i feel your video lines up with that. Good job!
The cat being mike is interesting. If you have seen A Serious Man there is a lot about Schroeder’s cat, were a cat is poisoned and put in a box and is both dead and alive because you can’t see it. I think this also could apply to Llewyn Davis, there are 2 cats, one of them he might have killed, and this could be Mikie and Llewyn. It also works with a view of the film being about suicide, with Llewyn’s final Au Revoir being to life itself, and depending on how 2 different people view it Llewyn is both dead and alive. Its very complicated movie, one of my favorites.
As Arlo Guthrie once quipped: "Ain't nothing hap'nin' for that cat.".. But Van Ronk's cat was on the cover of his album.. ;) Git it? "It's a joke, son" thus spake Foghorn Leghorn... aka John Goodman's character... "Open for interpretation" Great job. I love your analysis.
"in harmony, with a Kosmic C / true love need no sympathy" ~• Llewyn IS as success. He makes us cry.
My interpretation was the cat represented a reflection of the difficulty that artists face within the industry, where opportunity and happenstance play a large role in their success. He loses a cat, and abandons the other. The cat escapes and then comes home, it represents Llewyn's own personal struggling of abandoning music and home like the cat abandons his, but is forced to return likewise the cat. The cat is also replaced by an identical ginger, an imitation of how musicians are often picked up and replaced by labels, both cats display a musicians desire need their support but also the desire to go beyond, all in ranks with those how appear identical to themselves.
Great video. Keep making these like this
I think the cat was his wrestle with hope and charity in the face of real adversity. I think the cat also represented his own redemption from his past careless choices. The best of him was in his caring for the cat (and all others whom he cared for in the film who in some way failed him as much as he failed them, including his own luck and art.) But by the time of the crucial moment of keeping or letting go of the cat, he was beat. He was caught between a rock and a hard place on the side of the road in a midwest winter... trying to thumb a ride in one hand, carrying his baggage in another, with no more hands to carry the cat: his higher ideals, goodwill, and hope itself. The movie makes for a parable of caring too late.
Great review. Short, sweet & right in the feels.
Nice assessment. I do think the frame story bookending the film is significant. Not only in the cyclical nature as mentioned in a comment below, but (as alluded to in that comment) with the increased presence of Dylan, in sight, being noticed by Llewyn (?), and audibly during the beating. Perhaps accentuating Llewyn's feeling of being inauthentic, and we the audience recognizing he's known that all along..
Dammit. I thought you were going to explain how the cat got from downtown back to the gornheimers apartment again! I'm not smart enough for this movie but I like it.
Wonderful video
I always associated the cat with his dream to pursue music, and that's why he keeps chasing it
Honestly it's really something simple like this. I think people are just looking too much into it. The cat is not Mike.
Very nice analysis! The interpretations of the cat is very interesting, and indeed fits nicely with the details you mentioned. However, I disagree that Llewyn doesn't really like music. What he dislikes is sellouts. The reasons we see him disgruntled when playing with Jim, or for the Gorfein's friends, is the lack of originality (in the first he was playing some dumb popular song, and in the second, he felt he was being used as a ''trained poodle''). He only wants to play music on his own terms, and the songs that really express him. He always seems really emotionally invested when he plays his own songs. I would even go as far as to say he self-sabotaged his own audition... There is no other explanation why someone would choose to play such a graphic song when auditioning, plus he rejected the offer by Grossman to play as a trio.
this is an interesting theory - but i think the pivotal thing with the cat is that at the end of the film he DOESNT let it out. he is now mindful, something missing throughout the movie. He constantly makes rash decisions (the royalties, throwing his stuff out) that land him in bother, and but at the end, he is mindful of the cat and doesn't let it escape.....he has learned something.
I'm thinking Ulysses as in the James Joyce novel, the cyclical everyday existence yet also a celebration of it. Perhaps the cat can enjoy that existence because it's simply an animal
Must see this film. Reminds me of 'THE GHOST OF NEIL DIAMOND' , a dark comedy about a fading folk legend, who's homeless, who goes through constant rejections, including his partner, who finds himself completely alone, but it's all different because it's set in the Far East, where the only option left is to impersonate - though it gnaws his soul - the one and only Neil Diamond. Published in 2008, with revised edition in 2010, predating this film a few years. But must see this Llewyn. Sounds such a terrific movie and it's such an amazing and wonderful coincidence.
قط عائلة غورفاينز يمثل نفس لوين الضائعة و التي استمر طوال الفيلم باحثا عنها ؛بينما يمثل القط الاخر نفس صديقه مايك و الذي تخلى عنه في اخر المطاف و تسبب في جرحه عن غير قصد بعدما صدمه بالسيارة ،نرى في ذلك المشهد القط ينزف ربما قد مات بعدها كما حدث مع مايك و كان لوين سببا غير مباشر في انتحاره ربما, في الاخير يعود قط ال غورفاينز الى المنزل كما يعود لوين الى الموسيقى بهمة جديدة في اخر الفلم كأنما قد وجد نفسه من جديد .
Very insightful
The Cat is Llewyn's grief over Mike. He DOESNT WANT IT...but he chases it to no end. When he leaves the cat in the car the next song we hear is Fare Thee Well. Finally letting go of that pain that he was clinging onto. THEN he gets punched and its pretty much the end for Llew. Dylan inside killing it and Llewyn outside in the gutter. (I hated this movie but i KNEW i was missing the point)
Also...I love how he doesnt like the Kennedy song, Mike jumped off the GW. And then the whole queen jane dying from child birth...thats also a metaphor for Llewyn's life. He gave EVERYTHING HE HAD and never got to see it. Llewyn is Queen Jane and Mike is the Cat. in a nutshell. lol
Great breakdown - thanks.
People slept on Van Ronk’s couch not other way around nice work mate music is the gift
This movie is so sad...!!!
Pd: I love all the theories
Fair enough. I watch anything related to this movie because it's a good movie. And there are so few of those.
As Elvis Presley once said: "Some folks has it and some folks ain't"...
I'm surprised you didn't mention the cat-like thing he hits with the car on his way back from Chicago.
I wondered whether it was about cats and nine lives. Also, why the reference to the Disney movie about the three animals travelling across America? Loved your analysis btw. Arn't we all Llewyn Davis?
I know this came out almost 3 years ago, but I would highly recommend putting instrumental songs in the background, at least during the sections when you’re talking about and explaining things. When you add a song with vocals in it, then those vocals are fighting over your narration and it’s pretty difficult for the audience to concentrate on what you’re trying to say, because we’re trying to hear what the song is saying. I like your theories, the cat could easily be himself just as easy as it is to be mike.
Hang me oh hang me is my alarm. I literally just woke up started watching this and thought "why is my alarm going off again?"
That was a great interpretation
Amazing film just watched it
Somehow, Ulysses the Cat returned
Loved it
It's partly a joke imo...There is a famous guidebook for screenwriting called Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. Snyder says that we automatically connect to and emphatize with a character who we see saving a cat. The Coen brothers, in wanting to make Llewyn a gigantic unsymphatetic asshole, have him LOSE the cat. For two times. And still, amazingly, we emphatize with Llewyn.
I think the cat represents responsibility, normalcy and/or decency. Every time he loses the cat, something happens to the cat, more calamity in his own life follows. The worst being when he runs over the cat(one of the cats), foretelling him passing up a chance to visit his recently discovered child(Akron offramp). It's a very good movie, that definitely sticks with you. But it is also a bummer, hardly any redeemable characters in his world, including himself. The cat seems to represent the bad karma/sorrow that follows him around like the shitty weather in every scene.
fell in love with oscar issac
and my depression
Really nice video. great stuff
MrRomes123 Thank you!
Yes.
I have another theory that John Goodman’s Roland Turner actually did curse him like he said he would and he’s stuck in limbo being unsuccessful and under appreciated. Also in doc done for the film T Bone the producer of the music in the film says the movie is kind of structured like a folk song. You have the first scene = verse Llewyn gets beat up. 2nd scene another story = verse Llewyn and the cat. So on and so then the end of the song goes back to beginning verse Llewyn getting beaten up.
does he not find the original cat after letting the 'wrong cat' out? I want to watch this but Im worried about the cat/ I know...
That's great
Attachment to another sentient being IS baggage. It’s heavy and weighs us down, but who and what are we without it? (Cue: Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”)
Llewyn Davis is not based on Dave Van Ronk. Dave Van Ronk was NOTHING like Llewyn Davis is portrayed. Though certain events in the film may resemble things that actually occurred to Van Ronk, it is inaccurate to suggest that this somehow extends to Isaac's portrayal of Davis as somehow a representation of Van Ronk.
I think the cat represents his career.
What about the possibility that he is Dave Van Ronk had Dave been a failure? Maybe the cat is a symbolic Schrodinger’s Cat?
A cat was on the cover of the Inside Dave Von Ronk album, signifying that he would have a successful career. A cat wasn't on the cover of the Inside Llewyn Davis album. Draw your own conclusions.
The cats the only living thing he’s responsible for and he didn’t even chose to be. It showed me he’s not a total asshole
😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻😻
Totally missed out on the Bob Dylan part they show at the end. Dylan's young and the folk era didn't break out yet. Therefore the struggle Llewyn has to sell his music.
Are you guys sure he got beat up twice by the same guy? I assumed it was a flashback kind of thing? They said the exact same lines
Not a fishing boat, a United States Merchant Marine cargo ship!!
Llewy is the cat.
You can’t end the video saying it open to interpretation!! I know that I want to know what you think! That’s why I clicked
He did explain what he thinks.
Surely it's a reference to Blake Snyder's 'Save the Cat' scripwriting guides?
www.savethecat.com/
To me the cat represents financial success. He can never really possess it. He gets to have it, for a while, sort of, then it's gone again. When he does finally have it, it isn't real success. Anyway, that's how I interpret it.
The female cat he brings back without the phallus, seems to be a Freudian reference to castration. He feels emasculated by the women in his life - his ex-girlfriend and his sister who treat him with contempt.
This is the comment I was looking for but not smart enough to put into words myself. On the car ride to Chicogo the fat heroin addict makes a comment about his dick as well.
What I thought that the cat represents the soft and human side of LLewyn. Throughout the movie, Llewyn seemed to be a rude guy who completely lacks sympathy. Only his care for the cat establishes that he is able to care.
I disagree that he hated playing with Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver. You can clearly see that he is jamming out with them
For a paycheck
In what ways do you think the cat is as much of an asshole as the lead character is?
Schrödinger’s cat
Get a pop filter please