A question I'd been wondering...

So how did a Nick Cave song end up in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 1'? [link]

Oh, cool. Thanks for the link. I know there have been mixed reactions to that scene, but it was one of my favourite scenes in the movie, and the song choice had a lot to do with that. ("O Children" is probably my favourite song off Abbatoir Blues.)

Interesting article about how Black Swan and Blue Valentine have very similar sex scenes, but one got an NC-17 rating. [link]

Inception dream layer map by Chris Nolan.

Should I still whitefont Inception ponderings? Because I just rewatched it on DVD, and I think I'm confused again, after thinking I had it all figured out after seeing it four times in the theater.

I think you only have to whitefont the HSQ at this point, for two more weeks.

That map is cool.

I remember making a map of the dream layers in Bergmen's Persona for a paper in college.

Wasn't that complicated, though.

I'm not even sure what's HSQ at this point, so I'll whitefont, no big:

1) At the beginning of the movie, Saito doesn't realize that his mistress's house is a another dream until he rubs his face on the carpet, but when he first wakes up on the bed, he reaches under the pillow and grabs a gun. Why is there a gun there? Surely Nash, as the architect, wouldn't have put it there for Saito to use, and Cobb told Ariadne that only the dreamer can manipulate the dreamspace, right? So if they are in Saito's subconscious, Cobb said (when they were in his subconscious) "Remember, it's my subconscious, I can't control it." So it would seem like Saito couldn't just dream up a gun just because he expected one to be there, whether he knew he was in a dream or not. (UNLESS, FANWANK, it's a small manifestation of Cobb's self-sabotage, like a tiny freight train.)

2) The movie establishes that they can't kill themselves out of the first dream level, because they are so heavily sedated, which is why Saito getting shot is such a bad thing. The movie also establishes that the 10-hour flight from Sydney to LA is a week on the first level. But as far as I can tell, it never establishes what the kick is that gets them out of the first dream level. Do they just have to wait out a week on that level? Ariadne and Fischer killing themselves in limbo got them to the third dream level, blowing the hospital up got everyone to the second dream level, dropping the elevator got everyone to the van, and the van dropping...appeared to get everyone to the riverbank, but still on the first dream level? I'm not sure why that didn't kick them out onto the plane, but they were still dreaming, so then what? Do they hang out on the first dream level for a week, dodging Fischer's projections, trying not to get killed, waiting out the sedatives, hoping Fischer doesn't see them? Keep an eye on Fischer, covertly, to make sure the inception took?

TBC...

I still haven't seen Inception but I'm pretty spoiled and I often scroll past discussions of movies I haven't seen yet.

3) When Ariadne throws Fischer and herself off the building in limbo, they end up in the third dream level, but presumably when Saito shoots Cobb and himself (assuming that's what happened to get them out of limbo) do they go directly to the plane? Why? Because the other dream levels have closed for business? Because they want to? If they ended up on the third dream level, they'd be totally screwed, because they wouldn't be able to kill themselves to get out, and they missed the kick, so they'd have to wait out the sedative there.