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The Collector
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| alex_makh | Date: Wednesday, 21.03.2012, 15:18 | Message # 1 |
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| Let's discuss the movie!
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| MissJane | Date: Wednesday, 21.03.2012, 15:45 | Message # 2 |
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| The movie displays the drama of a twisted personality of a young man, Frederick Clegg, who seeks pleasure in collecting rare butterflies. His insatiable thirst for a close soul, a beloved one, makes him cross the boundaries of any common sense. He kidnaps a beautiful girl, Miranda Grey, an art student. His obsession with Miranda leads him to a chain of hardly explainable actions. He locks her up in the vault where she stays more than a month. Frederick’s intention is to force the young lady into loving him, marrying him. Miranda’s position can be described as a butterfly beneath the glass. At first she detests the man but then contrives ways to inform the outer world where she happens to be, and later to escape the “madman”. Finally, she falls seriously ill and dies. Frederick’s reaction is somewhat reserved and calm – he acquits himself and blames Miranda for her own death. He’s nurturing an idea of having a new butterfly in his splendid collection.
The mind of the kidnapper has been put under a magnifying lens of the author’s contemplation. The cameraman managed to channel the attention of the viewer to the emotions of the character through showing the whole specter of facial expressions. It is notable that most shots in the movie are focused on the faces of the actors. Frederick undergoes a powerful metamorphosis starting from the amateur in loving affairs and reaching the state of total disillusionment in his dreams. His final loath towards the girl reveals that the seeds of disease have sprouted up for his identity to mutiny.
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| Luck | Date: Wednesday, 21.03.2012, 21:57 | Message # 3 |
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| The movie “Collector” reveals us psychological sufferings of a young collector who does not have anyone or anything apart from his collection of butterflies. His loneliness pushes him to commit a crime. He kidnaps a young woman, who, as he thinks, can start living with him on her own will, talking and spending time with pleasure. But the whole situation turns out to be not like the collector has planned it at all. The woman does not want to live in that room, she does not want to eat his food and discuss anything with the man. But she realizes that she will never be free unless she starts listening to him and live on his rules. That is why she agrees to be his friend and behave naturally for one month, after that she can be free. The deal is made but the collector does not want to let her go. Never. He wants her to marry him and live happily. But every act of the woman makes him angry. He always feels that any agreement or disagreement is planned. The situation goes under control and when he, being furious, wants to lock her in the room again, she hits him with the spade. Now she is scared because if he is dead, she will never be free again. But in fact he feels good in a few days and she is seriously ill because of the rain and the cold room. When he comes back to her to give her some pills, he finds out that she is dead.
The most symbolic moment in the story is when the man shows the woman his collection of butterflies. They are so beautiful but dead and they are not free. Just like the woman. The collection did not help him stop feeling lonely. Looking for the best species of butterflies he could never get enough, that is why the beautiful woman in the cage could probably make him realize that now he had everything but he could never get enough. And the death of the woman did not stop him as well. Now he wants to find a more perfect woman, who can show him more respect that he, as he thinks, deserves so much.
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| Asya | Date: Wednesday, 21.03.2012, 22:15 | Message # 4 |
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| I've never analysed movies actually. Interpreting fiction and interpreting movies - these are a bit different things. Nevertheless I understand that the movie is based on the book, but it misses something and introduces something else. Anyway, I'm still convinced that it's quite possible to speak about the plot. And the main themes.
This is the second work of John Fowles I'm getting acquainted with. The style of the author is recognizable. Especially. when he begins to speak about art, and mainly about modern art.
As far as the "Collector" is concerned, I like in much more than "The Ebony Tower". The tension of the relations, the development of the plot and symbolism make us follow the narrative with great interest. When saying "symbolism", I mean butterflies. A collection of butterflies, of these beautiful, marvellous and still captured and dead creatures. From the very beginning I've been expecting for the main character to kill his victim and to start searches for a new one.
He didn't kill her. She probably died of pneumonia. But she was just an episode of his life, an element of his collection. Did he really feel love towards her? Was there any affection?
Of course, there was some. But the way the story ends makes it absolutely clear that the main character is a maniac. You know, psychologists have proved that people keen on collecting things are all schizophrenics.
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| Rina | Date: Wednesday, 21.03.2012, 23:02 | Message # 5 |
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| John Fowles's novels “The Collector” and “The ebony Tower” have much in common. Both stories are focused on people's reaction to extreme situation that is opposed to ordinary style of life and stereotypical patterns of behaviour. Both stories deal with the concept of art and the problem of art appreciation. In both stories people's lives are closely connected to the way they percept beauty, no matter how it manifests itself – through art and through butterfly collection.
“The Collector” is a movie about human obsession. It is a story of a madman whose fixed idea was “collecting beauty”. So, he began with butterflies but it was not enough. Beautiful but dead insects couldn't substitute warmth of people relationships. Feeling lonely and lost he was longing for love, therefore he acted as he got used to – chasing and catching the thing he wanted. He kidnapped a girl in order to keep her in his vault and make her love him. But no matter how hard he tried, she couldn't stop yearning for freedom. Here we come across the main conflict of the movie – the influence of imprisonment on human psyche. No matter how comfortable the cage is, human soul can't be kept there without being disturbed. The same happened to the young kidnapped girl – she was permanently changing since the very moment when she realized she became imprisoned. Day by day new features of her character revealed themselves, leading her from a scared and helpless victim to a girl who's outraged enough to withstand her gaoler.
The end of the movie is tragic but rather predictable. From the very beginning a young girl was compared to a butterfly, and as any butterfly in the collection she was supposed to die. And now it's time for another girl.
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| 8davids8 | Date: Thursday, 22.03.2012, 10:10 | Message # 6 |
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| The movie is about a sick man who is full of delusions about life. We don’t see what the life of the main character was before the events in the film. We see only that while working as a clerk his colleagues mocked at his hobby of collecting butterflies. But he was mentally sick from the very beginning. He had a point about his solitude and so he decided to kidnap a woman and keep her in the cellar of his house. Throughout the movie we understand that Freddie has his own position in life. While arguing about Salinger’s Catcher in the rye he can’t agree with the actions of Holden saying that he had no reasons to behave like this because he had everything. Freddy doesn’t look in the essence of things, and when Miranda tells him that everyone one of us is reflected in Holden, he wouldn’t agree, nor understand it. Till the end of the story Freddy can’t understand that no one can fall in love intentionally. At the same time he is egoistic as a child, saying that he does what he wants to do. His victim dies in the end, because the author doesn’t see any other way out for her. Freddy picks up a new victim telling that this one will be more respectful to him and he will be able to teach her something. His sick consciousness wouldn’t allow him to get rid of the idea of torturing women in this way. His eagerness about butterflies is imposed upon living people. He simply treats Miranda as a butterfly. The story reveals many interesting topics, the actors’ play is brilliant and the suspense element is always present. Though I haven’t read the book, the film seems to reflect the message of the book. All in all, the movie made its contribution into the world’s cultural heritage.
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| Tanya | Date: Thursday, 22.03.2012, 12:41 | Message # 7 |
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| This film is about a young man who works in a common company. He is a lonely man who likes to collect different kinds of butterflies in his free time. One day he becomes a kidnapper and as a victim he chooses a young lady with whom he decides to spend all his time and turn her fear of him into love. It is interesting that this story is written in the form of dual diary one kept by this young man and the other by his victim. But this film is told from the point of view of the main character clerk Freddy. It is obvious that for Freddy this young lady is nothing more than a beautiful butterfly. He makes us to see that this man is a monster who has left behind any trace of his humanity.
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| alex_makh | Date: Thursday, 22.03.2012, 13:38 | Message # 8 |
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| The film Collector tells us a complicated story about a young man and a woman. The advertising slogan of the movie is «Almost a love story», and it fits the story very well. A young man, who calls himself Freddy, is a butterfly collector. He’s shy and unsociable, nobody takes him seriously, he has neither a girlfriend nor friends. All these factors result in a kind of psychological breakdown for him. He traces Miranda Grey, a girl that he likes, chloroforms her and locks her in the cellar of his recently bought country house. As any maniac he thought over all the details scrupulously – he boarded up all the windows, equipped all the doors with locks and even made acoustic isolation for the cellar. But Freddy Clegg is not a typical maniac. He doesn’t want to torture, abuse or kill Miranda. He wants her to fall in love with him. He wants her to talk to him, to spend time with him, to respect him. Miranda is frightened and reckless. She tries to escape her prison in a variety of ways but fails to do it. The end of the story is, on the one hand, unexpected and, on the other hand, quite logical – Miranda perishes of inanition and pneumonia and Freddy starts hunting another victim to his “collection”. As for me, I liked the movie very much. We gradually see Freddy’s transformation from a shy boy into a cruel thrifty maniac, whose mad ideas prevent him from understanding the reality objectively. We also notice that Miranda’s behavior is changing during the movie – sometimes she is really frightened and is eager to escape, and sometimes she even tries to understand Freddy and maintain their relationships, but his insanity is still unpredictable and thrilling. The acting is beyond praise and the camerawork is to my mind brilliant for 1965. Needless to say, the soundtrack is made in the best traditions of that time – strained, chilling, powerful. As a result we have an outstanding (especially for the time it was shoot) thriller\drama film! All in all – a must see!
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| Ayayulia | Date: Wednesday, 28.03.2012, 09:44 | Message # 9 |
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| Unfortunately, I haven’t read the book, that’s why I analyse the film as a separate work of art and in fact, a good one. It is my first try to make such an assignment and to tell the truth I am a little bit confused. When you analyse a book you have a fixed algorithm in your mind of how to start and what to finish with. The film is a different thing. Moreover cinema and literature “speaks different languages”. But I will try.
The action generally takes place in one room, so the film hasn’t rich decorations, but it doesn’t lack them. I mean that to make a not boring 2-hours movie in such conditions is really a hard work. The play of actors is vivid and deep. I like the transformation of Freddy – at the beginning we see a shy boy with a tray in his hand, but then we see devilish fire in his eyes peculiar to maniac. The movie has a usual plot (maybe it was unusual for 1965), but I enjoyed watching it. These 2 hours fly by as butterflies)
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