Picture credits: Pinterest
Inside Llewyn Davis is a movie about a struggling folk singer situated in the early 60s. This movie portrays depression through the protagonist, Llewyn, and guides us through his story and shows us how music to him slowly becomes a mere job rather than a passion.
Inside Llewyn Davis is yet another cinematic brilliance presented by The Coen Brothers which has many forms of symbolism and cinematographics in order to bring out the personality of a sad folk musician.
Introduction
Movie’s Name - Inside Llewyn Davis
Director - The Coen Brothers
Genre - Drama, Comedy, Music
Language - English
Starring- Oscar Issac, Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan
Synopsis- Spoiler Alert!
The story in the movie Inside Llewyn Davis is based on a real life folk singer Dave Van Ronk who was known as Greenwich Village’s “Mayor of MacDogal Street” during the early 1960s.
Llewyn Davis, although not as successful as Dave Van Ronk, is a folk singer who is trying to make it big in the New York City music scene. He is a broke musician who does not have a place to sleep and keeps sleeping on his friends’ or fellow musicians’ couches. He’s become a solo singer after the death of his partner, Mike Timlin.
The duo,Timlin and Davis, was more successful compared to his solo acts as his solo album, Inside Llewyn Davis, does not make any money. Llewyn seeks out Bud Grossman in Chicago, who agrees to audition him.
After playing his song, Death of Queen Jane which was a classic from his album, Bud tells him that he sees no money in his music.
Llewyn becomes tired of the constant downfalls that his career has been bringing upon him, which brings him to a point where he no longer treats music as a passion but rather as a career to just feed his stomach.
He finally comes to a saturation point where the words said by Jean resonates in his ears, that maybe he himself is the reason behind him not being successful.
About the Directors
Picture credits - Coen Brothers
Joel Daniel Coen(born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen(born September 21, 1957), collectively referred to as The Coen Brothers are American film directors, producers, screenwriters and editors.
They are known for their creative and attractive films that have a mix of comedy and drama and often center on eccentric characters and convoluted plots. The Coen Brothers are known for their famous creations such as The Big Lebowski, A Serious Man, No Country for Old Men and many more.
About the Movie
Inside Llewyn Davis takes us through the unending loop of torments in Llewyn Davis’, a struggling folk musician, life. It starts off with Llewyn playing ‘Hang Me, Oh Hang Me’ in Gaslight cafe, the folk musician’s den.
After his performance, the owner of the cafe, Pappi, tells him that he has someone waiting for him outside. Outside, a well suited gentleman beats Llewyn up for heckling his wife’s performance the day before.
Llewyn previously was a part of a two person band, Mike Timlin and him, but due to unforeseen circumstances, Mike had committed suicide which led Llewyn to be a solo performer.
His solo album, Inside Llewyn Davis, had not made any sales as his manager was not serious about promoting his album. Due to the lack of earnings, Llewyn was broke.
Llewyn was no more enthusiastic about music and hence later he became a part of an uninteresting gig offered to him by Jim(played by Justin Timberlake) just for the money. He had to play a part in the song ‘Please Mr. Kennedy’ which Llewyn found to be utter garbage.
Llewyn’s life is painted as him being depressed as nothing goes according to his plan. This movie has a negative turn where it never ends on a good note. In the end, it goes back to the scene where he’s playing his song in the Gaslight cafe.
While exiting the cafe to meet the suited men, on stage comes a young Bob Dylan who plays the song ‘Fare Thee Well’ and soon changes folk music forever. Llewyn gets beaten up outside, observing the gentleman leaving in a taxi , he shouts, “Au revoir”.
Symbolism
One of the most prominent forms of symbolism is obviously the infamous The Gorfeins cat, which we later come to know is named, Ulysses. However, Joel Coen in one interview said, “The film doesn't really have a plot. That concerned us at one point - that's why we threw the cat in”, but this is an example of the classic Coen misinterpretation.
The cat can be interpreted in two ways in my opinion. First one being, the cat is Llewyn’s true self. The cat is homeless and keeps getting lost, just like Llewyn. In the beginning, Llewyn loses the cat (symbolising that he loses himself) and keeps looking out for it.
In fact when he finally finds the cat, he gets to know that it is not even the real Gorfeins cat and is inauthentic, just like him. This similarity is also stated in the film, when Llewyn has confusing conversation on the phone, where the lady mishears “Llewyn has the cat” to “Llewyn is the cat”.
Second interpretation could be that the Gorfeins cat is Mike Timlin, his musical partner cum best friend who had committed suicide. The cat, like Mike, is something Llewyn is carrying around like baggage and it is something he needs to let go of.
There is also a scene which backs up this interpretation when Rolan Turner mocks Llewyn by asking whether previously he would work with the cat saying,”You would play a C major and the cat would puke a hairball”.
Similarly, there could be many more interpretations based on different kinds of viewers or it could have no meaning at all, like how Joel Coen had said.
Cinematographic Aspect
Bruno Delbonnel (the cinematographer) does a fantastic job in recreating the 1960s atmosphere.It would be an understatement to call this movie’s cinematography just brilliant. The cinematography is beyond beautiful making each and every frame of this film look like an indie poster.
The editing and color grading is well thought. The blue tones bring out the sense of depression throughout the film and the orange Gorfeins cat symbolizes happiness.The camera work of this entire film is enough to make this film stand out to be one of the Coen brothers best works.
Famous Quotes
“I’m tired, I thought I just needed the night’s sleep, but it's more than that”
“If it was never new and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.”
“Technology is the answer, but what was the question?”
The Bottom Line
This movie is a beautiful piece of art starting from its astonishing cinematography to its dialogues to its acting performances. There is hardly any flaw in the storytelling of the Coen brothers. The movie is nicely structured and has a firm grip over its plot.
The movie talks about serious issues like depression and failure in an extremely cinematic and subtle way so as to make the viewer comfortable. A person with keen interest in cinema, folk music or art should definitely have this film on his/her list.
My ratings for the movie - 4.5 on 5
Written By - Subham Sinha
Edited By - Umme-Aiman
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