Thursday, March 23, 2006

I've gotta re-watch this movie.

Rigorous Intuition: Name that tune:
"Remember Magnolia? Most people who do probably still don't know what they saw. Those frogs - where'd that come from? Even The Guardian could say, 'This scene does successfully manage to shock the audience, but possibly only because it makes no sense whatsoever.' But of course it did: an audience member had earlier disrupted the gameshow What Do Kids Know? by holding up a sign that read simply 'Exodus 8:2.' Of course it took looking up the reference to get it: 'If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.' So it required some work, and interest, to find the sense. And if you didn't get the frogs, you'd likely have also missed The History of Freemasonry on contestant Stanley's bookshelf, the Masonic symbols adorning the television studio, the conspicuous Masonic ring on the finger of the producer who consoles his paedophilic host Jimmy Gator, or the significance of Gator's farewell, 'We met upon the level and we're parting on the square.' Far from being meaningless, Magnolia is one of the most meaningful of American films, for those with the semiotic skillset to decode it."

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