Llewyn desperately needs to find himself. Item: despite the title of the film, which is that of Davis’s solo LP, what is “inside Llewyn Davis” remains pretty unknown to us. He is terrified of the mere “existence” of his father and sister, and craves success—affirmation, really—as a folk singer. Inside Llewyn Davis is a small, somber film, especially by mainstream standards. Then there are visual clues. The camera focusses RIGHT UP A CAT SPHINCTER and follows it to the GUEST ROOM where OSCAR is crashing. Close. No, Llewyn "has" the cat. There’s also a parallel between Llewyn’s choices and the cat’s presence. And the cat is Llewyn. Oscar Isaac and the cat in Inside Llewyn Davis (Picture: Alison Rosa) Working with a moggy ‘was a pain in the ass’, sighs Joel. And cats in particular have universally been portrayed as nearly impossible to control. Another favourite is Disney's Aladdin, who gives his bread to some starving children even though he's hungry. He’s thankful for the gig, but can’t believe Jim wrote something as banal as his song “Please, Mr. Kennedy.” The Irish folk group based on The Clancy Brothers? ). So here’s a theory: Llewyn actually is the cat. I also got this after watching Columbus. Which brings us to Inside Llewyn Davis. Will Smith refuses to shoot some lions in I Am Legend once he realises they have a cub (he also has a pet dog for good measure). Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Plot [edit | edit source]. ‘We had multiple cats that would act in specific ways. This theory that the cat is an extension of Llewyn also helps put the ending of the movie in context. OSCAR ISAAC. We know that in fictional works, animals that look like or act like people aren’t rare. It's not clear whether the Coen brothers have read the works of Blake Snyder, but anyone who has done will appreciate Inside Llewyn Davis in a rarefied way, particularly its feline symbolism. The fact that Snyder's greatest success as a screenwriter was Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot! And that makes all the difference. Clint Eastwood randomly toys with a kitten for in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, just as Frank Langella pets a nearby dachshund at his lowest point in Frost/Nixon. They could have called it Save the Cat: the Movie. The cat is seen again while Llewyn is having a surreptitiously-arranged meeting at a local curbside coffee house. What's Really Going On With the Cat in Inside Llewyn Davis: A Theory. They could have called it Save the Cat: the Movie. He’s a penniless couch-hopper, but screams at moussaka chef extraordinaire Lillian Gorfein that music is “how I pay the fucking rent!”, These identity problems show up all over the dialogue, especially with the amount of time spent figuring out names. The focus on names fits right into the theme of identity. James Joyce’s influence is recognizable throughout the movie (i.e., Llewyn’s epic journey stays mostly within a few square miles, just like Leopold Bloom’s in Ulysses), but it’s a work by T.S. In folklore and mythology, one of the unbreakable laws is that names have power. Snyder's example is Sea of Love, when Al Pacino's cop lets a petty criminal go free because he has his son with him. Instead it points them out, and tells us we shouldn't fall for them. Inside Llewyn Davis has all the hallmarks of a Coen film. I'm Llewyn. Right afterwards, he hits the cat. Inside Llewyn Davis is all the better for not playing by the rules. Petting a cat! Isaac's Llewyn gets in trouble for talking too much in the Coens' film (usually when drunk), and his style is indeed similar to Van Ronk, as shown on the cover of Inside Dave Van Ronk.In fact, the album artwork even features a stray cat, which seems to be the inspiration for Inside Llewyn Davis' MacGuffin, which in this case is a cat). During a subway ride, the cat stares into the subway window over Llewyn’s shoulder. Item: the film clearly portrays Llewyn as considering whether to spontaneously take the off-ramp to Akron, where he has every reason to think his two-year old child is. His poem The Naming of Cats asserts that a cat in meditation is always “engaged in a rapt contemplation / of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name. The name is an evolution of Llywelyn, from the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great—whose coat of arms features curiously tabbyish-looking lions. Once you recognise it, you see it all the time. He mocks Jean’s dream of having a family life as careerist, square, and sad. There is something about a slice of life movies that I can't explain and it irks me. He has been awoken from the dream that he’s an undiscovered genius, and from the erroneous notion that talent exists in a vacuum—that any of his poor decisions and arrogant assholery wouldn’t somehow limit his success. The Coen Brothers are big fans of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973), an idiosyncratic reimagining of Raymond Chandler's famous film noir detective, Philip Marlowe. The star-crossed protagonist of Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) has in fact ventured to Chicago from New York, weathering a small hail of indignities, for just this moment. The accident with the cat is the next scene. Eliot that perfectly illustrates the odd relationship between cats and identity Inside Llewyn Davis embodies. In countless movies, though, characters literally save cats or pet dogs. The Coens even state it in the first seven pages of the script. Llewyn, pleased with his fortune, takes the cat to the professor and the professor’s wife when he gets the call from the professor to return the cat home. Call it a trick of the trade – one of the most common reasons for a script rewrite is to "make the character more sympathetic", and the insertion of a save-the-cat scene is a quick fix. They don’t look alike—they correspond. And guess what Llewyn means in Welsh? I have no idea why this movie was given any - let alone so many - positive reviews. In February 1961, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is a struggling folk singer (previously a merchant marine) in New York City's Greenwich Village. The cat is out of the bag. And what's Marlon Brando doing in the opening scene of The Godfather? They still do. Find out if a cat dies in Inside Llewyn Davis from over 10 other people who have already watched it. 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