Funny synchronicity. I was just thinking about Stalker, because both it and Meal Ticket have characters who are named as archetypes (writer, professor and stalker / artist and impresario) and because even though Tarkovsky has been very clear that the movie is not an allegory on Soviet Union, it is clearly a story with dystopian elements relatable for someone who’s lived under Soviet rule. Coens have done a lot of variations of this "creative persons vs. commercial industry" theme, but it's always been done from very new fresh angles and avoiding the most obvious conclusions.whaleallright wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 10:11 pmPeople often ascribe stuff that's been part of human society for time immemorial, to the most proximate bogeyman (capitalism, America, millennials, etc.). People have exploited other people, often in gruesome ways, as far back as we know. Would the sketch in question never not be "timely" in that broad sense?
Reminds me a bit of how for many decades, every film that came out of Eastern Europe (or later, China) was interpreted in the U.S. to be a parable about Communist oppression. some certainly were, others were just about classic things (exploitation, misery, absurdity, hatred) that just so happened to still be present in socialist Europe.
Anyway, if the Coens did intend a "commentary" (ugh) on current events, one thing we can be certain of is that they'd never own up to it.
Tiny rabbit hole I'm thinking about diving into: Shakespeare's sonnet 29, regular number by Meal Ticket's artist, is also quoted by a down-and-out actor friend of the main character in Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place. Never read the original book, so that's my next move on my Coen studies along with watching The Big Knife, that might to be connected too.
