The Platform (2019)

My girlfriend lowkey hyped this up so let us hope it goes super well. Taking some notes but giving my full attention.

• Guessed it would be about socioeconomic class... i was correct! I think that horror about enclosed spaces sort of like cube or saw are very good for discussing socioeconomic class, which is different then liminal horror which is different.... for some reason
• I am sure I am losing a lot with the translations here-- spanish name is "the hole"
• main guy looks like the guy from the mountain goats JOHN DARNIELLE
• premise: there are levels of a building and food is passed from the top to the bottom, with the very bottom receiving the least amount of food... some are here by choice some are not... a lot of exposition really quickly it is annoying but also needed for world building
• "I wanted to quit smoking and read Don Quixote"
• spite for those lower than you simply because those higher than you also treat you poorly, rather than making due by being angry at those who created the system at all.
• after spending time with Episode 550 earlier I do not feel the need to spend extra time analyzing how women are treated here.... yikes
• cannibalism^[1]
• blood splatter on camera cool
• i think the pacing is interesting here... i am not sure exactly how to articulate it but it is both fast and slow
• red light to indicate what is fake in a real space. I imagine the red light is a symbol for hunger specifically, the way that when our main character has the red light on the wall, it means he cannot eat. this equates hunger with lack of reality
• the focus on food specifically is interesting... idk how exactly, maybe the idea that food is life but!
• once he hits level 33 or whatever it starts to lose me a little: I understand that it is a commentary on socioeconomics where those at the bottom get less then those at the top but it feels like the metaphor gets limited if we spend less time with a diverse cast
• the ghosts of dead haunting Goreng is interesting as he slowly goes crazy... religion is mentioned here too where the cannibalism is compared to eucharist which i imagine means something- further mentioned in discussion of belief in god on higher levels
• a lot of scat and urine for taking itself so seriously
• if i had the time or emotional space, i would spend time analyzing how each character that Gorenf interacts with in context to how they represent different socioeconomic structures and political beliefs at how to handle and address capitalism
• how does the old guy know that the floor zero cares at all about the food
• i do like the layer by level pacing that is cool
• discussion, too, on the way in which humanity can be evil
• panna cotta as symbolism yayee

thoughts after listening to the dead meat podcast-

• was originally a play
• acknowledgement the metaphor is on the nose?
• comparison to snow piercer which i have not seem but my brain did go there
• kafka's "the trial"
• connection to the inferno

status - 2. sapling
letterboxd - https://letterboxd.com/aridadne/film/the-platform/