Tricky Tricky question, and a question that is centered in the film's
narrative. Forgive me for picking up the gauntlet, but the question
intriques me. I would say (am saying), that the picture in the room is a
reflexive signifier. By the end of the film, Fink, the Clifford Odetts
character, the hyper-realist who longs to capture reality in fiction (an
inherently paradoxical quest), is _in_ the picture. He has been "framed" by
the narrative,  just as the film's narrative of him is "framed" by the film
and restricted by the physical boundaries of the film's aspect ratio. In an
ironic twist, the writer who longs to make his fiction "real" (and, in a
pun, make his fiction [the plays] into reel [i.e. film] in
Hollywood)becomes an image in the photo, a part of the picture; his real
[reel] life has become a fiction, an image, a representation. So, the
question raised is, if the fiction is not real, and the  reel is not real,
and Fink's life is reel not real, then where is the "real" that modern
realist dramatists were seeking. The answer: The real is just another
story, just another reel. The writer's narrative, Fink's narrative, is
trapped in a series of reels (tee hee).
 
In other words, it's a pun movie.
 
--Boon
 
 
At 08:44 AM 3/20/97 +1200, you wrote:
>I've just watched Barton Fink for the 2nd time.  It seems that the dark
>decaying hotel with its constant distractions reflects Barton's writers
>block.  However, what is the significance of the painting on the wall, the
>juxtaposed images of waves crashing on a beach and the final scene on the
>beach?  Can anyone enlighten me?
>
>Chris
>
>
>                   Chris Kubiak
>                   Education Coordinator
>                   Waikato Students' Union
>                   Private Bag 3059
>                   Hamilton
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>                   Fax(07) 856-3161
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>"The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them
>unsafe." -- Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and mayor of Philadelphia.
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