The Cage Response

The Cage by Sidney Peterson was a very fun veiwing. The effects created were impressive for the time period that the film was created. In my opinion it was a play on perspective. The "Cage" is a metaphor for the solitary perception(the common concious) that most people use to see the world. The film contrasts the main characters of the film (who are exploring their subconcious) and the common people on the streets (who only see concious reality) by picturing the main characters running "forward" while all of the common people are moving backwards. The Cage begins with an artist who seems to not know what he wants to create. There is a POV shot where he seems to see himself leaning against a pile of random objects slouched and exhausted. Then we see the artists hand empty of the brush he previously held. Suddenly a peice of bread appears there in his hand and he decides to paint on the bread and eat it (we see him eat the only art that he has created). The artist then seeks to explore outside of physical reality. The more we see the ECU of the blinking eye the more distorted the images become. The shots become progressively stranger, uncommon, and distorted as we see the artist rolling his eye around. The artist attempts to paint a line (seemingly inspired by the subconcious explorations thus far) but regrettably puts his brush down. The next shots are of him finally pulling the eye completely out. With the eye completely out he begins to morph into a completely different person (im not sure what effect was used to do this, it seems like a mirror trick, but it was very nice) showing how his perspective has completely changed. After the eye falls out of the artist's hand and begins rolling on the floor the funnest part of the film begins; the chase for the eye. The apartment collapsing around him was like the moment of terror that someone might feel right before they completely let go of reality. The woman is cares for the artist and calls for the doctor who's treatment for the artist's detachment from reality is to destroy the eye. There is alot to interpret in this peice, but I really wanted to enjoy the film and tried not overanalyze it from a certain point on.