Obsessive Viewing Observations

[vardathemessage]

script:
The sound of distant waves rise up.

Other sounds emerge in succession: gunfire, explosions, rinky-tink piano, children at play, bar-room singing, opera ... each enveloping the other like the sound of time itself passing.

What can be heard that is not in the script is

"The modern world of science and invention is of particular interest to women"

...shooting star passes...

"science has released them from much of the age old drudgery... "

Interesting but odd. Perhaps Todd wanted to add a little acknowledgment about the women's liberation movement's influence on the era, along with the gay one.

UPDATE:
Mike of The Whole Shebang Velvet Goldmine podcast identified this as as Amelia Earhart from a 1935 radio broadcast, "A Woman's Place in Science". Todd alludes to the idea of aliens picking up radio broadcasts from Earth, in turn sending ambassadors in spaceships for a visit...

Hence, the film begins and ends with radio!

That weren't no DJ that was hazy cosmic jive.

Comments

[vardathemessage.livejournal.com]

Wow, great points! Todd certainly writes his female characters with depth and contradictions usually reserved for the male leads. In his real life, his relationships with women have included intense collaborations with producer Christine Vachon and Julianne Moore, so females are not just so much window dressing for him.