The Mirror (1975)

If you thought Man with a Movie Camera was difficult to follow, The Mirror totally eclipses all aspects of the film. This film simply surpasses all films I have watched up until this point (in my whole life) in terms of confusing story, plot, symbolism, imagery, etc. to the point where I truly did not know what I had just seen. I am sure many of your reactions are similar (or perhaps I am completely missing something haha). However, I can tell that there is a lot going on, a lot that needs to be unpacked and uncovered, brought into the light and examined. Although I cannot piece together what most of the pieces of the film are suppose to mean or represent, here is what I did notice.

After the scene where a house in the village catches fire (and for some reason everyone just sort of calmly and helplessly watches as it consumes the home), one of the kids has (what I think is) a dream. In this black and white dream, he sees his mom slowly erects herself from a basin of water. It is a very slow and eerie scene in which her hair hangs in front of her face the entire time. It immediately reminded me of the classic and well-known Japanese horror film Ringu (リング, 1998), and better known here in America for the remake The Ring (2002).  

The image on the left is from The Mirror, and the image on the left is of the 20 year anniversary film poster Za Ringu: Ribaasu (サ・リング：リバース, The Ring: Reverse). This may just be a coincidence, but the two have a striking resemblance. 

Another trivial yet undeniably intentional thing found in this film are the many mirrors that can be seen throughout the film. In fact, nearly every scene has a mirror or some reflective object visible at some point. Often times there are multiple, almost an over-saturation of mirrors hanging on the same wall. In addition, many mirrors (and windows) break throughout the film. 

There also seems to be some meaning behind the many birds seen in the film, both being grasped and taking flight, as well as some meaning behind the blowing of wind seen at the beginning (when the doctor approaches the woman) and throughout the film. Perhaps there is meaning in liquid in the film as well (perhaps the dripping of such). 

Don't know if I necessarily enjoyed this film 100%, but it was... interesting. At the very least, really good creepy vibes.