Paul Allen? Or Paul Owen? Talk about surreal…
Right, exactly. Perhaps poor phrasing on my part, I didn’t mean that doing nothing all day was the fantasy, rather that we are seeing is at least partly the fantasies that he comes up with while doodling and daydreaming all day. I suppose it could still be ambiguous, if the notebook doodles are reflections on the events after the fact, but to me it just makes a little more sense as part of the “disconnectedness” theme that he sits locked in his office alone all day visualizing this stuff, to the point where due to his lack of real connection to other people he loses track of what’s real and what isn’t.
Exactly. I see the doodles as a product of his fantasy time.
This is like finding where Springfield exists on The Simpsons.
If you’ve ever read the book, you’ll agree that Wikipediasays it best: “Whether any of the crimes depicted in the novel actually happened, or were simply the fantasies of a delusional psychotic, is deliberately left open.”
I believe the murders are a complete fantasy. I do not understand how someone could deduct that the real estate agent had personally disposed of the bodies, that is just ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense. Bret Easton Ellis is better than that.
What I got from that scene was this: the agent was unlike all of the other characters in the film. She had some sense about her and simply felt the presence of evil. It’s called intuition. She knew that there was something off about him, she was frightened of him, but she was strong and scared him away. I think this scene was simply a good vs evil kind of confrontation. And, of course, the scene that flips the story on its head; no, it was never real.
Anyway, before I get too far into it, here are 2 factors that have yet to be discussed here:
- The musical connections to the murders
- His notebook found by his secretary
The director placed that scene directly after the real estate agent scene for a reason; to further prove that it was all in his head. AND if you’re smart enough you’ll realize that Bateman is usually wearing headphones in his office, with his eyes closed.
What does this mean?
**
Bateman had simply been in his office the whole time, fantasizing about the murders and doodling them into his notebook. **
The director gives the audience winks throughout to prove this to be true.
Example: He’s sitting in his office twirling the blonde models hair, before Gene comes in he stuffs it in his pocket. As Gene is talking to him he begins to twirl his pen by his ear in the exact same way. Why? Because he was always twirling his f**ing pen. When he tucked the hair away it symbolized his shift from fantasy back to reality.
The notebook also shows that his doodles get significantly worse over time which syncs nicely with the concept of Bateman’s “nightly bloodlust overflowing into his days” and that his “mask of sanity” has been slipping away.
I love the 80s satire of the film/book and the theme of everyone being so self-absorbed that Bateman could have been killing all of these people without anyone noticing. But it doesn’t even need to go that far. What I think Ellis was trying to say is that people were so self-absorbed and greedy that they would fail to notice a colleague’s descent into madness.
I think the original post is an excellent observation. I only saw the movie once and really sometimes shocking murder scenes can distract an observer from some of the more intricate plot twists…I shall watch it again.
Totally agree with the OP. And that was my original thought upon viewing that scene. And it also reflects the near-psychotic materialism of the mid-80’s yuppie scene that the book is spoofing, i.e. who cares about murder, we need to move these units!
I found this analysis to be illuminating: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/e3662085fb/american-psycho-with-huey-lewis-and-weird-al