Influence.....or merely coincidence?

Ok, on the surface it's just a four-digit number. But are there shared thematic links between the two films? Scroll down for more.

Seconds, John Frankenheimer (1966)

2046, Wong Kar-wai (2004)

In Seconds, 2046 is the train Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) takes from Grand Central Station back to his safe home in the suburbs. An aging businessman who let life pass him by, he's given an opportunity to begin anew, thereby escaping both his present and his past, though for a price. In 2046, a mysterious train, the creation of writer Chow Mo Wan (Tony Leung), leaves for 2046 "every once in a while." Chow longs to escape from the pain of a failed romance. He creates a future world set in 2046, where escape is an impossibility, and lost memories are captured. Seconds: "Is it easier to go forward when you know you can't go back? ... Fact is, you don't want to go back." 2046: "Everyone who goes to 2046 has the same intention, they want to recapture lost memories. Because in 2046 nothing ever changes. But, nobody knows if that is true or not because no-one has ever come back." Trains, temporal escape, and you can't go home again. Valid connections, or am I just straining for ideas at 2:30 in the morning?

Comments

[Erin]

Great catch!

[Pstonie]

I want to believe.

Lost season 2 did this to me.

[Daniel]

Reminds me of that press conference of INLAND EMPIRE where a woman asked the significance of the numbers 4 and 7 repeated in the film ("I'm thinking...four seasons of the year, or seven days of the week") to which David Lynch replied, after a pause, "What you said was beautiful."

[Ken Ehrlich]

Don't pull anything.

[colinr]

Fascinating! In a way it doesn't matter whether it is intentional or not - perhaps one of the most rewarding parts of loving films is when connections are made.

That might be what prompted the Lynch response - less the idea (though it sounds an interesting interpretation), but that it touched someone enough to get them thinking about the meaning. After all, once a piece of art is out of the hands of its creator and available to the public, we are able to do what we want with it, interpret and project onto it, assign meaning to various symbols and are free to ignore the filmmaker's guidance and focus on minor characters, incidental details etc. There may be an original meaning that the filmmakers intended, but other ideas and trains of thought set off by the work seem to me to be just as valid.

[mike]

all due respect (sorry, I've been watching reruns of the Sopranos) i think you need to go to sleep earlier.

[justJill]

Awwww mike, I don't know. I think there's kinda sorta a connection.

fb, you do need to go to sleep earlier though!