From “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead to “Last Goodbye” by Jeff Buckley to Paul McCartney’s “Vanilla Sky”. Non-diegetically, we have the barrage of pop music that Crowe fills the score with. Diegetically, it’s there in the references to famous works, like The Seine at Argenteuil, or Joni Mitchell, or the Jules and Jim poster on David’s bedroom wall, the quick look at Sabrina on the TV in the opening scene, the talk show interview about Benny the Dog, the Bob Dylan album cover. Entertainment and escapismĪrt is a subtle throughline throughout Vanilla Sky. Peace is only found “out there”, in the world, through hard work. He carries this guilt, shame, and blame that causes his lucid dream to literally put him in prison. David’s subconscious, even after 150 years, hasn’t fully processed what happened with Julie and how it impacted any chance he had with Sofia. Which is why a dream can easily glitch into a nightmare. Nor can you escape your subconscious and the things that plague you. As amazing as a dream can be, it always has that degree of artificiality to it. That gets at the central tension between dreams and real life. Even if that means traffic and annoyances. What happened to the people? They should be there. Being able to easily get around NYC is a dream come true. He’s alone in one of the most popular, populated places in the entire world. David drives around New York City, right into the heart of Times Square, with zero traffic. The themes and meaning of Vanilla Sky Reality vs dream You can watch the interview Paul did with ET in 2002. So even though they share a title, the song probably doesn’t provide a window into the title or movie in the way one may think, hope, or expect. Cameron Crowe approached McCartney, showed him about half an hour of the film, then Paul went to work. Paul wrote the song “Vanilla Sky” specifically for the film. The new title extends beyond David, to the viewer, as the movie takes on philosophical questions about the way in which we use media and entertainment as a means of escapism. These amazing things can happen but they still aren’t real, no matter how much they might seem like it. Monet’s painting is at once beautiful and artificial. That pop song that we wish our lives could be. Because it captures the larger idea of the cinematic denial that David has escaped into. This is why Cameron Crowe went with the title Vanilla Sky. And in any instance of discontent, you’ll be visited by technical support. ![]() Your life will continue as a realistic work of art, painted by you, minute to minute, and you’ll live it with the romantic abandon of a summer day, with the feeling of a great movie, or a pop song you always loved, with no memory of how it all occurred, save for the knowledge that everything simply improved. Your death will be wiped from your memory. Upon resurrection, you will continue in an ageless state, preserved but living in th represent with a future of your choosing. You’d like to be cryonized but you’d rather be resurrected to continue your own life as you know it now. Imagine that you are suffering from a terminal illness. Narrator: Portrait of a modern human life. Pay attention to the words that have to do with painting. His paintbrush painted the vanilla sky.” At the very end of the movie, when David is at the version of Life Extension in his mind, Rebecca Dearborn shows him the presentation about what Life Extension offers. At his birthday party, David shows Sofia the painting The Seine at Argenteuil, by Claude Monet. Vanilla Sky accomplishes a similar goal in a less direct, more poetic way. Only to reach a point where he’d rather open his eyes than continue to live in the lovely state of denial that L.E created for him. It’s a fitting title, because in both movies, the hero, David/César, chooses to close his eyes to the real world in order to escape the negative emotions that plague him after the car accident. But I’ve opened my eyes to the fact that I don’t actually like juggling.” ![]() That person isn’t real!” Or, “I thought I could become a famous juggler. ![]() If a friend was being catfished, you might say to them, “Open your eyes. The original title is a generic term for waking up or coming to your senses or facing reality. So why change the title from Open Your Eyes to Vanilla Sky? Vanilla Sky is a remake of the 1997 Spanish film Abre los ojos, or Open Your Eyes, made by Alejandro Amenábar, also starring Penelope Cruz as Sofia.
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