Safe Haven

safe haven

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'There's a petition to ban conversion therapy in the EU' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

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The Mouth and Teeth in Snowpiercer

The importance of teeth in Snowpiercer is alliterated and emphasized consistently. By virtue of the starving narrative, we are already drawn to the mouth. Several of the shots in the tail emphasize the mouth (More specifically, that of Andrew’s open-mouthed shout of pain when his arm is freezing, and that of Mason’s overly phlegmy, dentured mouth; the latter of which is one of the first characteristics of the woman that is noticeable, beyond her richly purple and yellow clothes).

The soldiers in the infamous Cod scene are, for the most part, covered entirely except for their mouths- they are reduced to nothing more than flashing teeth in the upcoming fight. 

Curtis constantly chews on his fingers. 

The introduction to Old World pleasures is by an oral object- the cigarette, reinforced by smell (when the Tail practically sways as Namgoong lights up). It’s one of the first things Namgoong does, and the mouth is again reinforced by the necessity of a device to translate both English and Korean.

Mason removes her teeth as a sign of innocence, to show that she’s no threat. It’s her way of pleading, and it’s not small detail that she’s issuing this plea to Curtis.

In fact, the teeth and the mouth always comes back to Curtis. It’s the tip-off to his characterization, and it often runs hand in hand (heh) to what his hands are doing.

The mouth is Curtis’ imagery. He consistently covers his mouth with his hands, clenches his jaw, and rarely shows teeth; the only place I can really remember him showing teeth is when he’s animalistically baring them at Mason’s throat. 

It’s important to remember that this is the one part of the film where Curtis’ visible anger and reactionary actions are so sudden and unexpected, compared to his normally reserved and tense self. 

Moments before this baring of teeth?

He’s holding his hand in front of his mouth, his own physical sign of restraint. 

We’re later drawn back to the benign imagery of the cigarette. At this point of the film, we’ve gotten so much of what the mouth is, and what it should do (It’s interesting to note that the people in masks on the bridge don’t get mouths) and the manipulation that a mouth can cause, that we as an audience expects Curtis to actually smoke the thing. 

Instead, he wastes it and other than one or two tiny drags, he doesn’t put it in his mouth, as he tells the audience why the mouth is so important. Why teeth are so emphasized. Each instance of the mouth within this film is to build up the realization that the mouth is Curtis’ core trait, the thing he ultimately holds the most guilt over- It’s a physical representation of his guilt, where his hands are his anxiety, his suppression. 

they dug me my very own garden, gave me sunshine, made me happy

it's actually really weird to me that both for US passports and CA driver licenses* have you remove your glasses for the official id photograph b/c glasses can WILDLY change what your face looks like. Like I look really different wearing glasses versus not (i also will usually do makeup differently) and if i'm traveling, im probably going to be wearing my glasses over like contacts or something (i need them to see, they're easier to wear for long periods, i like to take them off for sleeping,etc). It just seems like a weird choice for an image that's supposed to be easily identifiable as you, for them to pedantically require you to not wear the disability aid you will definitely be wearing when you have to go use it (and that changes how you look)

*probably other states too? i don't recall MA or TX making me remove glasses for photos but that was awhile ago, maybe they've all changed their stance on it

(applying for a new passport and looking at the photo reqs etc. good news everyone! if you're non binary you can get an "x" on your passport like it's on the official form now. along with a snarky little comment about how other countries might not be as accepting as the us about it, like okay jan, sit down. ::eye roll:: )

Just trying to catch that warm summer night feeling. It’s floating raccoons for me. apparently.