Like Mary Henry, the protagonist of Carnival of Souls (1962), Yella's car drives off a bridge into water. Like Mary Henry, she emerges, apparently alive, but really only a ghost. Like Mary Henry, Yella is ultimately reclaimed by death.
On more than one occasion, Yella is pulled out of normal life: when there's tinnitus in her ears and she goes partially deaf, when she hears the caw of an unseen raven (the angel of death) and when wind rustles the leaves of a tree (the unseen hand). Twice, as she's standing by water, Phillip doesn't even see her. These are cues that the other side of the grave is calling her, that she is not really among the living, but merely an otherwordly stranger here.
Water and, by implication, death by water is a ubiquitous theme, starting with the opening credits.
Whether director Petzold ever saw Carnival of Souls, I don't know. But I immediately thought of it the first time Yella experienced the otherworldly.
Why would he do this? Because in venture capitalism, his theme, the living are not really alive. They are all corrupted and forced into crime. They are not themselves. One even drowns himself. Yella and her estranged husband Ben are just metaphorical extremes of this, being actual ghosts.
On more than one occasion, Yella is pulled out of normal life: when there's tinnitus in her ears and she goes partially deaf, when she hears the caw of an unseen raven (the angel of death) and when wind rustles the leaves of a tree (the unseen hand). Twice, as she's standing by water, Phillip doesn't even see her. These are cues that the other side of the grave is calling her, that she is not really among the living, but merely an otherwordly stranger here.
Water and, by implication, death by water is a ubiquitous theme, starting with the opening credits.
Whether director Petzold ever saw Carnival of Souls, I don't know. But I immediately thought of it the first time Yella experienced the otherworldly.
Why would he do this? Because in venture capitalism, his theme, the living are not really alive. They are all corrupted and forced into crime. They are not themselves. One even drowns himself. Yella and her estranged husband Ben are just metaphorical extremes of this, being actual ghosts.