I don't know if anyone else feels this way but Donald Kimball seems so, so, SO intimidating whenever he's on screen. You never know if he knows or not. One moment, he seems completely oblivious, the next, he seems deadly confident in knowing what happened
Maybe someone can help: the emotion that Dafoe shows when he says 'that's not the information I've received' and 'to each their own' is just so well done and hilarious. Kind of melancholy, self pitying despair over things that don't deserve it. I don't know what emotion it is, but it's so good.
For those of you who know Ted Bundy (for sure one of the inspirations for the Patrick Bateman character), knows that Bundy had the weird capacity of "looking different" and that is why he was under the radar for so long. In this scene I think I see a play at that. Here Patrick is Patrick but still totally "different", his face is different. If it is intentional- incredibly acting/understanding.
Wow I never noticed that. You’re right, Bateman wants to use the excuse of lunch but jean said it was 930 or 1030, I can’t remember. (Obviously not a “long day” at 9 or 10 in the morning.)
In the beginning part of the first interrogation scene, just before Dafoe enters his office, you get a preview of just how grueling and stressful Bateman's workday is. The amount of effort and dedication he puts in to climb the ranks of his father's company is truly astonishing
@@rameez4904 Sarcasm - noun sar·casm | \ ˈsär-ˌka-zəm \ Essential Meaning of sarcasm : the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say especially in order to insult someone, to show irritation, or to be funny.
What if movies are created to show us what we miss in order to fill in our blind spot? Directors and filmmakers don't exist in the real world. And Christian Bale isn't really Christian Bale he's a concept of personalities and so maybe filmmakers do exist only the discovery couldn't be made until Steve Jobs and apple launched I-Cloud. Then we could access the once limited horizon of film. Then we can put together the fact that Bruce Wayne and Patrick Bateman are the same person.
@@Neo2266. as in "never" heard the album... Dafoe asked "just got it, heard it?" to which Bateman replied "never." Yes, it's a weird thing for him to say, but he was clearly referring to "never" hearing that album. Huey Lewis was very popular at that time, so he definitely would've heard of him as a person/band.
The directors asked Willem Dafoe (Kimball) to do this scene 3 different times. 1. He knows Patrick is guilty 2. He doesn't know if Patrick is guilty 3. He doesn't think Patrick is guilty After filming those 3 takes, they added random clips from each one to make this scene, to throw the audience off. We can never truly tell "Does he actually suspect him or is he just messing around?"
When you watch the scene when he pulls out the Huey lewis album, he definitely knows something, some information from the neighbors who heard the song coming out of batemans apartment.
Probably because the detective never existed. Patrick most likely created this idea in his head that he was being 'hunted' by the police. Like the thrill of the chase
@@renegade1234576 Yeah Bateman was probably never investigated at all. I do believe that he killed Paul because the scenes in which he does kill someone doesn't have sharp cuts or changes in dialogue. The homeless guy and Paul Allen are all clean scenes. You can tell the imaginative scenarios Bateman creates, with the hookers, the chainsaw, the nailgun behind his secretary, all fabricated to serve his inner desires. The whole interview with Kimball reeks of fantasy created by Bateman as a way of seeming like he has to be extra careful because some yuppie guy no one really cares about went missing.
yes Musicals are known for their musicality, harmony, singing, playing. that's many arts combined and very white. African or "black sounding" music is mostly based on drums with either deep or high noise and monotone voices.
@Arczethus what?? The guy you're replying to didn't say anything racist, while I can't confirm whether he is accurate or not. But saying a type of music is black isn't racist, there's black music and Indian music and native American music. Not really racist to refer to it as such; honestly more of a compliment tbh.
I just realised why he's always telling everyone "I have to return some videotapes". It's so that there's a consistency about Bateman, when the detective is interrogating people who knows him.
No.. it’s because he’s always renting video tapes of disturbing movies/porn tapes. Usually repeatedly, as in renting the same movie over and over again like 20 times.
Liam Weaver My statement wasn’t conjecture, unlike yours. He’s literally renting disturbing/pornographic video tapes repeatedly, you see parts of this in the movie but it’s more pronounced in the book.
>without emotion He's literally the most transparent person ever. That's the thing about Bateman: he's deluded about himself. He's not as charismatic or sociable or talented or well-adjusted as he likes to think he is. Think of how many times in the book or movie people just think he's a weirdo. He's widely regarded as a creep by those who know him, and the only reason he's even been as successful as he has is because he was born into money, and nothing more.
These scenes are some of my favorite in the whole movie. Patrick acting completely guilty, the detective seemingly dead onto him, then at the last minute brushes everything off and assumes he must be innocent. Hilarious but tension-filled
Right?! I love how in the end the alibi that gets him off comes from someone else entirely, he literally just lucks out everytime. Even when he like like tells his lawyer he's a killer, his lawyer doesn't even believe he's really Patrick Bateman, it's honestly hilarious
@@Space_Ghost_Hunter I think the point is they don't care if he did it or not, firstly because they're all too self-centered like when he constantly talks about how he enjoys killing people and his friends don't notice and secondly to drive in the point about how the wealthy can get away with anything.
I think that the detective knew the entire time, but was payed by patricks dad. You can see at the end of this scene that he uses the cd case to flash a ligth in batemans eyes and bateman doesnt react, showing hes completely dead inside
Willem dafoe is the perfect role for this character. His facial expression when finds a discrepancy in Patrick’s story really makes it feel like Patrick’s in trouble
His earlier interview scene was a little too forward for my taste. But when the second interview scene was shown, I think he really came into his own, inquisitively and objectively. The entire scene has sharp, complex scoring and a new aura of investigative prowess that really gives the scene a big boost. His method has been compared to the Reid Technique, but I think Kimball has a more narcotic, friendly sense of cunning.
1:25 The way he says "never" , getting overly defensive and thereby weakening his false front- It's just brilliantly initiated by Kimball and shows how smart that character is.
Patrick: "I guess I was returning videotapes" Detective: "Do you remember what they were?" Patrick: "Dark Knight and Batman vs Superman" Detective: "What did you think of them?" Patrick: "Both movies had the same protagonist, but Dark Knight used a slightly better actor"
+Apatheticer maybe. Also why didnt kimball go to the restaurant where patrick and paul had dinner ? Asking for secuirity footage or even showing patricks picture to the people working there could have set of some alarm bells. Ps. I wonder if jean quit her job after seeing patricks woman friendly drawings in his agenda ?
1:38 " to each his own, i chose my path you chose the way of a hero, but the one thing they love more than a hero, is to see a hero fail , fall , die trying, in spite of everything you've done for them, eventually they will hate you, why bother"
Kimball: Huey Lewis and the News? Great stuff; just bought it on my way here-ya heard it?? Bateman: I think their undisputed masterpiece is “Hip to be Square”; a song so catchy, most people probably don’t even listen to the lyrics, *but they **_should!_* Because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends; it’s also a personal statement about the band itself!
Music might be the only thing Bateman genuinely cares about. No one around him shows any interest in it, but he geeks out about it all the time. Wait... is that why everyone thinks Bateman is a dork?
@@robinvik1 He doesn´t actually geek out about it in presence of his friends, but only in company of either call girls, or his victims, like Paul Allen. When it comes to his public persona, he´s trying to fit in as much as he can, playing the part of the "boring, spineless lightweight", as the lawyer describes him at the end.
How could Kimball have known about it being their most accomplished album though? Patrick only referenced it in his apartment with Paul. I think it's supposed to be an uncanny coincidence.
If I remember correctly the director had them do the scene a few different ways. One were the detective knew Batemen was guilty and one where he was just interviewing another witness who wasn't a suspect.
More than that, I heard they had three ways of shooting the scene; one where Kimball is sure Bateman is the killer, one where he's sorta suspicious, and one where he has absolutely no suspicions. Then they made sure to cut it so that part of each take was in the final cut, just to make things even more confusing.
I feel like most people didn't think this movie was funny when it first came out but then as time went on people realized how great and hilarious the dialogue was XD
The movie, like the book, is from Bateman's perspective so it's tough to pinpoint what happened and what didn't exactly. I mean even if Kimball knew Bateman killed Paul it's nearly impossible he'd know about the Huey Lewis and the News stuff because he wasn't in the room. My guess is it was just a freaky coincidence.
@@lukebradley4660 I think you guys missed the point. The murders never happened, even the detective doesn't exist. In the end you'll see that the bodies that he hid, were never even there. In the beginning of the movie he says, that he's losing his sense of sanity, so he's going crazy. The huey Lewis CD is no coincidene, it's his own mind playing tricks with him. By the way, I watched the movie for the third time yesterday, and I finally got it.
@@edison886 There was supposed to be confusion/ambiguity regarding whether the murders happened or not, but according to the author they did in fact happen.
@@edison886 It's a common misinterpretation that the ending means that the murders never happened. I mean of course you can read it that way if you choose to but it was never intended to be a clear cut "it was all a dream" ending. The director Mary Harron said that was one place the movie failed because the ending was supposed to come across ambiguous as to whether Bateman had killed anyone, but a lot of people who watched it thought it meant everything was in his head. She also said she thought that the murders were not in his head. The writer of the book Bret Easton Ellis said that if the murders didn't happen then the point of the book would be rendered moot. The bodies are not there because the realtor removed them so she could sell the house. That's why she gets defensive when she realizes why he's there and tells him not to come back. In the book the room is described as smelling overwhelmingly of flowers; she put them there to cover up the smell. This satirizes the selfish nature of society.
well, of course. when hes not out chasing gangsters in gotham city, he is in his office working for pierce & pierce...or probably returning video tapes
The moment Dafoe pulls out Huey Lewis is pretty interesting. If you listen carefully, the moment he pulls out the album there's a cave like sound, a tinnitus like ringing, and a small light (presumably from the album cover) is reflected between the middle of Bale's eyes and then over his right eye.
So this interview was shot three times; one where Kimball knows he did it, one where Kimball thinks he did it, and one where Kimball doesn’t know at all. Bits of all three were spliced together to keep the audience guessing. It’s genius.
They actually shot three versions of this scene: 1. Cameras rolling, but no actors. 2. Actors present, cameras off. 3. Actors present and cameras rolling. With the third setup, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically.
The CD's light reflection on his face at 1:19 is insane. I thought his forehead and temple were quivering with the music when it cut to him. Then it quickly flashes in his eye...crazy. Could have been intentional- maybe not. Either way- great.
lets not forget his other brother Dr. Richard Kimball who was wrongly accused of killing his wife and later took over Alcatraz and threatened to launch chemical weapons into sanfrancisco
It's so interesting to see Bateman talk in these scenes, his responses sound like canned voicelines, like he rehearsed them and they're just auto responses he gives to things without a moment of thought, and Christian Bale does an amazing job with this character.
He's actually a clinical psychopath, which means that he doesn't actually feel real genuine emotion at all, so when he talks, he sounds like a robotic NPC.
@@rai2423 Well, Raskolnikov was being through a simular situation and simular emotions. A detective, interrogating him, was toying with him, and both Raskolnikov and Bateman were being put in a panic state of mind, "does he know?", "can I get away with the murder?", "how much does he really know?". The emotional rollercoaster, described in the book, matches well with the excellent, outstanding performance of Christian Bale. Calm outside, and panicked, paranoid on the inside, to the point of almost going insane
@@Blank-km4qr Easy. Bateman never took the CD out of the player. He axed Paul Allen, took his body to Hell's Kitchen and was done with it, leaving Kimball to search the room in the interim, like if Bateman was at work.
@@Halo1138 Doesn't mean anything. even if he searched the apartment, if done without a warrant and the party knowing and being served the warrant its an illegal search and seizure. Regardless, even if it was a legal search, finding a CD in a CD player (no shit) doesn't mean anything. It could've been in there for months or even a year.
@@Lone2011Wolf Let's assume that Kimball got a legal warrant. If Kimball did deduce that Bateman was the killer, yeah a CD wouldn't have been proof. However, it could have been used as a gambit to see if Bateman would reveal a detail he shouldn't know. It's not an accusation, and if Bateman played it cool, it would explain why he brushes the album off relatively quickly. He tried a ploy, and Bateman gave an answer that didn't work with the plan. As for the warrant itself? That's the only blind spot in my theory. Given that movies jump over details for the convenience of plot sometimes, it's perhaps possible that a serving could have happened off screen. Bateman seemed like a 'cooperative' suspect in all prior instances, but no, if we assume that the interviews are the only times that Kimball has contact with Bateman, then he could not have had contact with Bateman to serve the warrant. As an attempt to save myself, that music was goddamn loud. It's possible that a neighbor heard Huey Lewis playing and not the murder that it was obviously masking. Thus, sidestepping my previous theory that Kimball searched the apartment.
Does bateman ever do any goddamn work? That office has nothing that indicates he ever lifts a finger. No wonder he has so much time to go to Dorsia and drink with his colleagues
No. He's specifically not working every single scene we see him in his office. He's either watching Jeopardy, or listening to music, or in one instance doing a crossword puzzle. I think it was done deliberately to further blur one of the few defining factors of his identity. "Mergers and acquisitions" is one of the few concrete details we have that somewhat sets him apart from his colleagues. He even goes so far to ask people to "ask me about what I do" several times. However, we as a spectator know that like everything else in his life, that job is completely meaningless and for all intensive purposes nothing more than a shallow title.
Bateman got the job because of connections with his father. His fiancee says he could just quit but he says he wants the job because it will help him appear normal. Further, its a comment on the fact that none of these people seem to be doing work as much they lead empty lives and probably have their jobs through connections as well
Interesting fact: Willem Dafoe had to do his scenes in three different ways. One where he knew Bateman was the killer, one where he was suspicious, and the last one was that he had no idea
