Impression from opening scene from Punch-Drunk Love, 2002
The extract starts off calm and quite uneventful as the main character talks on the phone in a long take. He finishes his conversation, walks out of what appears to be his office, and witnesses a car crash. Immediately after the car flips, another car drives by to drop off a harmonium in front of the man on that same road. The man looks stunned with confusion as these moments unfold and intrigued by the instrument.
The sign from this scene is the car crash, resembling the end of something, possible death, contrasted with the harmonium being dropped in front of him, as a possible beginning.
The signifier is the harmonium because it is what draws the meaning of the scene together.
What is signified by the instrument itself is new beginning and harmony often associated with music and the car crash portraying an 'ending.'
The denotative meaning is that in a very strange sequence, a car crash has happened and immediately after, a car abandoned a harmonium on the side of a road in front of the man.
The connotative meaning of the scene shifting from a dark office setting to him witnessing a car crash and a harmonium being dropped off outside during sunset may symbolize a new beginning or change in his life.
The code used in the clip is hermeneutic/enigma because the abandonment of the harmonium poses a question to the audience as to why that was done and the reasoning for its focus in relation to the main character.
Semiotic Theory Applied
The purpose of the clip is to intensify the introduction of the harmonium and the curiosity it brings to the audience. There is a sharp contrast between the car crash being the end of something and the harmonium being a symbol of what music brings; beginnings and unity. The bizarreness of the two events and the different impressions they are associated with is what strengthens the foretelling significance of the harmonium to the plot.
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