Where was Remy? *SPOILERS*

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#1

Although this may fit into FONY’s post on “things I didn’t get”, I figure that that is for her own questions and the like, plus this one comes up in a few parts in the film.

I recently re-watched it and wondered some things. It pops up twice in the film…

First is after Remy and his father have their “talk” outside the rat shop. Now that was at night. And the scene then switches to morning. We SEE Remy coming out of the sewer near Guesteaus (hard name). Now, one might think that he just went THROUGH the sewer to go BACK to Gueseaus. But by the time he left with his dad, it was still night and raining, and was still as such when they were at the rat shop.
So the question begs…WHERE was Remy? I mean Linguini didn’t go home that night, and I’m rather unsure of Remy knows where Linguini lives given the guy had to get from Guesteaus to where he lives without anyone seeing Remy. So where was he?

This comes up later near the end of the film with the scene where he doesn’t go with Linguini or his Father/Emile during Ego’s narration review. He starts leaving Guesteau in a similiar fashion he did at another time in the film (the scene is where Guesteau’s is in the background and Remy turns to look at it, and it happens twice in the film). So where did he go?
Wherever it was, and from the above he seemed to be going in the same direction.

And with the above, he didn’t go with Linguini. Given it was closing time, it wasn’t Linguini’s home, as Linguini had a bed for him there (note this is probably his new home he showed Remy when Guesteau’s switched “owner names” if you will).

So where was Remy during this time?

#2

I’m guessing Remy has his own little “spot” near the restaraunt. He “mentioned” to Django that he found a place “not far away” so he could “visit often”. Was he referring to Linguini’s apartemtn? IDK since Linguini rides a bike to Gusteau’s, and if it was close enough, Linguini could walk, and Remy was “found” near the restaraunt, so I’m guessing Remy has his own little “area” in Paris, which was probably also where he went at the end of the movie during Ego’s review speech.

Boy, that’s a good question. Thanks for confusing me! :wink:

#3

He probably was referring to Linguini’s place since Remy had “set up home” there.
One thing I don’t get is where. I mean he had a home with family and Linguini recently got a better place and, as seen, had a bed for Remy.

It’s just a wonder WHY that wasn’t really explained and WHY we never saw where he was. One thing that made me question is that, the first time Remy comes out of the sewer near Gusteaus, he claims to his dad he wanted, well in a term, be “not a rat” or in more ways, human, as a chef. So would relatively “living in a sewer” contridict his commitment? (Remember everyone, at this time, Remy didn’t choose to accept and remind himself that cooking and his family were two halves of what he was).

I was just left at the end of the film with a good feeling…like always at the end of it…but something just…felt amiss…I think it’s this…

#4

Hmm. Interesting interrogative to pose, Nexas! I never really took these abscences of Remy’s into further consideration, but I suppose that it would be an interesting topic of discussion to investigate…

#1: To answer your first question, I believe that I’ll have to agree with A113 on this and say that Remy may have had his own little “nest”/area nearby the cafe’ so as he could access the place easily without being too far away from home or “work”. Although rats are generally social animals and prefer to live in a pack with other family members, Remy was an exception. And, of course, this is a rat we’re talking about here. They can live anywhere, no matter what the circumstances (unless the environmental conditions are a few hundred degrees below zero or something…). The sewer drain that Remy popped his head out of the morning after the “talk with dad” sequence may have been a second (or third) residence – temporary living quarters in times of “emergencies” or such, if you will. If so, I’m sure he made it more “homey” with the addition of a few leaves, grass hairs, and things, being the rat that he is.

On the other hand, he may have simply retreated back to the sewer that Django and his clan resided in via a different passage-way…after the long talk in the rain-drenched street. However, we have no sure way to tell where the heck he really did go after the moment in question.

#2: Didn’t he climb up to a rooftop and observe the sunset over Paris at this moment in time? During Anton Ego’s “speech”, we do cut to a moment where we see Remy gazing at the night sky while lounging on top of a roof/balcony…before the scene dissolves into daylight. Speculatively speaking, he must have remained there the entire night.

However, that was the second instance in which Remy turned to view Gusteau’s restaurant before closing in for the night. The first time (after Remy and his family were unceremoniously shuffled out of the kitchen by Linguini) this happened, I’m not sure where Remy went. It may have been back to his “spot”, or perhaps he sulked the night away in a random place (although, I highly doubt that he would have executed the latter action). I’d like to think that he found comfort by sleeping/talking with his brother, Emile, but I really have no clue.

So yeah. Interesting question. :slight_smile:

– Mitch

#5

Ah Mitch. I was wondering when you’d post here heh heh.

As a sort of rest-home as it were? Interesting…

True, good point. Though I don’t think it was all night, but for a long period of time thinking things through and the like. I’m unsure, but given the view…doesn’t it seem like the Remy was on the roof he first was one when Guesteau told him to “go up and take a look”?

A guess of mine would be it’s the place where Guesteau’s “Anyone Can Cook” book was. However, as I recall when Guesteau asked him to “see how much he has learned” by pointing out the crew over Guesteau’s skylight. So by the first time he “entered” the area there, he already knew allot from the book. So I do doubt he went back to the book or such.

It’s just a nagging thing to me. If he DID have his own place, wouldn’t it have been suggestive to SHOW where he was? Hmm…

#6

I’m of the view that Remy didn’t have a nest. I imagine that, like other French artistes (and Eponine) he simply ‘walks the streets till morning’. Or the sewers; Remy spends so much time in there that I can’t relaly say that he’s anti-sewers. He seems to consider them a convenient passageway more than anything.

My take on it is that he has his ‘home’ with Linguini, ref the first night in Paris; the only times he doesn’t go home with him is when they’ve had a falling-out or he’s been out all night.

This happens several times in the movie:

1-When Remy goes home for the “My son has returned!” party. My view of this is that the party went on for longer than we think, and that when Django showed Remy the pest-control store, it was already maybe 4:48 AM or thereabouts. Remy walks off in therain, still thinking, takes shelter somewhere in the sewers (he can’t walk home because it’s too far, or too close to opening time, so he goes through the sewers to Gusteau’s) and, when morning comes, emerges, happy in his new decision and because he’s stood up for himself. And then, of course, he finds ol’ Alfredo there, having spent all night cleaning.

2- When he falls out of Linguini’s toque, he’s kind of put out that Linguini’s dumped him, and then he goes through all that ‘disgusting little creatures’ thing. My guess is that he curled up and went to sleep right there, in a depressive slump (which, the movie shows, Remy is quite capable of having). He wakes up and goes on back to Gusteau’s.

3-We see that Linguini expects him to go on alone to the new house when Linguini fights with him (“Get your head straight/Fluffy bunny” sequence) and he returns to the restaurant and says to Remy that he tought he would find him at home, but he wasn’t there. Then, when he throws Remy out, I don’t think Remy would go ‘home’, but he didn’t want to spend time with the clan either (‘I’ve lost my appetite’). So he would definitely spend the night in the sewers.

And you could say, he made a nest near the restaurant. But I say NOT, and the reason I’m so adamant that he didn’t have his own nest?

4-That the theme of the film, his search for his own identity, doesn’t come until the end, when he says, “I pretend to be a human for LInguini; I pretend to be a rat for Dad - why do I have to pretend?” and then Gusteau says “But you don’t have to, Remy. You never did.” (I know Mitch will correct me, quoting from memory here) So it would be thematically inconsistent for him to have ‘his own nest’, so to speak, as it would syumbolize his finding his own place in the world, which he DIDN"T until that moment - which is why it’s so important to have LInguini on one side offering to take him to his house, and Django on the other offering to take him to his, and Remy very kindly refusing both, because he knows who he is now, and just for this one night, he wants to sit on the bridge all night till sunrise, in the city he has made his own.

/filibuster

#7

Nexas - My apologies in that I didn’t reply to your post sooner…

Yes, it is a puzzle indeed, but I believe that putmoneyinthypurse has made some extremely good points on the matter, especially concerning the whole “human for Linguini/rat for dad” moment. When you think about it, it does make perfect sense for Remy to satisfy the needs/wants of both parties until the very end of the film.

Well, since you mentioned it…

“Ah, but you don’t, Remy. You never did.” - Gusteau

:stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

– Mitch