Is She A Junkie?

[wowsignal]

Hi
Buoyed to be here - regards to you stalkers
I just saw the movie in a cinema, having watched it many times on video/dvd.
I got the feeling that his wife is a heroin addict but i never felt that before. As everything was much clearer on the big screen i made out what looked like a burnt sthingy on their bedside table, and i think she is clutching the silver box - with her works inside - before she begins to convulse orgasmically - in a sexual and narcotic style, as Stalker leaves their home.
The array of books on their bookshelves also suggest that Stalker may be more of an intellectual than we assume at first.
I'm enjoying the theory about Porcupine being Stalker's alter ego but i believe that Stalker's deepest desires, conscious or otherwise, focus on his daughter. For this reason i believe Porcupine was real and his (dead) brother mirrors Stalker's daughter.
I have to say that the power of the closing scene on the big screen was awe inspiring. There is so much hope and mystery and beauty at the close. I left the theatre buzzing with insights into my own life, with the question ringing in my mid 'who am i and what is my deepest desire?'.
Stalker is my favourite art.

noone knows where the hobo goes in the snow

[Pauk]

to be in love is the greatest drug of all. also if it is a desperate and hopeless love. that is what I can say about Stalker's wife. we see her giving a pill to Stalker, so that sterilizer (the silver thing) could also be used to clean the multi-use syringes, before injections (Stalker's constant cough may be a sign for a serious illness, that requires such a cure).
finally, I want to say straight, when I saw the title of your post, I felt an immediate negative reaction. it is because the film affects me through the different level of expressive units, and it did not fall within the frames of the perception of the film Stalker for me. having said that I feel pretty silly, mainly because of my sensitivity.
well, let's wait for further reactions.

[wowsignal]

...
Your honest response is a slap in the face to everything this film means to me. I still respect what you said though. I too care too much. The reason i ask is for clarification only.

[The Ferret]

Wowsignal,

We don't really know how the Zone works on human bodies, neither how it affects the neuronic system of a Stalker. Maybe the Stalker treats the many consequencies of the 'Stalking' with medicines and even drugs. Do not forget the radioactivity which resulted into 'Little Monkey' being a mutant of some kind(?).
There's no written word here, I don't think he or she are junkies at all. She's just a desperate woman, and from desperation comes the greatest strenght but also the greatest (physical) pain.

[MaKS]

You don't need a junkie to make a great film. The silver box most likely contains medicines for daughter. The heroine version even less possible, given the general naivety of soviet era people ^^

[The Ferret]

maks said:

You don't need a junkie to make a great film. The silver box most likely contains medicines for daughter. The heroine version even less possible, given the general naivety of soviet era people ^^

Agreed. Bravo, Maks! Medicines for the daughter, it does make much more sense now. Maybe she was affected by terrible pains due to the mutation.

[MaKS]

At least, poor girl probably can't walk o.o

[Pauk]

I'd still say the metal box is a sterilizer (as it is stated in the more or less official Russian transcript of the film). The only time the medicine is seen taken, is when the wife gives a pill to Stalker in the very end of the movie (unknown pill, his medicine for the illness he has (cough as a sign and that she urges him to get up from the wet floor) or her/common medicine - sedatives).

[MaKS]

i think, a saw a syringe in her hands too...

[blue]

The metal box, isn’t that the one from Solaris (the one with earth and a plant inside)?
What it is doing in Stalker is hard to say.
Did Kris ever bring it back? – I thought he settled there on that distant planet.
Or did it drop down with the comet and was found in the Zone?
Why Stalkers wife is holding it when quarrelling with her husband is also a mystery.
But dear Andrei was fond of giving us riddles – they are parts of his films.
And why must every question have an answer?

[The Ferret]

blue said:

The metal box, isn’t that the one from Solaris (the one with earth and a plant inside)?
What it is doing in Stalker is hard to say.
Did Kris ever bring it back? – I thought he settled there on that distant planet.
Or did it drop down with the comet and was found in the Zone?
Why Stalkers wife is holding it when quarrelling with her husband is also a mystery.
But dear Andrei was fond of giving us riddles – they are parts of his films.
And why must every question have an answer?

Probably, it's some medical stuff they need to tamper Little Monkey's unprecised illness due to the mutation. I'm quite sure about it.

And if you think about it for a while, both husband and wife use to be 'scavengers', always in search of things to fill the house. They are basically poor. That's what I deduced from the house you see on the screen.