Polysemic Theory

Polysemic theory is the ambiguity of a word or image to express two or more different meanings that audiences would interpret differently. An example of this is in Christopher Nolan's film Inception. The polysemic image is seen in the ending, when the protagonist see's his children and he spins his spinning top (to see if he is in a dream or reality), but before he see's what happens he goes to find his children. The chamera is then held on a close up of this shot for a while until it starts to wobble before in spinns straight for a while while before the film ending. This could show that he is either in a dream or in reality leaving the ending open to interpretation of the audience. The spinning top is a recurring motif in the film, with only the character truly understanding it. This means that they ending could confuse some audience because they will be waiting for the character to approve their beliefs. The recurring motif of the spinning top and seeing his children also makes the audience feel emotional when they see them both combined, when the audience see's the spinning top combined with the children suspence builds up in them because they want to know if the character is in a dream or reality thus determining what emotive responce to trigger. With them not being sure if the spinning top falls or stays spinning it means they are unsure what emotion to feel, leaving suspence still present in the audience.

I aim to use polysemic theory in my film with the protagonist taking an overdose of medicated drugs followed by information being delieved that she took the overdose with alcohol; leaving the ending to audiences personal interpretation. Thus making the audience unsure wether she is dead or not; meaning that they do not know what emotive responce to deliver so suspence is still their present emotion.