"What have you been doing all these years?...."

[Tucumcari Bound]

"....I've been going to bed early."

I've always thought there was more to the answer Noodles gave Fat Moe than was actually said. I've always had the impression that what he ment by "I've been going to bed early" was that he's been in hiding all these years with life of imprisonment of some sort. Am I in the ballpark here or is there even more behind what he said? Or, am I reading to much into it?

[PowerRR]

Or he's just been going to bed early.


Because he's old.


 

[Tucumcari Bound]

Or he's just been going to bed early.


Because he's old.


 

I honestly think there's more to that line though. I'd like to see more opinions on this subject.

[dave jenkins]

It's just a way of indicating that he's been staying out of trouble. It's the late night carousers who call attention to themselves.

[moviesceleton]

It's just a way of indicating that he's been staying out of trouble. It's the late night carousers who call attention to themselves.

Yeah that's true. I think he's been living very "booring" middleclassed life ever since he ran away. Those years don't mean anything to him, this is even very clearly stated by not showing anything from that time.

Someone has suggested that the line would mean using opium but I'm not buying that .

[Tucumcari Bound]

It's just a way of indicating that he's been staying out of trouble. It's the late night carousers who call attention to themselves.

Great point dave jenkins! That makes a lot of sense. So I was indeed in the ballpark. I always loved this scene and loved the diologue exchange between Noodles and Fat Moe. Such a great scene.

[dave jenkins]

I love the first 30 minutes of the movie particularly. I've watched that part more often than all the others. Everything up to the introduction of young Deborah.

[Tucumcari Bound]

I love the first 30 minutes of the movie particularly. I've watched that part more often than all the others. Everything up to the introduction of young Deborah.

The first 30 minutes of this film are breathtaking. I mean I love the whole film don't get me wrong, but you're right, the opening is amazing. That scene with Fat Moe is OUTSTANDING. One of the best sequences Leone has ever done.

[Mw/NNrules]

I think I heard somewhere (prob'ly Imdb) that that's a quote from a book. It actually fits in well, Noodles probably didn't have much else to do then read. And with so little to do... why not go to bed early? I rest my case. I'm sure it would help if I could find the name of the book.

[Noodles_SlowStir]

Yes.  It's a reference to Proust (Not my original thought, I've read it in quite a few places).  It comes from the first line of Swann's Way, which is part of In Search Of Lost Time and had been known as Remembrance Of Things Past until a recent translation.  There are quite a few themes to this major work.  Some being the passage of time, memories, what is identity and reality.....I think the significance of going to bed early is the allusion to this work which OUATIA thematically has somethings in common.  I haven't read In Search Of Time.  I've only read a little about Proust and read a novel about someone that had read Proust and considered some of his ideas in her life.  This is the opening from Swann's Way:

"For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I’m going to sleep.” And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between François I and Charles V. This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning. Then it would begin to seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former existence must be to a reincarnate spirit; the subject of my book would separate itself from me, leaving me free to choose whether I would form part of it or no; and at the same time my sight would return and I would be astonished to find myself in a state of darkness, pleasant and restful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for my mind, to which it appeared incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark indeed."

I agree "going to bed early" would be something Noodles would do to basically keep a low profile while living in anonymity in Buffalo.  I think it also describes how he's shut himself down... living but not really living.  His life goes on somewhat, but has also somewhat stopped, like the clock in Moe's place.

But I would agree with what I read, it's significant that Sergio makes this reference to Proust early in the film.  It's a signifier to the viewer on some of the themes that the film will be concerned with.
  

[Mw/NNrules]

Cool. Proust. I gotta remember that.

[Kurug3n]

Noodles_Slowstir, awesome signature

[Noodles_SlowStir]

 

[dave jenkins]

Noodles_Slowstir, awesome signature

I agree.

[Tucumcari Bound]

jenkins, i think it's your turn to get a moving signature!