Llewyn Davis' Circular Journey
"George Washington Bridge? You throw yourself off the Brooklyn Bridge, traditionally. George Washington Bridge? Who does that?"
Llewyn Davis lives one great Mobius strip of a life, his experiences and encounters exactly like those the week before. He has talent as a folk singer, but his irascible rudeness and scornful attitude bury him beneath any form of success. We first see him giving a pained performance of Hang Me, Oh Hang Me at the Gaslight Cafe in 1961, which promptly leads to him being beaten in a back alley, leaving him bruised and battered and anything from adored.
The following morning, he wakes up on a sympathetic family’s (the Gorfeins) couch and writes a quick note thanking them for their kindness. As he is leaving, Llewyn accidentally lets their cat of the apartment and has to carry him around until he can be returned (side note: the cat’s name is "Ulysses," mirroring the novel of the same name by James Joyce).
The rest of Inside Llewyn Davis is an account of the lead character’s successes and defeats, although mostly the latter. We never see what Llewyn has gone through up to this point, but we have a sneaking suspicion he’s repeating the same tasks over and over; his story feels repetitive before we even learn about it.
Along the way, directors Joel and Ethan Coen present to us a wide variety of tragedies: Llewyn abandoning the unsavory jazz musician Roland Turner and his "apprentice" Johnny Five, losing money from song royalties, and (above all) finding out that he may be a father.
However, not all is bound to be repeated. Llewyn, when leaving the Gorfeins’ home for the second time, this time stops their cat from escaping. It’s a slight change, very sudden and small, but a victory that suggests Llewyn has the capacity to learn from his actions.
Llewyn’s final performance is a rendition of Fare Thee Well, in which the audience feels far more connected with him following his tragic journey in contrast to the beginning of the film. Immediately after him, a then-unknown Bob Dylan walks onto the stand, emphasizing the depth of Llewyn’s place in history. He has no limelight, simply standing in the shadows while more successful and likable people take the stage.
In a similar version of the film’s first scene, the husband of a woman he heckled confronts him in an alleyway and gives him a quick (but admittedly deserved) beating. As the assailant calmly hails a taxi and flees the scene, Llewyn slurs the French phrase "au revoir," which roughly translates to "until next time." Oh, we’ll definitely meet you again, Llewyn. See you next week.