Lys is a character that represents youth and the loss of income as she eats a rose symbolling this. Throughout the film it is hinted that there is a war in the background as this film takes place in a post war post-apocalyptic wasteland. The mythical city of Tarr can be traced back to the time were cites still exist before the war. Now all cites are destroyed expect for Tarr, which is flourishing with food and people. They believe the world will be sustained through the city of Tarr. Within the film Tarr is symbol of heaven a paradise for people. Within the film they are going there to search for the meaning of life as they are aiming for going to a biblical paradise. A line in the film is a tree sought refuge in a leaf showing even though Fando is more psychically competent than Lys he needs her emotionally to survive. Fando and Lys go off and play with toys as there is a childlike innocence to them. in the film a narrator is a painter. This links to the film being of high art as humans need will and determination as symbolically shown as the boy as him what would happen if he cut off his arms to which he says he would be a famous dancer as people search of Tarr they search for the meaning of life.
Fando pushes Lys is disabled lover on a cart as they look for the city of Tarr as she carries a gramophone as they a looking for heaven as they need a pure hart ad a love of art to reach heaven as they mut clean their soul. Lys laments on her paralysation but Fando says that doesn’t matter and he will take here everywhere. Fando Y Lis is a post-apocalyptic surreal film as a man playing a piano that’s on fire as people dance around him. This commune is full of people who have given up looking for Tarr and are wallowing in the excess of the 60s hippy burn out era. Within the film Fando and Lis are very much in love in the film as she comments on him writing letter to her when he was in the mental hospital, as Fando is then led away by women. Child narration them comes in as it symbolically describes how Lys found refuge in Fando showcasing how it hard to for people to not seek refuge in others. The people in the film are symbolically dolls controlled by others as the kid wants the doll as the man shows the kid and the doll showing how people are controlled, she is then backstage where she is forced to sign showcasing how art can be manipulated by people. This is shown as she is offered to sign a contract and meets weird people auguring over pointless things with the eggs breaking showing they raped the girl. Within the film Lis is exploited by Fando as he is led off by women blind as he is fondled in a sexual manor as a naked woman call his name as they are tempted with sin as he is tricked humiliated and angry showing the exploitation of people in society. Fando and Lis reunite as they have defeated the sin and move on.
The city of tarr is said to show them true love as they will be in paradise, and they won’t die alone. The destroyed piano symbolises destruction and they in an area of sin. Lis sings about when she dies no one will remember her as Fando says he will sing as song about her as well as well as them modelling the graveyard says that death in not sad but a celebration of life. However, death is also shown to be a sad as they are symbolically burry a doll as the film is about making your own heaven as if Tarr doesn’t exist they must invent it. Fando truly loves Lis and because of this he must for his life, however Fando doesn’t understand why believing love is enough as he worries about his strength as Lis tells him to try harder. Fando doesn’t like the fact that Lis has an answer for everything, but she doesn’t sometimes she makes things up however both are serious. A crazy priest characters finds them and helps them out as he becomes regrated by a sort of motherly bond by mocking breast milk as he tries to have his way with Lis. Fando believes he knows the way to Tarr as everything is subjective as tat midnight the children walk the earth. People bath in mud to be born from primoradial ooze as a spiritual cleaning of the soul being born again. Fando wants to but Lis in the mud as they wallow like animals, but they are scared.
Fando goes crazy and violent which upsets Lis as she cries, they get angry at each other as Fando drags her hurting her. Fando leaves as Lys cries as Fando kicks a doll showing his anger at Lys. Fando comes across women at a table and mean acting like perverse gods, to satisfy his sexual needs as they play cards for eggs in a gross post-apocalyptic with flies buzzing around them as they kiss.
Fando is tempted by one of the older women who crushes eggs like balls and calls him a faggot as women berate him. His perverse sexually repressed desires and fears are shown with a dominatrix beating him as women chuck balls symbolising his balls at him. He is trapped by his sexual repression as he is attacked and symbolically killed by it as he is thrown into his grave. His fears them form his father who puts him in his grave as Fando is left for dead. Lis however is Fandos only thing attaching him to life and love as he sets off to find her. Lis’s naked body is thrown at the bottom of a pile of animal skull bones as a guy at the top of the bones uses her as a sacrifice, which is shown as she is taken to a slaughterhouse like place filled with bones. A guy then makes a vaginal hole in doll as Fando watches showing sexual repressions as a snake is inserted into it like childbirth symbolising sin. Fando and Lis are broken realising all they have is each other as Fando licks Lis dirty feet as a sign of forgiveness and that he loves her. Fando tries to reconcile but Lis doesn’t forgive him, he says she is smart as she says he makes her suffer but he believes he doesn’t, as she doesn’t believe him as he admits his faults as all they must do is get to Tarr there destiny the point of heaven. They then come across people in drag linking into the themes of challenging sexual and societal norms as they tempt Fando with lust and make weird animal noises as they are repeatedly lustful animals giving into their desires. They tempt Fando and Lis as they are carried away as the films contains themes of channelling sexual norms. Fando is tempted showcasing the pervasive sexual desires of the 60s.
Lis however is more traditional and just wants Fando who embraces the excess as he cross-dresses showing the sexual revolution of the sixties. Lis being more puritanical is against it but is dressed like a man looking androgynous showcasing the boundary pushing sixties. They then embrace seemly loving one another no matter what.
They wind up in in a house where they descend into lustful excess. They paint on each other’s bodies showing that they love each other as they paint all over the walls and throws paint all over the place. This is symbolic of the sixties excess and the biblical debauchery as they love themselves and each other through excess. It turns out this is a dream sequence as they end up back in reality with Lis being disabled as a man wanders around lusting for blood as Fando lets them take some of Lis blood and drinks it they have a complicated relationship in the film as Fando loves Lis but also exploits her. Fando then comes across a woman on a crutch as he is shown a burlesque dancer. Fando gives into lust which is shown as something gross and perverted with the woman stuffing her face, s this happens Fando is breastfeed by his mother showcasing his hidden Freudian desires. Lis on the other hand is forced to kiss her mother who is dying who belongs to her fans who love her unconditionally as they fight over her showing her hidden baggage in her heart. Then Remy Lis mothers husband then appears who left her as he runs away with her fans chasing after him as the mother is dealing form the pain of her husband. Her son then sees her body dismembered as a new life is formed from death as birds fly out of the corpse as arose is lit of fire symbolically showing the beauty of life and death. Fando kills his mother to symbolically freeing himself from his torment becoming reborn, however he still morns her carrying her to her grave as she thanks him for killing her as they get closer, Fando is then given a mouse by his mother symbolically showing that life goes on.
Fando seems reinvigorated with love as he goes up to Lis and kisses her as they make love. Then them get pregnant many times over symbolically shown in the form of pig’s witch triggers flashbacks of her being raped symbolically shown eggs being broken as Fando has sex with Lis and makes her pregnant. She is sacred about her pregnancy as Fando chains Lis up and uses her as bait when he doesn’t get his way. Men find Lis as Fando lets them Exploit her to trick them and manipulate them which Lis gets upset at. Fando loses his mind searching for Tarr becoming desperate as he runs and claws at the dirt walls. Lis is in a bad way. As they well like they have gone nowhere. Fando explains that his mum tied him to a chair and a priest made a hole in his head and removed the stone of madness hinting at Fando being abused by his mother. The film then transports them to some perverse last supper style dinner as they are on a table with nets on them covered in food as fat people wearing weird hats sit at the table with an assortment of weird objects on the table as it is shown this is a vision as they are delicious. This demonstrates this journey as being biblical as they are trying to find heaven on earth, and they must sacrifice themselves becoming spiritual beings to find heaven. Lis says Fando always lies to her as Fando wants to show he loves her, but she won’t be fouled by a kiss. Fando sings for Lis as they do love each other however Fando manipulates her, Fando wants ownership of Lis putting her in handcuffs as he was only ever playing with Lys manipulating her.
Their relationship is abusive and manipulative but all they have is each other even though he degrades her forcing her to crawl. Lis beaks Fando’s drum as they both have a breakdown as Fando ends up accidently beating her to death as she is carried by the disabled man they meet on the house they find to the afterlife. Tarr is described to be a sort of biblical kingdom where you will wear a crown on you head becoming a Jesus like figure where you get given a key that opens the labyrinth of God where you would find the meaning of life. The people burry Lis as they cut and eat her flesh believing due to her journey to Tarr they will gain spirituality. Fando carries her corpse where he is overcome with sadness. She is buried and Fando keeps his promise remembering her and visits her grave with flowers and a dog showing she is remembered. He them lays in the ground seemly in his own grave as Lis watches over him naked like an angel as she goes off with Fando in spirt form seemingly dead and going off to heaven.
Fando Y Lis is a film about finding meaning in a meaningless world and coming to terms with a existentialism of a world that has no meaning to it.