Code Inconnu is itself a kind of unknown code of sorts, but it seems that the film wants to show us variations on an event that happens twice, once at the beginning and once at the end: a character tries to enter an apartment, but cannot, because the access code has been changed.
This is I guess a metaphor for how we need to understand the culture, mores, values, language of a place before we can make it our home and be comfortable there. For some immigrants (and even for a few natives), these things remain puzzles, which, until solved, prevent them from making real homes for themselves.
Consider all the variations on this theme of homelessness or losing one's home, or being out of place in society:
--A woman is shown an apartment she is considering renting...but it turns out there is something very important about the landlord that she needs to know, but doesn't
--A young black man is offended by another youth's rudeness, but seems not to anticipate or understand others' reactions when he tries to make the youth apologize
--A young woman decides she cannot live on the 20th floor of an apartment building
--A taxi driver in Paris finally decides, apparently after many years, that he simply has to return to his homeland in Africa
--A young man cannot keep himself from fleeing life with his father on a farm, even though he worries about his father's reaction
And this doesn't include the poor Romanian woman who is deported and other characters. They all, I suppose, don't "have the code" that they need to live in peace and comfort in their surroundings.
There is also a theme of imperfect communication. This film can be made out to be many things, and left me feeling somewhat intrigued, but also rather perplexed and indifferent. There is not quite enough glue here to hold together this collection of a couple dozen short scenes, separated by fades to black, as a coherent whole; the above is the best I could do with it.
This is I guess a metaphor for how we need to understand the culture, mores, values, language of a place before we can make it our home and be comfortable there. For some immigrants (and even for a few natives), these things remain puzzles, which, until solved, prevent them from making real homes for themselves.
Consider all the variations on this theme of homelessness or losing one's home, or being out of place in society:
--A woman is shown an apartment she is considering renting...but it turns out there is something very important about the landlord that she needs to know, but doesn't
--A young black man is offended by another youth's rudeness, but seems not to anticipate or understand others' reactions when he tries to make the youth apologize
--A young woman decides she cannot live on the 20th floor of an apartment building
--A taxi driver in Paris finally decides, apparently after many years, that he simply has to return to his homeland in Africa
--A young man cannot keep himself from fleeing life with his father on a farm, even though he worries about his father's reaction
And this doesn't include the poor Romanian woman who is deported and other characters. They all, I suppose, don't "have the code" that they need to live in peace and comfort in their surroundings.
There is also a theme of imperfect communication. This film can be made out to be many things, and left me feeling somewhat intrigued, but also rather perplexed and indifferent. There is not quite enough glue here to hold together this collection of a couple dozen short scenes, separated by fades to black, as a coherent whole; the above is the best I could do with it.