music box

Our next stop was Culver City, where he gave me a music box that played “Edelweiss.”

There, in the Morris Museum’s collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata, is a music box from around 1877.

But the insistence on its importance — it shows up instrumentally, and in its vocal form, and even in a music box as a ballerina twirls around — struck me as a perfect précis for the film.

In the hidden area within the music box were ninety-two full glass bottles and eight empty ones.

One features a character giving himself a shave, the daily task treated as if it’s a delicate dance atop a music box.