The film opens and closes with close-ups of a sightless eye. This inevitably evokes the notorious opening sequence of "Un Chien Andalou" in which a human eye is sliced open with a razor blade. In fact, "The Eye" was an early title for "Film", though admittedly, at that time, he had not thought of the need for the opening close-up. As a student of French literature, Beckett would have been familiar with Victor Hugo’s poem "La Conscience". ‘"Conscience"’ in French can mean either ‘conscience’ in the English sense or ‘consciousness’ and the double meaning is important. Hugo's poem concerns a man haunted by an eye that stares at him unceasingly from the sky. He runs away from it, ever further, even to the grave, where, in the tomb, the eye awaits him. The man is Cain. He has been trying to escape consciousness of himself, the self that killed his brother, but his conscience will not let him rest. The eye/I is always present and, when he can run no further, must be faced in the tomb.