I have been waiting all week for this discussion thread. The movie was amazing, absolutely incredible. I had to watch it more than one time for sure just to understand all that was going on within the movie.

It strikes me as one of those stories that leaves the interpretation up to the viewer. The beautiful of the film is the numerous different ways in which it can be understood. For me, I'd say that his obsession with being alive was the main issue throughout the movie. He wants to record life in all of his intricacies and minutia, but he focuses so much on his life only that he forgets to live it. He also forgets that while he may be the "star" of his own play, so is everyone else. As a result, he's more obsessed with capturing what life is, but he doesn't even seem to understand it himself. I'm reminded of the line:

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players"

It also has a very surreal vibe, where the lines of reality and the play begin to blur. Some parts didn't make much sense to me though, specifically the whole death scene with his daughter.