Hey, I've heard a few different takes on the ending of the film. the main one seems to be that, he is collapsing, sick of his lifetime of hedonistic pleasure and she will pull him out of it.
however, my thoughts were that she was about to get pulled into this web that he seems to get women to fall into. and we understand why anna went awol.
any thoughts?
I thought they both, after their romantic 'adventure' were confronted with the transitive nature of love.
shareI saw this movie for the first time last night and can't stop thinking about the ending -- particularly the tear that runs down his cheek. I like to think that maybe he has just realized how he sabotages himself -- he can't help destroying what is beautiful (as he ruined the student's drawing earlier) -- and this is his moment of redemption.
We don't know if he will choose to change, or if she chooses to help him, but the final shot suggests she is a helpmate -- standing tall both behind and beside him, looking out and ahead while he is sitting slumped, looking down.
gerimd,
Eseentially you are arguing for a relatively positive, upbeat take on the film's ending. WHile I find optimism appealing, certainly when it is plausible, I can't share it for this film.
I think the issue exists in the central nature of Sandro's character. Claudia is all too aware, I would say right on through the film, but certainly after having discovered him with the actress, that she does not and should not trust him. Her being drawn to him does not contradict this realization, although she and perhaps objectively all of us think it should. Recognizing Claudia can and does know who Sandro is, if you will, and also be somewhat drawn to him is central to understanding this film.
But in the end, are we to make of his patting his head as a sign of their going to live happily ever after? I think the answer to that is clearly no. I instead see the gesture as indicating that on one level she feels pity for him, pity that his nature is what it is, and that even the torment it causes him is not enough for him to change so fundamentally. But pity is not enough upon which to build a future.
Of course Claudia knows quite well that she has her own contradictions, and existential anxieties resulting from such recognition. That kind of self identification and knowledge, I think, is not enough for her to see Sandro as the same as her, or if you will as a soul mate. Hardly. The film ends, despite the gesture, with a great distance remaining between them. Sandro's own internal conflict does not lead to any resolution. He is in tears precisely because he recognizes this.
I do not necessarily feel that their relationship ends as the film does. Perhaps there will exist some lingering lack of willingness to end it. But in the end it goes nowhere.
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I love how she caresses his head in pity. Perfect ending.
You can have many different interpretation about the ending:
1: we have to settle for the artificial love, and thefact that true love won't exist anymore
2: Claudia's forgiveness is proof of true love, what happens after remains to be seen
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theallen,
While Sandro as the lead male character in this film is not supposed to be so particular as to have no meaning as a comparitor to the lives and feelings of the viewer, I am not sure it makes much sense to see him as a sort of Everyman, either. So the quandary Claudia faces with him is a tough fit with saying we all have to settle for the kind of situation a lover like Sandro is in and presents.
I also do not see Claudia as literally forgiving him. I think her actions are more in keeping with a kind of pitying Sandro. Having just rewatched the film again I remain comfortable with the view of the ending I wrote a little over a year ago, above in this thread.
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Here's MY take on it, you don't have to agree --
Realizing how much of a sham their relationship was, it became clear just how much they were amoral, empty, vapid and damaged individuals, causing them both to breakdown. Claudia comforting Sandro, to me, was her expressing empathy and perhaps pity, I wouldn't say forgiveness. Who is she to judge him as someone incapable of true love, when moments ago, she herself was dreading the thought of Anna showing up alive? In the end, they were BOTH broken and lonely people, and I think she realized it. A lot of comments I've read have been sympathetic towards Claudia, but to me, their actions after Anna's disappearance, prove that they deserve each other.
A bitter-sweet, but beautifully poignant ending, imo.