I thought that the last scene, on the beach, was one of the most beautiful scenes ever made. To paraphrase what I said on another thread, it's the most astoundingly existential scenes I've ever seen, with Marcello ultimately going on the path of debauchery.
What did everyone else think?
http://www.ymdb.com/daniel-glassman/l34590_ukuk.html
In the last scene water (a gulf) separates Marcello from his past or ideal. He's given up and returns to his freinds. Contrast this with 2 earlier scenes;boards are put down in the flooded basement so Marcello can be with Maddelana, and Marcello wades through the water in the fountain to be with Anita Ekberg.
shareThis final scene realy affects me everytime I watch it.
Personally I noticed that from Marcello's point of view, the gulf separating him from the girl looks completely waterlogged with rough sea and no path through it.
Then when he is walking away, we see from Paola's point of view that it is merely full of puddles, with Marcello easily able to cross if he had wanted to come closer.
To me, this represents how sometimes the 'good' path in life may look like the toughest path to choose but essentially they are easy once you make the choice.
An absolutely heart-breaking scene.
Funny, I was watching this just last night. When I saw the reverse angle in this scene I thought "That distance isn't really so bad - he could walked over" but I didn't put it together until I saw your post.
share
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Then when he is walking away, we see from Paola's point of view that it is merely full of puddles, with Marcello easily able to cross if he had wanted to come closer.
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Ohhh! Excellent! Yes, it is a counterpoint to how, at the fountain scene, he eagerly wades in.
Yes I agree - and the water at the end looked so hard to wade through by comparison. Also of note is that he is wearing a suit, which most men will endeavour to not get wet. However he chooses to forgo this concern with Sylvia but it all just seems too hard with the little girl. This isn't a massive point but does accentuate the conscious decision he makes in both cases.
Also, this particular thread is really good; thought provoking. To that guy that said the ending was a changing point in his life: well done sir!
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steiner's murder-suicide
because it occurred without warning and explicitly showed that an outwardly perfectly life could actually be anything but.
I also liked the scene where photographers "descended like vultures" upon steiner's wife when she was about to be informed of the tragedy. Disgusting but all too real. Makes me feel a little bit more compassionate towards celebrities.
The Frankie scene. I find myself enchanted by Anita Eckberg's laugh.
shareI loved the ending, but my personal favourite is the scene where Steiner plays phantom of the opera on the organ in the church. Marcello's body language in this scene is mesmerising. I also like the entire sequence with his father. This is a great emotional film.
"You're going to cross Sinai?"
"Moses did"
Well my favorite scene it's the one where the clown looks at Marcello, has if he was at the same time judging and showing pity on him, these scene has only a few seconds, but it has so much meaning. It's a clown that judges Marcello, a clown...
The other my favorite scene it's the last one, where the girl represents his lost innocence, she tries to communicate with him, but their worlds are so much different already that communication between them seems impossible.
This movie was made with so much genius and magic.
Hm, the scene with the fake Madonna sight is my favorite.
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The darker the shadow, the more radiant the light it beams.