MovieChat Forums > Malèna (2001) Discussion > How do you interpret these particular sc...

How do you interpret these particular scenes??

posted 13 years ago by jmanzano17
3 replies | jump to latest

***** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ********

First is the scene where Malena came out of her house and Renato was peeping from behind the gates and as Malena was taking off the dust from her iron she suddenly stopped and seemed to be thinking of something very deep. Did she know that someone else was watching her and it depresses her that people do so even at the vicinity of her house or was she thinking about something else?

Second, why did the women from the market suddenly became nice to her?? Like wtf they almost beat her to death, cut her hair and torn her clothes for everyone to see and all of a sudden they are nice??

[–] sergia79 13 years ago

I think the scene with the iron is when it really sunk in for Malena that her husband was deceased (at that point at least) and that she was a widow now, so she was all alone. Sometimes, when someone close to us dies, the realisation that the person is really gone forever doesn't hit us until some time later (we're just in a state of shock to feel anything else). So, I think when she was outside the house with the iron, she suddenly realised that she was all by herself.

The market scene: at that point, Malena was with her husband (this is the first time in the movie when she was with Nino, because at the beginning, he was away at war), so they felt 'safe' to have Malena around her. I think they also realised how wretched they were to have treated Malena so badly earlier when she didn't have anybody and they beat her up. They didn't exactly come out and say 'Sorry' but by saying Good Morning and acknowledging her and giving her the jacket and helping her with groceries etc, it was their way of apologising. Also, if Malena and Nino are going to stay in that town, they're all going to be seeing each other, so they wanted to be more friendly to her.

Well, those are my opinions from seeing the movie, so I hope they were helpful!

Jay: I understand about 20% of what goes on around here.

[–] Glock22 12 years ago

The market scene is more of a political statement. The war and all the evil and hate it brings upon people was over, and as Italy was starting afresh the women of the town wanted to redeem themselves as well. The film has a strong political massage as you can notice in the breakage of the leader's bust in school, the whining of the wife about the quality of food and coffee given to them by the fascist government, etc.

[–] aios-dum 9 years ago

It's interesting that no.2 question got these interpretations... I only thought of the simplistic (but no less real one): you ain't got a man by your side, you ain't worthy.
that was the mentality. when she comes back with her husband, she's respectable. But without him she was a target, because she was was beautiful but more, in my opinion, because she was above the littleness of the others and didn't mingle with them.
At the end, they even say that "she never came to the market before" = like the rest of us.