MovieChat Forums > Stardust (2007) Discussion > LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!! But confused on........

LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!! But confused on........

posted 10 years ago by pennilayne
4 replies | jump to latest

This is one of my favorite movies of all-time. It has every aspect of a film I love. Fantasy, creativity, great acting, beautiful cinematography and well done special effects, action, romance, comedy and a bit of drama but that isn't really needed for a story like this. So well done. I should probably read the book if I love the film so much. But one thing I have never really understood, is that if you eat the heart of a star, you have everlasting life. At the beginning of the film, Michelle Pfeiffers character takes "what is left of the last star" to gain youth again. When she uses magic it wears off which I guess I also don't get, but what I really don't get is, if she and her sisters already had the heart of a star, how come they aged, and needed another one? Did I miss the explanation for that? Is it because the three of them shared the heart? But still even if they shared, wouldn't it have given them everlasting life and youth even so? It's just weird that they already had a heart and used it, and they mention several times the heart gives you immortality and stops you from aging as well it seems---yet they had a heart and needed another one? I guess I missed the explanation because it doesn't make sense to me. If anyone could answer this, that would be wonderful! Still love this film even though I don't really get that. I've always wondered it in the back of my mind, but now that I am watching it again, for like the 15th time over the years lol, it's really grating my curiosity and I want to know! Also why when she uses magic that brings back her normal aging....it sort of makes sense but not fully.

[–] velocityboy 10 years ago

I don't recall anyone in the movie mentioning that eating a star's heart brought eternal youth. I think it just gave you immortality. Obviously it gave you a one time shot of youth but you would resume aging again from then on. However, I think Tristan would have also gained eternal youth that Yvaine enjoyed because he was perpetually "receiving" Yvaine's living heart.

[–] pennilayne 10 years ago

No its definitely eternal youth/beauty and immortality. I just read a few articles about it. It doesn't explain why the beauty wears off even after saying numerous times in all these articles "eternal youth and immortality" so that annoys me.

[–] moundshroud 10 years ago

You are correct that immortality and everlasting life are mentioned in the movie, but I believe that velocityboy is correct in his assessment that true immortality is only gained by winning the the star's heart through love. As the narrator says at the end:

But no man can live forever, except he who possesses the heart of a star.

This bit of folklore was incorrectly interpreted as physically consuming the star's heart, which did confer youth and an extended lifespan, but not immortality. Septimus believed this misconception, and even Yvaine did.

But the only people in the story who had any first-hand experience consuming star hearts were the witches. Note that the witches never say anything about immortality, but they are concerned with restoring their youth and beauty, which would indeed happen if they had managed to get Yvaine's heart. The previous star heart lasted them for 400 years, and assuming Yvaine's heart had lasted just as long that probably would give them enough time to procure another falling star, and so on and so on... giving them an appearance of immortality - although it was an immortality dependent on the luck and skill of harvesting the heart of a fallen star periodically. In the book, the witches were extremely old (it was said that the forest they lived in had been at the bottom of an ocean in their youth) so it seems likely that they've kept renewing their lives at the expense of fallen stars over millennia.

Note that in the book, the ending is considerably different and bittersweet (I won't spoil it for you since you haven't read it yet). But the notion that the heart harvested in the quest of greed, vanity, and power grants only a limited amount of life while the heart won through love bestows true immortality is quite beautiful.

[–] pennilayne 10 years ago

Thank you! That certainly explains a lot and makes a lot more sense.