Possible Ending Explanation - Sleeping Beauty (2011) Discussion

[–] clmarch 12 years ago

I just saw this on Netflix and am certain that the experience of having a stranger die next to her in bed was very upsetting because Lucy had lain next to her best friend, Mr. Birdman, as he died from AIDS. The second death was a cruel caricature of the first, innocent one.

The fact that the camera was on was for Lucy to extinguish her curiosity about what happens when she is drugged and asleep.

The tale that the older man tells Clara earlier was his asking if Clara would mind assisting in his suicide.

All of these events created a tableau of the irony in illusion and fantasy. Lucy says, "Fear of death is the biggest hoax."

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[–] dunker56 12 years ago

How'd u know birdman had AIDS? i thought he was just depressive/suicidal.

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[–] dunker56 12 years ago

How'd u know birdman had AIDS? i thought he was just depressive/suicidal.

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[–] odd_duck06 12 years ago

According to the script he did not have AIDS, he was an alcoholic in his last stages. Is that the correct way to put it? But that wasn't made clear in the film. At all. It was strange watching this movie after reading the script. I was like, how is anyone going to know Birdmann is dying? He looks healthy to me. Then again, they cut some things and changed some things for the film that I was surprised by, so maybe thatwas one of them. Maybe he was suicidal. Seemed like it from the film. Who even knows?

Sometimes, I wish I was a ho.

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[–] itmustbebobby 12 years ago

The vodka on the cereal tipped me off that something was amiss with the fellow.

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[–] orangewarm 12 years ago

there are things you can infer. The way he eats his cereal -- with vodka. the fact he drinks so much. then later he talks about withdrawl and says he dosent think he will last. and then finally "I'm nearly ready."

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[–] leochick93 12 years ago

Correct and the two empty pill foils she picked up fromt he table next to him. He killed himself

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[–] Kabumpo 8 years ago

I recall a line that his drinking was bringing him close to the brink of death.

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[–] LetheL 12 years ago

Okay, I didn't read the script, but it was pretty clear (to me, at least) that Birdman didn't die of AIDS, he chose to kill himself by combining a whole sheaf of drugs with a whole lot of alcohol. He called Lucy to come be with him when he checked out, and up until then, it was the only part of the whole film where she exhibited any emotion whatsoever.
Fast forward to the old dude who chose to commit suicide by drinking the drugged tea presented to him (with his full knowledge) by the madam, and who also chose to do it in the 'company' of an unconscious Lucy.
Everyone wonders why Lucy freaked out in that last scene. I'd say it was because they had finally stolen her last shred of emotional connection. She realized that she had allowed them to turn her act of emotional surrender in staying with Birdman as he died into just another commodity that was bought and sold without her active participation when she was provided as a final 'companion' to the old dude as he died.
So she had nothing left. Which is why she slept so soundly next to the dead body at the end.

That said, I didn't much like the movie. It was very pretty, true, but it just reminded me too much of Agnes Varda's 1985 film Vagabond (Sans Toit ni Loi), THE most depressing film I have ever seen in my life.

Lethe

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[–] tony_irwin50-1 12 years ago

"Everyone wonders why Lucy freaked out in that last scene. I'd say it was because they had finally stolen her last shred of emotional connection. She realized that she had allowed them to turn her act of emotional surrender in staying with Birdman as he died into just another commodity that was bought and sold without her active participation when she was provided as a final 'companion' to the old dude as he died. "

Hey that's beautifully put - and helped me make sense of the whole movie in fact!

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[–] elainepagesings 12 years ago

Agree with Tony. I now feel I understand this movie a lot more....I did have to go back and review the ending a number of times and only now can I say I've any kind of resolution as to what happened.
Interesting, deliberatly paced movie and Browning is a great talent for the future as she grows as an actress.

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[–] kendrashaaaa (3) 9 months ago

I agree I was wondering what the hell was going on at the end esp after the last scene

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[–] glitteringshoals 12 years ago

Thanks, Lethe, I think your interpretation is spot on.

You're right about them having "stolen" her emotional connection; I think there were a couple other hints in the movie that she no longer felt comfortable in everyday life after her work at Clara's house.

I imagine the main issue was her uncertainty - or rather, total ignorance - of what was happening to her.
With the men in the bar, at least she knew she wasn't giving her whole self away.
She had control over what she gave & what she revealed to the regular johns. Though while asleep she couldn't actively give or reveal anything, she didn't have the ability to hide anything either.

It seems that she never was forthcoming emotionally, so the feelings she shared with Birdman were all the more special. In his last moments she opened up (possibly for the first or only time in her life) to share herself with the person she was closest to. It upset her not only because she was losing her friend, but also losing the sole link between her true, emotional self and anything or anyone in the outside world.

The whole movie shows her "whoring" herself out in different ways, but she never felt exploited until the end. She found that it was acceptable to sell her body as long as she didn't give more than that.
Lucy's more important gift was an emotional one, the closeness she shared with Birdman before his death, so learning of the old man destroyed her. Looking back, she hadn't planned to bestow this closeness on anyone else, but given that she'd acquiesced to Clara's proposition, she must have known this would happen - hell, she must've been suspicious to have gotten the camera. Yet she kept doing it, regardless.

At the end I think she's so distraught because she realizes that she made Birdman's death worthless; in her mind it was entirely her fault. Not the most logical thought process, but grief does strange things to people.

I liked the movie overall, it was fascinating and I haven't stopped thinking about it since I watched it yesterday. I'll try to see Vagabond.

---------
"What would you do if someone actually understood you? You'd have to change everything."

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[–] Sylviamoon 10 years ago

I too think this is a beautiful interpretation though I doubt it's correct as I think it goes the filmmakers one better. I think there was just supposed to be a freak-out scene at the end.

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[–] kendrashaaaa (3) 9 months ago

It could be a simple, turning point in the characters of life, she’s very carefree, and go with the flow and asks little questions And doesn’t seem to put up a fight, and it’s me clear that she does it to put up a front to guard herself in her feelings about the circumstances surrounding her life, I actually do think since her friend had passed away next to her and they use that to allow someone else to do it, but on a monetary gain, as opposed to her being there for her friend, I think it was finally too much for her, and she just broke finally. in a way, yes, probably it was meant to be just a freak out scene, but that’s probably because with her character, it’s unusual, but it also points out that any normal person would react that way, contrary to her abnormality in her decisions, the entire movie. Especially since she had randomly decided to record what happened to her which Was also some thing out of her character I think that was the point she was slowly starting to slipped out of her carefree nature and at the very least get upset about something. And most of the man who is seeing her while she was drugged, were on some weird shit, but I think the last thing is to show that, even though what happened was fucked up That was all that happened. The room was dark and she slept peacefully. I think another implication can be that they were showing us the last time she was that person because after she woke up, she changed in a way, And I’m sure after that she stopped doing it.

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[–] kendrashaaaa (3) 9 months ago

And I just re-watched it, and I have to disagree with you when you said she slept so soundly because she had nothing left. What I just realized watching it back, is that what we saw was the recording, of basically what she intended to find out what was going on with her when she was passed out. she didn’t go back to sleep with him. That was her during the night before

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[–] Jutlander 9 years ago

Oh.

I guess I actually get the ending now.

Thank you for that.

Not me, but check it out: http://www.redbubble.com/people/nesling/

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[–] themissingpatient 12 years ago

The key to understand Lucy, which would be key to understanding the film as it is very much a character study, is that she says: "Fear of death is the biggest hoax."

She seems to lack any care, especially for herself. This is evident with her drug use, sex life and the burning of the money. She is completely self-destructive and has lost all desire and want to live, losing the fear of death. It wasn't until her friend/boyfriend, "The Birdman" died that she seemed somewhat curious about life again. Suddenly, she wanted to know what was happening to her while she slept.
Now whether the Birdman died of AIDS or cancer or some other illness or not is unclear and does not matter. In the end, he committed suicide and we are given enough hints that he was dying from an illness through-out the film. Therefore, Clara did not seek assistance or help for him when she found him dying in bed from the over-dose of pills, instead letting him die holding her. His death was the beginning of her waking from her apathetic slumber through and of life. Curiosity returned. Thus, she bought the camera.

She did not want to die on camera but having a near death experience with the over-dose of the sleeping tea and waking up to a dead man was enough to fully wake her and she became afraid of death once more. The film ends with her finally fully awaking to the realities of life and death. She was sleeping though the entire film, in a sense. It ends when she awakes.

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[–] ubu55 12 years ago

Very nicely reasoned, agree with much of what you say.

Would only offer that the ending`of the film makes little sense to me, unless you take all that occurred with the clients... as her dream. A way of explaining/imagining things like the cigarette burn, of which she has no recollection, up to and including her resussitation by the madam.

A dream, because while the assisted suicide is believable enough, and poingnantly depicted, the first persons to enter the room after would certainly have been there to remove the body before she woke up. Awake, and a witness, she becomes a dangerous liability to her employers, a potential blackmailer.
Had events actually gone thus, we would never have seen her later, still apparently slumbering next to the corpse (who may or may not even be the man we saw, and not, in fact, dead).

Suddenly, she wanted to know what was happening to her while she slept.

Don't we all.

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[–] bikeguy-571-711450 12 years ago

I joined just to comment on this movie; it was quite fascinating and I have known women with issues like hers.
I agree with some that she came 'awake' when confronted with the dead man next to her. She was building to an awakening through the clues left; the putting on of panties, crying next to her pal/lover Birdman, etc.
She asked them to 'marry her' not as a realistic proposal but as a sort of emotional anchor, that her life had some meaning to someone outside herself.
As the former bf of a young woman who had a drunk father, she asked that of me a bit more indirectly, and I told her "I'd marry her in a heartbeat". Which was true. Circumstances... :/
Sometimes some just need that kind of confirmation.

There are some things I did not get, and one thing I have not seen mentioned.
In the ending scene, I had originally thought she took something to prevent going to sleep so she'd know what was happening, after Clara said she couldn't see or know. Now though I am confused. What was she hiding in the vase? She could only have been awake after the tea if she did take something else I thought. The remnants of a capsule?
But then she is very asleep so that seems not right.
Then, the shot from the in-room camera that shows her sleeping, with the dead guy next. ???
Also, her being sick. Some time had elapsed between sessions esp after guy2/the mean one. She seemed almost desperate to get money at that point.
I thought she was having morning sickness after being raped, which no one knew.

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[–] IstvanH3 12 years ago

I might have to look at a few scenes to figure out what the various scenes are about but a few things are reasonably clear:
-During the final "sleeping party" she placed the camera on the vase (that she hid under her tongue).
-If you look at the final scene closely, the man in the bed has dark hair, i.e. not the old man. Also, it's the same room where she had the "sleeping parties" but the scene is shown from the camera's point of view that she placed there. i.e. the camera is objective and shows what is actually real.
-This led me to believe that the scenes with the old men were just her dreams/imagination/subconscious and weren't actually happening.

If I remember correctly, the first time she went for the "sleeping party" she picked some reddish things from a bush and slowly dropped them in the car. That might have been a sign that she was going to sleep.

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[–] RestLeg 12 years ago

-If you look at the final scene closely, the man in the bed has dark hair, i.e. not the old man.

He does not have dark hair, it's the same old guy.

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[–] RestLeg 12 years ago

She could only have been awake after the tea if she did take something else I thought.

She was awake because the tea had not come into full effect yet. As we see Lucy in the bed before she places the camera on the vase, the sound of a closing door indicates that Clara has just left the room, meaning Lucy has just gone to bed, and isn't asleep yet. You can see the drug starting to work as she has difficulty walking.

Also, her being sick. Some time had elapsed between sessions esp after guy2/the mean one. She seemed almost desperate to get money at that point.
I thought she was having morning sickness after being raped, which no one knew.

She had been out drinking and using drugs the previous night. It was a hangover, not morning sickness.

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[–] atlasmb 11 years ago

As this thread has gone along, I think the film has been explained very well. I just have one thing to add.

When she got sick (in the car), it was right after seeing the hitchhiker along the road. It does not matter if there actually was a hitchhiker there or if that was her imagination (I think he was real). She got sick because the image of the hitchhiker triggered her memory of the story that the first man told. The point is that even though she was (to some degree) unconscious during the sessions in the bed, some part of the proceedings were recorded in her brain. We know he told the story right after entering the room, so she might still have been falling into a deeper sleep, but I think it is truer that some part of the proceedings in that room reached her unconscious mind, every time. She might not have even known what triggered her nausea, but her unconscious experiences definitely had an effect on her.

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[–] alexandre-caron-5 9 years ago

Yes! Thank you it makes so much sense now.

I think The Thirtieth Year story is a representation of the movie itself. When Birdman dies by Lucy, it's the car accident she needed to have in order to understand that she's alive. When the old man dies by her, it's like a return to case one, a nietzschean recurrence, her own Sisyphus stone. She now aknowledges that people die and will always die around her and that this hoax/myth is what's truly real about life. Her scream is one of anguish toward death but it's also the primal scream of someone who's born into a new life.

This movie is so heavy with references toward existentialism but without appearing much like it. I think it's easy to miss the point here but I'm not aware of a fiction that got this far in reconstructing the reality of living. This movie really got me to the edge of existence. I think I'll watch Vagabonds as well.

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[–] stotop86 11 years ago

I think the vase was strictly about her turning the camera on....
I don't think she took anything to stay awake. She had had drugs with her coworker the night before and he even commented about them being "bad drugs" when he woke up in bed with her....having had some experience with various substances...yes they can still be affecting you the next day sometimes....that's also why they quizzed her on whether she was taking any medication or drugs before she started work....because anything can easily conflict with whatever they were using to make her sleep so soundly.....so that is why she was sick on the drive there and why she didn't wake easily at the end....also with her looking rough when she arrived that day, I'm certain that the lady suspected that she may have had drugs of some sort and she may have been concerned about the combination...hence why she came to check and wake her.

And as far as her being able to walk across the room after drinking the tea...she was clearly very tired but sleeping medications don't hit like a ton of bricks...most of the time you ease into a very deep slumber....so she could have easily gone into the room after drinking the tea and gotten into bed for the lady to see and then waited until the lady left to go get the gentlemen and gotten up hazily to go and turn the camera on....

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[–] ilbabyg 11 years ago

My thinking on her reaction at the end...

The crux of the film is Birdman. First, she had no reaction to her dear friend's death. At the funeral it is revealed that his brother found Birdman two weeks after his death. So he died in Lucy's arms, but she said nothing. At the funeral she asks the former friend to marry her. This is the same thing she asked of Birdman earlier in the film and he said yes. When the former friend turns her down, again she is emotionless. We see more of her flat affect in cleaning the table in the restaurant and in the "date" with the co-worker. She is grateful for being fired, which seems to hint at an appreciation of punishment.

Think about this...we do not see her reaction to waking in the dead Birdman's arms, which she must have. When she wakes beside the old man who had been so kind to her at the dinner party, it could have reconnected her to the grief for Birdman which finally had an outlet.

Just a thought...

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[–] Vladdhu 11 years ago

Interesting ideas in this topic. I want to add 2 more:

1. She becomes almost terrified when she gets in the train and sees how helpless the sleeping woman is. She wipes some saliva that is dripping from her mouth and then slowly backs away and her breathing increases rapidly. I believe that is the moment that she realized how truly helpless she was during her sleep, and how much of her she is giving away unknowingly.

2. I believe that at the end she actually let's go and screams for her friend which died in her arms. She probably blocked her reactions then, didn't call the police for 2 weeks, she just erased he's existence from her memory and she just lets him rot in his miserable apartment. Now the shock of getting up near another dead man triggers an emotional response that's rather linked to that experience and not necessarily to this one.

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[–] ldickinson-1 11 years ago

Aw, you guys are all too existential for me. Portrayed events make her want to have an idea what goes on while she's asleep so she buys the camera, tries it out at school to see how it works, sticks it to the vase and goes to sleep. Of course the night before she spent drinking and using drugs, which caused the sleeping potion to react too strongly panicking the madam who wakes her before expected. The last thing Lucy expects to see is herself sleeping next to a dead body. How would she know? Maybe this is what happened every time she slept--she goes ballistic. It was a great last scene. Then they threw in the extra scene and I thought, whoa, did they just murder Lucy to keep her quiet? But then you clearly see her move. Obviously she took the camera home, and once her nerves settled, curiosity got the better of her and she watched the footage. Don't take a job sleeping. Cigarette burns may be the least of your problems :)

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[–] The_Mob_Has_Spoken 11 years ago

I wouldn't assume that Lucy went home and watched that footage and that's why we, the audience, knew she was okay. The whole movie was told through a rather humorless omniscient perspective. The inclusion of the footage at the end was kinda silly since we already knew what it would show, unless there was some kind of twist (which there wasn't, it was a fakeout; but I would have had some fun with this idea: little kids in party hats jumping up and down on the bed while "Sara" sleeps, some clown - an actual party clown, mind you; big red nose, goofy oversize shoes, a unicycle, etc. - pooping in her mouth, etc.).

Dropping the berries in the car was Lucy leaving a trail just in case anything should happen to her. Since the berries came from a bush in front of Lucy's residence, a clever detective might piece it together (which would be giving the police too much credit; in real life, even the smartest cops are still dumb as hell; probably even Australian cops, too). It reminded me of Hansel und Gretel leaving the gingerbread crumbs, or - going back even further - Perseus with the string in the Minotaur's labyrinth.

I cannot believe nobody mentioned the end where the madame does mouth-to-mouth on "Sara" to revive her, it is symbolically the "kiss" that wakes the titular "Sleeping Beauty." Rather obvious I should think. Of course, instead of a handsome Prince Charming Lucy (not "Sara") awakens to, it's a madame and a dead old guy (with a micropenis, lol) in the bed with her. I wonder if this is the first idea that Julia Leigh had for this movie. It's a rather strong image.

I got a bit of a kick out of the office job dynamic, where the 40-ish-but-still-attractive territorial "witch" is clearly jealous of Lucy's effortless youthful sexiness. The older woman has to work very hard to continue to be desirable, yet Lucy doesn't even have to try. How could she not hate Lucy for it? If only that callow young Lucy weren't around, she'd be the sexiest babe in the place, she thinks.

"Ass to ass. Ha ha ha ha. ASS TO ASS!"; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa5z77EI8y0

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[–] morganseer 11 years ago

Did you think the boss was being mean to her? I thought she was just exasperated with Lucy's carelessness about the job. Not only did she put up with a lot from Lucy, but even at the end she gave her a chance to redeem herself, to indicate in some way she cared about her work.

I like the rest of your comments. Especially about the berries, which puzzled me exceedingly.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] stotop86 11 years ago

I didn't like the ending....but I am impressed that the movie inspired as many deeper/thought provoking comments here as it has...obviously it touches a few of us in some way.

The last part was the footage from her own camera....it took me a moment to realize (guess i'm a bit slow) and it was basically saying imo that "why nothing happens while you sleep lucy" but i dunno...the whole movie was about sleep, from the job to her experience with the Birdman.....for those wondering about him being an alcoholic and dying, i think that that is a fair assumption.....People dying of scerosis of the liver caused by alcoholism are often prescribed "alcohol of choice" my their medical assistants/caretakers because they are addicted and some amount of it is needed just for normal function....I was thinking about that when she gave it to him in cereal.

I would freak out too if I woke up next to a dead man...not in the same screaming way...it isn't in my personality....but if I was her...I'd feel like I had been used in the ultimate way....one should never be put in that situation by someone else....yes people die in bed with loved ones there and it is horrific....but having it be a stranger and done on purpose like that is an awful thing in and of itself. I also wonder if her freak out had to do with the fact that they were so secretive about what went on while she was asleep and she had this burning curiosity and then wakes up next to a dead guy....what if in the moment, she assumed that every time she'd been there, it'd been to sleep next to a man who is killing himself....just a thought.

My biggest confusion about the movie came from her burning the money. wtf. i still don't know why she did that unless it was just "the ultimate irony" or something meant to have no purpose.

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[–] sc_taylor 10 years ago

Could not understand the end of this at all. And from reading this thread, neither could anyone else!

What was so awful on the film she secretly recorded? But she hadn't even seen it when Clara woke her up, so why is she screaming?

Is the deal with the old men that they all pay to just commit suicide lying next to a young girl? And that she only notices this in the case of the last guy? Or are all the previous guys doing something else with her?

Can someone please explain the end of this film to me?

--------------------------------
My God, it's full of stars!

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[–] LAtoSEA 9 years ago

I thought for a moment that upon waking she thought the whole time her job must have been to lie in bed next to men taking their own lives. This clearly wasn't the case until the last man, but how was she to know? If she thinks this has been her purpose, it diminishes what she shared with her dear friend, who was her last grasp at normal human emotion. It is also just horrible to consider, and may have brought her back to some semblance of normal reactions and broken through her flat affect. Her proclamations about fear felt very false bravado to me.

As for having to be resuscitated, it's clear that she is always asked if she is well and in good health. Having taken heavy drugs with alcohol within the past 12 hours would have made a heavy sedative far more dangerous for her to ingest.

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[–] kellycallie (728) 6 years ago

I think through most of the movie she was armouring herself up, she had to be the ''tough girl'' to survive. There was many awkward moments in the film that didn't phase her.

Starting from her crappy room mate threatening to kick her out her reaction was very nonchalant. She didn't get in his face she just said ''I should enjoy cleaning the bathroom'' - or something like that. What I noticed by this early scene is that her interactions with people were especially superficial, she didn't seem to care enough to let anyone get under her skin. Almost as though she was in her own world or sedated some how. When her bitchy boss fired her at the photocopying job again, no reaction, just ''That's fine, I'll go''.

Then through all the sexual abuse again, she remained sedated (literally). I believe she was deliberately locking up her emotions and the ending was her emotional awakening and breaking point. It was not just the near death experience, she was not the girl she tried to be ( stone cold). The ending was her catharsis.

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