Where he has a beard and he's going around and around in the spin wheel thing. Was that AFTER he waits at the cafe in Prague or before he went to Prague? I figured the Cafe in Prague scene was after but then the whole movie they jumped back and forth, so hard to say really?
shareI wondered that as well!
see my notes on Director's cut ending.
He went nuts (I guess) after the Cafe on Prague.
I think that because he was an inteligent man (I guess) And first he wanted to figure out what happened but then he realized and that.
It was after the Prague scene, he just remembers it from the hospital. Went mad after waiting for "Claire" in the restaurant, maybe waiting for years.
shareI've literately just finished watching it. Here's my take.
Have you ever been to a hospital, dentist or taking an important exam? It's deadly quite and there's a clock, constantly ticking away. It drives you mad doesn't it? Just waiting, listening to the clock ticking away. Waiting for the start of your operation or your exam to finish.
Imagine listening to that. For there not to be a definitive end to it.
He was there waiting for her. Hoping that any second she would walk through the door. He could have been waiting for a couple of years. Just waiting for her and listening to the clogs going around and around and around. Just like a ticking clock.
It would drive anyone mad.
This is probably my favorite film of 2013 so far.
Well put. "Night & Day" was the name of the bar/coffee shop/restaurant in Prague.
shareYes... I just rewatched the last part. This sounds right.
shareSpoilers...
I think he had to be hospitalized after he realized what happened. And then it showed that he contemplated going to the police, but didn't. His final act - his resolution - was to go to where she mentioned was a place she felt comfortable and wait for her. He brought one painting - the dancer - and got an apartment that overlooks the square hoping to see her one day. He feels she will show up. He traded in watching the wall of portraits for looking for her among all the people in the square.
Very confusing indeed the last scenes.I think when she speaks to the real owner of the villa goes the way letess says. But i guess is not important, the back and forth scenes can simply mean he goes into a loop of pain and misery and hoping and again hospital..
Alone again as his life was ended before but this time it really hurts ;/
Spoilers... kind of
The last quarter of the movie was jumbled. It's very much like Vertigo, only with Vertigo, you are surprised. You knew what was going to happen in this movie the moment she ran out into the rain, at least I did.
I do think that the ending is one of hope and is more positive than you think. I am not sure, but I read that they shot a restaurant scene in one of the Rome or Austrian locales for the last scene but it was used elsewhere in the film - probably the one with all the greenery. So, to make him go to Prague to the square she mentioned and sit in the Night and Day restaurant and then say to the waiter, someone will be joining him, really is more positive than for him to go back to regular routine. It gives you a feeling that she may just very well come to him - even for a just a moment. I for one believe it and I am cynical.
Apologies im not very good at spelling and grammar so please excuse any mistakes - however I viewed the scene differently. I considered that after the betrayal knocked him into shock, so - he went to the police - and then realised that he would have to explain how he ended up with all those paintings therefore incriminating himself - then ended up in the nut house - and then came to realise that what he had with her was to be cherished. Remember the line about even in a fake a little of the counterfeiter is left behind - that's what he was searching for at that café - his life was solitude before hand and for a brief spell he had love and friendship - he clings onto the hope that not all of the scam was fake - that the love he had for her was real to him and that at some level she also shared feelings for him that's what he holds onto.
Is it better to have loved and lost etc.
yes, that's how i interpreted it yesterday as well. Memories that kept flashing- of them making love- pulled him out of the asylum; he moved his life to prague,took the only thng that mattered to him- the image of her- and decided that the only thing that mattered was the love they had, and that she may show up there. He was willing to forgive her completely if she would just come back to him...
The film's title in english is The Best Offer, and that's, in the end, what he felt about her love.
Most interesting stories are about a journey, how someone changes. I found the film a very arresting picture of the minute details of how a selfish,isolated egotistical man became a different person, with different values, that embraced compassion and loved someone more than himself.
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
I agree with your explanation above all the others, but she was part of the fraud, so she will never come back to him.
shareThis an excellent and perceptive interpretation. I saw the movie for the first time last night and I was confused on that message but this provides a lot of clarity in context.
Thank you
I agree that the final scene is really the final scene, chronologically.
The point mainly being that despite his release from the mental hospital, he's still insanely deluded and broken, and always will be.
He traded in watching the wall of portraits for looking for her among all the people in the square.
^^^This helps me wrap my feelings around the ending. Not what I expected. Pretty much a downer, but still haunting even days after watching it this weekend. I was so caught up with Virgil and Claire slowly overcoming their fears (well at least Virgil's was legitimate) that I overlooked any heist. Even the mechanical automaton kept me waiting to see what was next. I got suckered until he walked into his secret studio that I knew all his paintings were gone before that very second of the reveal. Overall a good watch. A movie that stays in your thoughts, no matter how good or bad, must've left a strong impression. No pun intended.
sharespoilers..
I saw this movie again recently and I still had the same thoughts. I especially remembered what Virgil said about forgeries - the essence being that there was something real in the thing that was faked. I also recall Claire saying - whatever happens, I do love you or something to that effect. I just read an article - attached - and it has something that I never thought about regarding the asylum - was it before or after Virgil's travels to the square and restaurant. I truly believe it was after. He suffered and then in his ability to grasp the situation, he went full of hope to the square and restaurant - I thought it was ironic that he took Billy's painting of all paintings - since he commented that Billy had no passion.
http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/13829/what-is-the-sequence-of-events-during-the-denouement
Again, this is a Hitchcockian movie - similar to Vertigo but yet dissimilar. And also like the French movie Mississippi Mermaid. Both Jimmy Stewart and Jean Paul Belmondo, respectively, seek out the deceptive female, each with a different result. I could see Virgil doing that too but it's not in this movie. There is hope at the end of this movie in my opinion. Who knows she may turn up?
It was definitely after . He was using a cane before the hospital but not one in Prague. He had completely recovered and expected that true to her nature she would show up.
shareHe was using a cane before the hospital but not one in Prague.
he was an intelligent man who could not be fooled in the world of art. But he was fooled by love.
As for the hospital, don't you think people ever recover from a shock or a stroke? he was in the hospital receiving therapy for some time. You could see that when he was on the machine he had a beard so his therapy went on for weeks and maybe months.
after he got out is when he went on his investigative trail and figured out the scam. But because she said I will always love you, he decided to wait for her at the restaurant.
Just because we see him waiting doesn't mean he lived in the restaurant waiting! he lived across the street and probably went there every day for the rest of his life.
She ruined his life but he did not end up in that nursing home.
Who is to say what his ended up being?
I think he had a mental breakdown and he was in the hospital a few weeks.
I searched for some interviews and the director seems to imply that she will return and just wanted to leave the ending open so that the audience can make up their mind and that the ending is not negative, cause finally he is able to love and he aquired a lot of strengh to start his life again after that shock.
I don´t think he had a stroke, he appeared too helthy at the ending scene, I think that would take at least one year to be that way again after a stroke if at all.
He moved to Praque cause he had an "unshakable" faith that she would show up there and they think (Tornatore) that this is not a finished love story.
I really like that, it started ugly but ended beautiful.
Okay thanks.
shareI felt that the movie was linear, no moving back and forth in time.
Go ahead, make my day....
It's debatable...What I know for sure is that while he is in hospital he starts remembering his story of betrayal, his meeting with real owner of the villa who is a savant and is able to remember how many times they moved, or simple exited the house...which proves, there was no agoraphobia. Then he remembers finding the tracking device...After that he contemplates going to the police, but he drops the idea as he remembers scenes with him making love with Claire...
The trip to Praga seems to be after the hospital, as I find less probable that he grew mad from waiting.
The betrayal/loss of property and love shock is more prone to turn somebody nuts, than a long waiting...
At least, this is my take. There is definitely no final answer!
Yeah but I think we can all agree that its a great film with real substance and depth.
Wish there was more like it....
LJ