MovieChat Forums > Woman in Gold (2015) Discussion > Heart breaking scene

Heart breaking scene

posted 10 years ago by ciarraiabu
8 replies | jump to latest

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already. Even though there were many emotive scenes in this movie, for some reason the one scene that tugs my heartstrings is the one after Maria Altmann's character arrives in Austria for the first time and has a flashback to Adela sitting with her two young nieces outside a café square. Something about the scene touches me because it reminds me of the things you take for granted when you are a child, and didn't realise how precious the moment was. The yearning look on Mirren's face is so desolate, it actually pains me.

What scene was it for you?

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ciarraiabu 10 years ago

That was my favourite scene as well. The second time I watched the movie I remember my heart beating faster when it got to the end.

[–] movie80 9 years ago

My favourite scene was the final one, when she's won her family's art back and she goes to visit the old family home that she'd had to flee from.

This is also my favorite.
(Titanic has a similar scene at the end and I also liked that scene)

[–] davemerino 9 years ago

That scene was perfectly presented. Although I also felt tugged by the scene where Ryan goes to the men's room because of the emotional response he has to seeing his ancestor's names on that wall. But for me the most painful was where Maria steps away to another room, says "I thought it would make it all better, but it didn't." I feel the pain - and it didn't help that Austria didn't do it willingly - they were forced to do it - and even then the guy says to her "I implore you, beg you, ask you to leave the Klimt's in the museum. Seriously????

[–] Sandy0095 9 years ago

The goodbye scene with her parents was heartbreaking & the flashback at the end. Two beautiful & emotional scenes

-How many times do you have to make the same mistake?
-Till I get it right.

[–] CincyDude 8 years ago

Particularly, in the final scene when Maria gives her broadest smile and has it returned with an equally broad smile from her now-deceased father, this was devastatingly moving. All that was lost, and the decades of deprivation, was captured in this elemental exchange between loving daughter and father.

[–] AtoZ2014 8 years ago

I'm not going to state a particular scene, but I do think this is a "memory movie," i.e., a lot of the emotional journey in the arc of the movie has to do with confronting one's memories.

One movie along these lines is Three Colours: Blue (Kieslowski). I'm sure there are many hours.

But, I do want to say that the flashbacks were effective in conveying Mrs. Altman's journey in confronting her memories.

[–] Jelly-4 8 years ago

I'm not going to state a particular scene, but I do think this is a "memory movie," i.e., a lot of the emotional journey in the arc of the movie has to do with confronting one's memories.

Very true. I cried buckets during this movie because Helen Mirren really made you feel her pain as she relived each memory.

Saying goodbye to her parents, the scene in the cafe and the final one where she revisits her family home were all moving. What I thought was most poignant about this movie was that it highlighted the torture of not just being torn from family and friends, but a place that has been as much a part of your identity as a family name.