Confused about the ending

I had a few of the same questions. You are right about Mde. Mandelip supposedly confessing to the Lavond crimes and then perishing in the fire, which you'd think leaves Lavond in the clear. But it's more of a "my work is done" moment than anything else. After he sees Toto and then Lorraine on the Eiffel Tower, he explains that, because of all the years Lorraine spent hating him and telling everyone she had no father, he knows she'll be too ashamed to face him in person now, and he doesn't want her to feel bad about that. It's a very old-fashioned honor thing. The loose ends now are Toto and Lavond's own mama, who both know the truth. After Lavond flies the coop again, don't you wanna bet somebody spills the beans?



"There's got to be more to death than surfing all the time." - Dar Williams

I was also confused about why he had to keep running. Unless he was afraid they would realize he was Madame Mandilip and thus guilty of murder.

I'm calling the Hays Code on this one ... even though he was cleared of the crimes that put him in prison, he had committed real (perverse) crimes in exacting his revenge. There's no way the censors would let him walk away scot-free from that in 1936 ... he had to pay.




"You want to save humanity but it's people that you just can't stand". - John Lennon

Lavond makes a comment to Toto that it would too hard to pretend to be innocent in his daughters presence when he knows he is no longer innocent. How ironic and tragic that to prove his innocence he has to commit acts that rob him of that innocence.

He was a free man, but he was guilty of using the "dolls" to get his revenge. I believe mentions this, that if he were to reveal himself the police would question him about his associates and he'd be the prime suspect. So to avoid putting his family through all that again he tells his daughter he was dead and goes into exile.

I'll give the film the benefit of the doubt by assuming that he thought the police would connect him to the crime despite the confession letter from the "old woman."

Yes and no. In essence he was a free man, however, as he told Malita, there are still unanswered questions about the disappearance of Radin and Coulvet being paralyzed. Yes, the 'old woman' mailed in a confession, but the fact remains, Lavond himself has no alibi. Where was he when these crimes were being committed? No one can vouch for his whereabouts. Also, why would the 'old woman' target these bankers? We don't know what was in the confession letter, but it would seem odd for her to target Lavond's enemies, and only Lavond's enemies. Furthermore, if Lavond were to begin showing his face again in Paris, it would only be a matter of time for people, police included, to notice a familiarity with the 'old woman,' as his own daughter did. All they'd need to do at that point is bring him into the precinct, have him don a wig and glasses, and then they'd know. Couple that with his inability to produce an alibi, and the fact that there were no remains at the scene of the fire (there should be some charred bones at least from both women), and that would probably be enough to convict him.