Can anyone please explain to me why Helen decided to kill herself? Yes, she had been drinking but at one point, she's making plans with Paul after the show. She then listens to the broadcast, drinks and smokes more and decedes to end it all. I just don't get it. What am I missing??
"If they take away my Miss Charlotte I'm never gonna sees her again. I knows it, I knows it!"
Yes. This is a good question. I was wondering the same thing myself. Then I had to conclude that she was convinced (1) of his mother's words, (2) her ex husband's words, and (3) that she could never come between him and his music. In short, she didn't believe it would work because (1) she is an alcoholic and selfish person - no good for him - and (2) he would never be able to give her enough. Now that still doesn't mean it rings true for me. I shouldn't have been perplexed at the end of the film. It was a little too extreme if you ask me. I felt I didn't see enough dysfunction to really believe that she felt she couldn't share him with the violin. Maybe Joan was too rich, too beautiful, and too selfish to live. But the male lead got to live and wasn't he just as selfish? That's sexism for ya!
shareIt was Norman Main from A Star Is Born all over again.
shareI thought she was narcissistic and I don't think suicide is in the make-up of a narcissist. So I agree that it doesn't ring true.
Another Hollywood explanation might be that she loved him so much she couldn't bear to stand in his way, but she never demonstrated any self-sacrifice up to that point.
This movie was really his story and I find it bizarre that the dramatic conclusion is all about her neurotic self-destruction. After she is gone we barely see him and I was far more interested in what would happen to him than to her. I realize that Joan Crawford saw herself as the center of this film and perhaps she had the clout to insist on the finale being all about her.
A relationship fails or you fall in love with someone that you're not really compatible with, so you kill yourself? What?!!??
(Sigh) I've been watching a lot of older movies, classics lately. I usually enjoy them but I'm getting really sick of seeing women portrayed as weak and always needing a man to be fulfilled. They're always prone to hysterics and are overly dramatic.
The guy is in the middle of a rehearsal and because he doesn't stop and hold everyone else up to go have a chat with her, that's reason for a mental breakdown? Come on! That's just one of many scenes that just make her look like a dimwitted twit.
Then, of course, there’s the ending, which I hate. Let me clarify, I like the way it's shot but I don't like what she does in the story. Still, I totally get it because she's a 'bad' woman. We learn this from his mother and others, so there was never going to be a good outcome for her. That's just how it is.
How could they have done these movies with a straight face? She was married multiple times and was having an affair with a younger man who she was also sponsoring. Hmm, look at the bios of these actors, very few were married just once. Both women and men have multiple marriages and plenty hsd affairs yet in a movie this is seen as hopeless and punishable by death. I'm not condoning that behavior but it's hypocritical.
I know it must have been the morality police at work. That's fine but while she was the one married she wasn't the only one having an affair and behaving badly. Paul got off easy by comparison; as the men usually do.
I suppose my biggest problem with the ending, the entire movie, is her real problem isn't fully addressed. We're to believe her deep love for Paul and realizing their relationship is doomed leads her to take her life but I don't feel that's it at all. That's a symptom, not the illness.
Helen's problem is she lives a frivolous empty life; she has no purpose, is shallow, and suffers from self-hatred. That's why none of her relationships and marriages has worked or would ever work. It's why she drinks so much and is desperate for someone to fill the voids in her life.