MovieChat Forums > Cronaca di un amore (1975) Discussion > puzzling ending

puzzling ending

posted 15 years ago by merrillb-1
12 replies | jump to latest

I'm puzzled by the ending. Why does Guido leave (i.e. go the station)at the end? Haven't things turned out as they hoped, even better than they hoped with the death of her husband by accident. Thereby not having to murder him. What's the problem? Why doesn't Guido calm Paola down when she runs to him at the end? Why is he so chilly?

Is it simply that because there is a wound that looks like a shot he will be implicated? But how can that outcome be worse than the original plan? Is it simply that because she ran away from the police, they will both be held to be guilty? But she could easily come up reasons to explain her running away... and there's no hard evidence implicating them.

I can't explain why Guido is so taciturn and cold with her, at the end. As if he's blaming her for... what?

If there is no good reason for Guido abandoning her, then we are left with the supposition that the essential "reason" is to fulfill Antonioni's fatalism.
But I still wonder how he would explain the ending.

Did I miss something?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] vishwas-verma 15 years ago

I also had the same question... If they separated because of the guilt, didn't they know that in the first place when they were planning to kill him?

[–] Kurtz9791 13 years ago

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

SPOILERS SPOILERS

Guido didn't have to go through with the killing because Paola's husband died in the car accident anyway, correct? I think that by "lucking out", Guido had time to take a step back and look at how far this woman had driven him over the edge, almost to the point of killing a man! That is why he approached her so coldly after, and realized how selfish she was. He leaves her, heart broken and betrayed.

[–] s-napolitano8 13 years ago

That's exactly how I figured it as well. Basically said screw this b!+ch

[–] jfca283 13 years ago

this movie shows a really sick kind of love

[–] craigbhill 11 years ago

I'm sure you're right, Kurtz, tho my immediate thought was that the way it ended for Enrico, the private investigator would conclude, "OMG, they've done it again", leading him to bring to light the details he'd uncovered regarding the death of Guido's fiancee seven years earlier, prompting the would-be culprits to separate and so avoid the suspicion of their connection.

Considering, tho, the film ended without an eventual rendezvous between the two, your conclusion puts an end to it most aptly. I'm glad i looked at this discussion thread, with my thanks ~ Native Angeleno

[–] lamont-hard 11 years ago

If she wants the husband dead, you may be next, I can never understand how any partner could be with some one whom wants or plans to kill there spouse for you/love/them if there has been no abuse. That person has either not thought it out/through or is off there rocker, making them fickle because they would have to live with killing someone whom they loved at some point. If it does not bother them, then this person is hardly someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. Even planning it would make most people uneasy as there is a funeral and watching the person go into the ground. All this and the person knows they did it is someone you don't walk away from but one he should run from and don't look back.

[–] udippel 9 years ago

I think you are closest to the reality.
Many ask, 'why', because she's a beautiful and attractive woman. But that's about all. She had many a boyfriends, only one serious, and they did away with her friend, as we have learned.
Sick, isn't it, that she had to die in a sorts of accident for them to get together? Can't one get together on one's free will?
Plus, what did she do few days later? We who have seen the film, know. And the man understands that in that moment. He knows her well enough that she can't do without plenty of money. He had offered her before, to leave together; and she turned him down. So, how far is that really him whom she wants? Then why didn't stay with him from the beginning, 7 years ago? Or does she only need him to get rid of people standing in the way of her plans?

[–] lamont-hard 9 years ago

You made a couple of good points...

1. She had many a boyfriends, only one serious

2. And the man understands that in that moment. He knows her

well enough that she can't do without plenty of money.

I think he knew what she was early on. She had a strange way of trying to convince him that killing was what he wanted to do, she needed to feel he would kill for her. She wanted it to be all him instead what they both wanted/needed.
To me this was her way of controlling him.

[–] craigbhill 11 years ago

I had been thinking that their involvement in the death of Guido's fiancee actually gave their love for each other a kinkyness, in the way psychopath and mass murderer of well over 1 million Iraqis George W Bush was attracted to Laura Bush way back when he discovered she'd rammed her car into her boyfriend's car, killing him, because he broke up with her, in the way killers get turned on by the fact their significant other also killed. ~ Native Angeleno

[–] mitchflorida 10 years ago

Let's face it, the whole plot makes no sense. Good acting though, and pretty outfits for Paola,

[–] 9 years ago

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