MovieChat Forums > Madame de... (1954) Discussion > Last Prayer Problem (spoiler alert)

Last Prayer Problem (spoiler alert)

posted 15 years ago by misterjb
5 replies | jump to latest

If Donati died at the end, then the saint the woman prayed to got away with the earrings without answering the prayer. The saint answered the first prayer without an expensive gift; so maybe it resented the implication that a bribe is necessary in order for it to act.

Or maybe Donati lived...without other source material (like the novel on which the film is based) we can't really know.

Or maybe the prayer was for her husband...I believe you could interpret everything she says during the prayer very broadly (maybe)...yeah that could be a big stretch.

[–] misterjb 15 years ago

Or there's no God, and prayers are meaningless exercises (internal peptalks at best).

[–] geoff_182 11 years ago

This

[–] colonel_green 10 years ago

Catholicism (nor any Abrahamic religion) does not regard prayer as a 1-for-1 exchange of prayers/donations for divine intervention, so the fact that leaving some earrings (with her very odd justification about it being "only in their minds", given we see them kissing) didn't lead to God stopping her lover from being killed really doesn't say much either way.

[–] djmils 15 years ago

I think her excuse, "what are thoughts really?" may have something to do with the prayer not being answered.

[–] misterjb 14 years ago

I can see that. Her dismissal of "thoughts" flies in the face of the book of Matthew with the "committing adultury" in the mind.