MovieChat Forums > Il deserto rosso (1965) Discussion > Thoughts on the last scene between Giuli...

Thoughts on the last scene between Giuliana and Corrado?

posted 16 years ago by Vlaka
15 replies | jump to latest

I'm interested in somebody's opinion about the ending scene between Giuliana and Corrado. Especially the part when she says: "There's something terrible
about reality... and I don't know what. Nobody tells me. You haven't helped me either, Corrado.", meaning he hasn't helped her figure out what is terrible about reality. If anyone's got an opinion on what she wanted to say, please share it with me! I'd be gratefull for anybody's thought on this.

I thought it might be that he, like everybody else, is not helping her grasp the real meaning of life, but is only daydreaming like others, and not doing anything really useful. Or maybe, unlike her, he is not confronting his feelings enough, trying to live easy.

This last scene is really powerful.

[–] tieman64 16 years ago

Yes, it's very powerful scene. My take is simply that dispite Giuliana and Corrado being able to identify with one another, empathising with each others problems isn't enough. It doesn't solve anything.

Ironically, talking to a complete stranger (one who doesnt understand her language) and confessing her problems, is what "heals" her. She tells Corrado "nobody tells me" and then in the next scene, cures herself by articulating her problems to the confused sailor.

The sailor acts like a mirror. She's effectively talking to herself in that scene. A sort of self therapy.

"Rape is no laughing matter. Unless you're raping a clown."

[–] nutsberryfarm 10 years ago

good stuff. and keen take on the sailor.

Veneration of Mark Twain is one of the roots of our current intellectual stalemate

[–] DC1977 16 years ago

I think the Corrado Zeller character is a bit of a bastard. My impression was that he sensed that Giuliana was vulnerable when he first met her and shortly afterwards went to see her at her shop in the hope of being alone with her.

In the final scene between them, she says he hasn't been able to help her and he just turns round and walks out! Not very sympathetic...

I've seen a still from a scene that never made it to the final cut where Giuliana is in her shop with her husband and Corrado who have their backs to the camera.

Paint has been splashed all over the walls. My impression is that this followed the scene we're talking about as it does appear to be a kind of dramatic/emotional climax.

[–] tieman64 15 years ago

"I think the Corrado Zeller character is a bit of a bastard. My impression was that he sensed that Giuliana was vulnerable when he first met her and shortly afterwards went to see her at her shop in the hope of being alone with her."

So he used her vulnerability for sex? I didn't pick that up at all. I think they simply empathised and understood one another. It's a mutual relationship. By being together, they hoped to get over their problems. But even together, that profound sense of loneliness remained.

"In the final scene between them, she says he hasn't been able to help her and he just turns round and walks out! Not very sympathetic..."

Antonioni isn't one for grand genstures. I don't think he meant to imply that Corrado was being a bastard. That's just how people act in an Antonioni film.

Corrado is actually the only one who bothers to speak to her. The only one who actually noticed her problems. I don't think he walked out, I think she pushed him away.

"Rape is no laughing matter. Unless you're raping a clown."

[–] DC1977 15 years ago

I think Corrado definitely used her vulnerability for sex. For me Corrado walking away from Giuliana was a sign of his callousness and I don't think this behaviour is typical of the character's in Antonioni's films. I've seen most of his films and this stood out for me rather than being an example of the norm.

Look at the way Corrado acts in the hut when they are discussing aphrodisiacs. You can see there is a sexual interest on his part and he doesn't like it when Giuliana sits next to her husband. The sex scene in the hotel room is an example of Corrado making a very sudden move when Giuliana is particularly vulnerable. She went to his room because she needed to talk to him, she didn't go there for sex.

Also I didn't see the final scene between the two as Giuliana pushing him away, I saw it as an act of despair as she states that even he hasn't been able to help her.

He turns away and walks out. I think this reveals that his true motives in taking an interest in her had nothing to do with sympathy and understanding.

[–] maz89 12 years ago

I don't think he walked out, I think she pushed him away.

I think it's a little bit of both. She did push him away - her cries to Corrado of being an unfaithful wife would never really cease and Corrado would just be a walking, talking reminder of her infidelity. At the same time, he decided, coincidentally after the sex, that she was just too 'damaged' to ever really be saved from her despair and loneliness. More importantly though, he needed to escape from those surroundings, needed to move on... that had always been his approach and that'd always been how he kept his "reality" fresh and ever-evolving, never really stopping to let anything sink in. In this regard, I do believe that the promise of 'sex' was a motivator in his attempt to connect with Guiliana.

By being together, they hoped to get over their problems. But even together, that profound sense of loneliness remained.

Heh, yeah, this is exactly the kind of story you won't find in a mainstream film: the idea that just because you've found someone you can connect with emotionally... it doesn't necessarily remove those feelings of depression and loneliness. As important as companionship is, it's often not the solution to your existential ennui (...I have to stop using this word).

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

[–] deanowest 14 years ago

I agree with DC1977. Corrado did take advantage of her. They may both feel disaffected by this modern/industrial life. They both may have been looking for someone with whom they could connect, spiritually, but Corrado forces his connection on her physically. He is superficial enough to believe shared, physical experience is enough to find solace. Maybe he is thinking sex can connect both and solve both of thier problems? Giuliana does try to thwart him. Often she turns her head away and splays her hands. They even break away from each other. Can't remember why.....this effectivly kills the mood or so I would think and Corrado pushes on until the deed is done.

Later when Giuliana is talking to the sailor, she says she realizes we are divided or seperated. She says, "if you prick me you feel no pain." At this point she has realized man's isolated state. We are not connected in any manner, physical or spiritual. I think Corrado's rape, yes, I said rape, helped her realize this isolation is our natural state. This is the first step to accepting her condition in this world. Once she or any one realizes this, we can exist more comfortably. I think this the yellow smoke/birdie scene can be discussed. did she learn to avoid the yellow smoke like the birdies?

This was worked out as I wrote it. The movie is very difficult for me. Any help or additional ideas are appreiceated.

Dictated, but not read.

[–] maz89 12 years ago

Rape. Err, not that the film wasn't already bleak enough... but calling that rape certainly adds another dark, twisted layer to the whole film.

did she learn to avoid the yellow smoke like the birdies?

I think she considers herself to be that yellow smoke, the poison that infects everything around it. The birds are the Corrados, the people who want to love her, understand her, help her out of her misery but the ones she keeps pushing away. I suppose, in her view, there'll come a point where she won't ever be able to connect with anyone on that spiritual level; the birds will stop coming. It's a pretty bleak notion, I realise, the idea that you're destined to be "alone" in the world. But that's how I read it and it certainly works well with the idea of man's isolated state, as you put it, and as realised by Guiliana during the film's climax with her "if you prick me, you feel no pain" lyric.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

[–] thebigheat 15 years ago

i sort of agree with DC1977 here. However, I don't think Corrado was simply interested in sex, it is just his true motives were pretty complicated and in the end, he was just unable to help her. I do not think Corrado is presented as too bad of a guy in this movie.

[–] marthalorusso 15 years ago

To me, the most impressive moment in this scene is, the sequence before they have sex, she looks very uncomfortable, and the camera shows the empty bed with WHITE sheets and pillows, then they have sex, and suddenly all the room becomes PINK, the same exact pink of the sand in her beach/island of her bedtime story, for about 30 seconds in that scene everything is like her ideal world, then she goes back to reality, and gets annoyed again realizing that Corrado "haven't helped her either". I am amazed by Antonioni's use of colors here.

I think Corrado was interested in having sex with her since they first met, but also I think his interest was real, and he was the only one who noticed and cared about her. He wasn't enough to solve her problems at the end, but for all we could see, he was the best thing that happened to her in that isolated life of hers.

[–] risefromruins6 14 years ago

I found Corrado to be perhaps the most genuine character in the film. I think it's odd that no one here has really factored in Giuliana's instability in regards to the odd nature of their relationship. I think Corrado was truly trying to help her, and his walking out at the end was him feeling attacked emotionally because he did not and ultimately could not alleviate her suffering, but had believed up until that point that there was hope for him to do so.

The film clearly deals with alienation and isolation, in the beginning sort of criticizing it, but later on it seems to offer it as the only solution to attain a copacetic existence. And as a previous poster said, her saving grace was merely intimating her feelings and problems to herself. So while the film presents this self-isolation as unfavorable, I feel that it also shows that the only way for life to be manageable is within that very insular state, as you truly cannot depend on anyone else.

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