Am I the only one who thinks this film deserved a better ending?
The first hour was incredibly delicate and poetic, but the last moments just seemed to forced and cliché to me.
The wife throwing photographs at the husband then shooting him was just too soup opera, I guess.
Still, I'd rank this as probably my 3rd favorite Truffaut Film. (after Jules et Jim and 400 Blows)
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the catastrophy in the end was unavoidable. Monsieur Lachenay abused everybody who happened to be around him: his wife, his mistress, even his young daugther. Nicole (the mistress) was smart enough to discover Lachenay's rude and unsensitive personality behind his dreamy and pensive stare. Brrrrrr.
share. . . lousy ending.Only lousy for the wife and even more so for the husband. In other words, a very good ending: watch the hint of a smile on the wife's face seconds before the end of the film. It spoke volumes and made me rate the movie 9/10 instead of 8/10. share
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Seeing those photos must have been torture. How could she live after that? It would be enough to send anyone into madness. She loved him, the film gives the impression that she had sacrificed herself to him (as a partner might, to a highly successful man of letters). Now to be thrown over for the sake of a "bimbo" young enough to be his daughter - such a humiliation. No the "soup" opera ending is demanded!
shareNot only photos... A very important sequence follows the episode with a photos: the stranger began to abuse the Wife; she cries to him with a fury "What do you think you are?! Did you take a look on yourself ever?". These words were directed straight to Lachenay; she, full of contempt, just saw his well-fed mug this moment. I'm sure this accident triggered her decision to kill Lachenay.
shareIt's a great film, but the ending is kinda lousy. Pierre commited many mistakes, but I don't think he deserved to die. In my opinion, he deserved to end up alone and that's how the film should have ended.
«I was on the fire escape! I saw ya!»
//but I don't think he deserved to die.///
By no means he deserved to die. But yet I can't agree with you about the "lousy end". By Truffault, Pierre's death was the most tragic, even his character was rather unsympathetic.
//that's how the film should have ended.//
Drama, as a genre, has it's own rules and logic... :((. I'm not bloodthirsty, but any different outcome would contradict the movie's dynamics and make the movie somewhat unfinished.
Listen to your enemy, for God is talking
I'd say that by Truffaut, there are even more tragic deaths, like in "The Bride Wore Black" - the way all those guys are murdered is creepy.
Still, Pierre's comeuppance is rather tragic. Same for the guy portrayed by Gérard Depardieu in "La femme d'à côté", who is also shot at the end by a woman.
«I was on the fire escape! I saw ya!»
Whether Pierre deserved to die is imo not the point. The ending workds because it amplifies and compounds the net evil effect not only of Pierre's infidelity but of the essential hypocrisy and lies that were the basis for his life and marriage. Franca will go on suffering for her act, which is both deserved in the eyes of the law but morally tragic. As will the daughter, who will likely be without either parent.
Also imagine what it does to Pierre's public image. All those who admired him will be confronted with the reality of his awful domestic "arrangements".
Even Nicole, who some here have observed escaped by leaving Pierre, will go over the fate he suffered as well as Franca and think about her role in all of it.
It was alright for me. There were some good moments, definitely... and then there was the predictability of the whole affair... ultimately, it amounted to nothing more than a safe, inoffensive film in which Truffaut simply painted between the lines of the cliched narrative.
That being said, I dug the ending... Nicole's rejection (a moment to which the film had been building to... not very subtle but effective nonetheless), the way Pierre immediately tried to reconnect with his wife and the unfortunate circumstances which let to his murder. Don't know how I felt about the manic grin of poor Franca at the end there... but the aforementioned scene definitely didn't bring the words "lousy ending" into my mind.
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
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Great ending. My favorite film about adultery. Mrs Bitsko would have done the same to me, except pointing the barrel of the shotgun a little lower.
By the way, how`s your mom, Ed?share
Actually, for me, after sitting through almost 2 hours, the ending was the only good part. Finally, somehthing happens.
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