The ending, beginning with the kiss and liaison on the floor, seemed very patched on. It just didn't seem to flow from the rest of the film.I'm guessing Truffault couldn't decide how to end it,vis a vis the three main characters, so left us to interpret for ourselves. What do you think?
shareyeah I agree. I expected it to happen, but the film didn't really seem to go into that direction except for a few hints that could also be interpreted otherwise, until
SPOILER
lucas (!) dropped the bomb. not flawless, yet still a great film in my book.
The ending scarcely even seemed to be part of the rest of the movie. After dealing honestly with the effects of war, secrecy and the possibility of betrayal on a group of people, suddenly the narrative just wandered off into a kind of "trick ending" that was completely out of place.
Also, the tone, from fairly serious, veered off into an equally perplexing flippancy, a kind of "oh, well, the war ended but love and the theatre went on tra la!" inanity.
I'm so glad this thread was started -- I feel the same way as everyone else. I was so into the movie and then, suddenly, right at the end, when I'm wondering what's going to happen, the movie goes in this frothy, silly direction of an ending that seemed so incredibly tacked on. Very confusing!
sharei bet that if we were french and/or had access to french media about this, we would know something that would explain this, like:
"oh, he ran out of money and couldn't film the ending he wanted so the ending was constructed from scraps off the editing room floor"
or
"oh, truffaut got sick and was in a coma for 3 months so the production co. cobbled together an ending..."
or something. we all seem to agree how odd this ending is, and we know truffaut was a master and fully capable of creating a good ending, so it must just be something we don't know about. anyway, that's my guess.
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
[deleted]
are you thinking that the whole concept of a play within a play within a film was tacked on? cause i kinda feel that way too.
my thoughts after first viewing were that lucas was caught or the theater was taken over after all, and someone less skilled (jean-loup) finished the 'play we were watching'... just watched it again, but didn't really feel that way this time.
Everybody in the thread except jimb14red is ridiculous. I think it would've been even MORE cliche'd and lame if it had ended with the theater being taken over and the owner being captured. It just woulda seemed like another holocaust movie out for an oscar grab, but luckily it turned out to just be a pretty good Truffaut flick.
I Was Here But I Disapear
I agree with dude guy99. It is a good movie and I like the ending.
share******possible spoilers
I really enjoyed the movie but was taken back with the sort of hilarity that ensued in the end (random shooting, the arrest etc). I didn't think it fit the movie which up to that point had me on the edge of my seat. I should say I was delighted by the play at the end but then couldn't make what was going on amongst the three. I assumed it was a menage a trois situation.
She is two women and all.
share[deleted]
Sorry but I disagree. The ending is ambiguous: Is Deneuve character 'with' Bernard or husband? Clearly she is with both, perhaps not formally in a menage-a-trois (though there's a thought). But she loves (and is loved by) both. I did not find that gimmicky at all. An affirmative ending to a film that nevertheless acknowledges a great deal of sadness.
I loved the film up to the point of the infidelity at which point I felt it turned into a petit version of Jules et Jim. Perhaps this is a theme of Truffaut's as I haven't seen enough of his movies to be a judge, alas.
I also did not feel that this love affair worked out either as I had no sense that either Bernard or Madame Steiner were really attracted to each other throughout the movie. Bernard seemed to be chasing everything else in skirts and Madame Steiner was consumed with her husband in hiding. Although we do get the sense that Madame Steiner is falling out of love with her husband, or perhaps the strain of his hiding is telling on both of them, she doesn't really display any interest in anyone else. The affair with Bernard seemed to really come out of the blue and marred the movie for me as it did feel "tacked on" or like Truffaut either didn't know how to resolve the movie otherwise, or felt compelled to include a triangle even though nothing had really led up to that earlier. An otherwise great movie except for the infidelity. It's also disappointing as the romantic in me would like to believe that Madame Steiner stayed true to Lucas and they were re-united openly at the end and lived many happy years together afterwards....
The hook-up happened clumsily. I think it's no accident it was clumsy. I understand the disappointment expressed in many of the messages here. I don't feel quite the same way but the reactions of others are valid and thoughtful. Truffaut's ambiguity as the film draws to an end strikes me as intentional.
shareI was quite sickened by the ending, actually. Not the "twist" ending... the stuff that came prior, chiefly Marion's infidelity. It's really disappointing because it was pretty damn engaging throughout and then Marion, a woman who takes thorough care of her loving husband, quickly admits to her sexual attraction to that thinly drawn buffoon, Granger, opening her legs in sexual ecstasy without any hesitation. Yeah, there were hints of their mutual attraction throughout: the deeply felt gazes, the acting sequences, the kiss after the first performance and the shouting match in the rain (although I didn't necessarily catch any romantic connection here). All that would have been fine, too, but for Marion to actually and impulsively act on such desires? Yeah, kind of ruined the whole film for me; it had been a naturalistic story about the survival of theatre against the backdrop of the cruelty of the second World War, about the people who pour their heart and soul into the theatre, about the relationships and drama in the everyday lives of these people, about how love for art can help one find spiritual peace and sanity in this cruel, heartless world. And then the adultery occurred and it felt tacked on and forced... how disappointing.
I will admit that I definitely thought it to be a blessing that the sappy, contrived hospital scene was just the characters performing another stage play. If that had been the actual ending, I'd have no words to explain the movie's dramatic fall from grace (well, even moreso than now).
6/10
Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.