Please explain the ending?
I enjoyed the movie but didn't understand the ending. It's not exactly love-conquers-all. Why was Von Bohm suddenly OK with everything?
shareOnce Von Bohm decided to marry a whore, his self-image, that of being a morally upright man, was no longer tenable. In fact, had he tried to maintain his stance of moral rectitude in the face of being the worst form of cuckold, he would have been a laughing stock. The only thing for him to do was to give that up and go along with the corruption in his public life so that it would be consistent with the corruption of his private life. And when he did that, he found contentment.
shareThat sounds like a reasonable interpretation. Thanks. I wish there had been some justification shown or suggested but perhaps the director felt it was obvious. It just wasn't for me.
sharedisinterested_spectator says > Once Von Bohm decided to marry a whore, his self-image, that of being a morally upright man, was no longer tenable. In fact, had he tried to maintain his stance of moral rectitude in the face of being the worst form of cuckold, he would have been a laughing stock. The only thing for him to do was to give that up and go along with the corruption in his public life so that it would be consistent with the corruption of his private life. And when he did that, he found contentment.I think you're saying something similar to what I thought but there's a fine line. At the end of the movie I was perplexed at first. I had to take a moment to consider what I thought it all meant.
Since his films were about post-war Germany, I came to the conclusion that Fassbiner's message is we have to take the good with the bad. There seemed to be nothing but corruption and a lax attitude in the town when Von Bohm arrived. He wasn't that kind of guy so he was eager to make a change; straighten things out, but he fell in love with - no, I'll say he was seduced by someone steeped in that corruption. The fact he met her in the first place was part of the corruption.
Unfortunately he was hooked so he had to either continue living a lonely, closed-off existence; feeling and behaving morally superior to everyone else or just accept the fact that the woman he loved was a whore and the mistress of the man he reviled. Things weren't going to change so he decided he had to.
He knew full well his wife would never stop being Shuckert's mistress; even after their marriage but at least he got to have her too. Prior to that Shukert made it clear to everyone that he owned Lola. Out of the arrangement Von Bohn got a wife, a daughter, a family, and was able to continue his work without losing his mind. Otherwise, he'd have to either leave the job and the town or endure having to deal with these people day in and day out.
In the end, everyone got what they wanted. Lola/Marie-Louise got a certain level of respectability; she was the wife of a prominent, important man and she got the brothel. She would be able to give her daughter a better life and her daughter finally had a father.
Shukert got his Lindehof project which would bring in millions; the town would benefit as well. Shukert also got to keep his mistress and his wife could go on pretending all was well. She would keep living the lifestyle she wanted knowing she wouldn't lose her husband to the mistress.
Personally, I don't agree with the movie's message. It's true we have to take the good with the bad and we have to pick our battles but we also have to have some standards and values by which we live. It's always easier to go with the flow so we can fit in with what everyone else is doing but on some things we have to stand our ground. Also, love is not a condition that afflicts us; we have choices. It is possible to love someone and not want to have anything to do with them. Self-respect is important and a better match could be just around the next corner.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate] share