MovieChat Forums > La lune dans le caniveau (1983) Discussion > Would someone who's seen this SPOIL the ...

Would someone who's seen this SPOIL the end for me?

posted 15 years ago by Sandoz
3 replies | jump to latest

After watching SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER recently, I got on a mini David Goodis kick and read DOWN THERE, THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN, and THE MOON IN THE GUTTER.

Bleak, despairing, and masterpieces of psychological noir is how I'd describe his books. But I'm a little stymied about the ending to MITG. I believe I get the big "reveal" of the conclusion, but Goodis doesn't hit you over the head with it, he sort of presents the main character having a revelation about what happened to his sister, and learns to live with it. Because he's not blunt, though, I feel there are two interpretations to the fate of Kerrigan/Gerard's sister, and since cinema is (usually) much more direct about it's interpretations, I was wondering if the film's conclusion matches these two posssible explanations i have for the ending:

1. After having Loretta come into his life and shake Kerrigan's world apart, the recent events drive Kerrigan into a state of final truth that he was the perpetrator of his sister's rape and eventual suicide. His returning to the alley nightly to stare at her bloodstains on the pavement is a form of guilt he possesses since he has blocked the unforgivable crime from his memory. His vow to never forget the fate of his sister and his vow to bring her assailant to justice is a form of deceptive guilt he bears until he finally can realize that he was her attacker and her suicide was the result of this incestuous betrayal.

2. The other possible ending is more open-ended and ambiguous but, based on the milieu Goodis has created for the squalid world inhabited by his characters, just as likely. This interpretation has Kerrigan realize that the rough, hard-scrabble surroundings he is a part of make his and Loretta's pairing a match doomed to fail, and his acceptance of this knowledge make him reject Loretta and resign him to his fate in the "gutter", so to speak. This realization makes him accept that although someone was responsible for his sister's death, it was the very world of hopelessness and desolation in which they moved about that ultimately doomed his sister to her eventual demise. Kerrigan gives up not only Loretta, but any hope of ever thinking he will discover who raped his sister.

I tend to favor the second explanation because I think the way Goodis presents it it is supposed to not be that stunning of a revelation for Kerrigan/Gerard, his acceptance of never knowing WHO killed his sister is assuaged only by knowing WHY she died--the "gutter" and it's hopelessness is what eventually ended her life.

So, anyway, I was just wondering how the film ends and what solution Beineix displays for Gerard?

"It's his word!" "That ain't what counts--it's who you give it to!"

[–] www.wedd 14 years ago

It's the second one.

[–] Wrathschild 14 years ago

I'm a David Goodis fan and finally got to see this, now it has been released on region 1 dvd.

I was impressed with how close it was to the book, yet the director also adds a lot to it artistically. I would highly recommend you watch it.

However, if you really can't be bothered then read on.

After watching the film I was turning it over in my head and it seemed to me that Loretta represents Gerard's obsession/love for his sister. Somehow for him to go with Loretta at the end would be to seal his own doom- giving up his grasp on reality to devote his life to his sister's memory.
Although his obsession with his sister is pushing him into areas of incestuous confusion, by the end he knows it is wrong to take Loretta/his sister as a lover. Which explains why he can't consummate his marriage with Loretta.

Loretta could almost be seen as his sisters ghost, luring Gerard the his death as represented in the film as the heavenly 'white city' shown wreathed in cloud that Loretta comes from.

When Loretta shows up at the alley at the end she cries, seeing the state Gerard has been driven to by his sisters murder. When He tells her 'don't' it's as if he's telling his sister not to weep for him and he realises that he has to overcome the grief and try to live a normal life because that is what his sister would want.

Seen in this context it's a surprisingly positive conclusion.

[–] Ike_McAdoo 11 years ago

I find it hard to accept that a French movie could be this positive, but I was forced to miss the last five minutes and I don't want to rent it again.

I would accept the first incestuous premise, but it doesn't matter that much.