MovieChat Forums > La promesse (1997) Discussion > so she doesn't go to italy?

so she doesn't go to italy?


so in the end, she decides to bury her husband properly or to stay with the boy or what?

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i guess the director doesn't want us to know that...

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exactly the director wants us to be baffled at the end whilst they're walking down that hall. The credits start: 'No! What is happening?'

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I think she decides, there's no point anymore.

And I think the fact that Igor walked down the corridor with her instead of just standing there watching her go was foreshadow. That they're going to be helping each other in the future. As part of the promise.

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I had to watch this movie in French class. Movies like La Promesse remind me why i hate french movies: never a sticking ending.

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I love movies like that. And it's not just French movies.

So many movies, so little time...

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Also, this is not a french movie.

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It was a co-production of Belgium / France / Luxembourg, and in the French language. Isn't that French enough?

So many movies, so little time...

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No, it's Belgian. It's filmed in Belgium by Belgian directors with a belgian crew and belgian actors.

You wouldnt consider "Mad Max" an american film, just cause they are speaking english and there was some american funding involved.

ps: I'm not belgian ;)

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My interpretation was she decided to do what she threatened earlier--go to the police.

/// •\ /• \\\

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Exactly! That's what I got out of it. She's going to the police.

What makes Igor's revelation to her so stunning is that he does it just a moment before she along with cover-up problem are about to fly away forever to Italy. Igor renounces his livelihood as he knows it and further dooms his already troublesome relationship with his father. It's his sacrifice that goes beyond what he initially promised the dying man. He protected the wife and child. Now he puts her mind to rest concerning her husband's disappearance despite the consequences.

Now ask yourselves, is a scene showing the African woman going to a police station really necessary?

I enjoyed figuring it out for myself.

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Perhaps she is still going to go to Italy eventually, but she wants to either:
a) go to the police,
b) recover her husband's body,
or both.

That talk about the graves of one's ancestors was probably meaningful in some religious/cultural way that goes over (many of) our heads.

I am curious to know if she would go to the police. Surely she wouldn't mind geting Roger in trouble, but she may be more ambivalent about Igor.

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Just like life a film that ends like "La Promesse" doesn't have a tight neat ending. If it did what would there be to talk about.

I thought the ending was fantastic...I don't need my endings and conclusions feed to me on a plastic spoon...

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Yes, thank you.

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I think she's going to the police, yes, but assuming the father will go to prison and the kid will have no livelihood, family, or place to live, I think she's also staying to help him with his life. He's still very young and she's obviously strong and capable, and she realizes and appreciates that he has destroyed his way of life to do the right thing, and will stay to help defend his actions to the police/court and maybe give other practical and moral support to this young person who obviously has some decency/humanity in him despite his upbringing.

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If you recall the witch doctor told her that her son would not recover from the fever until there was justice for the ancestor. I took this to mean justice for Amidu. With that knowledge she has to seek justice for Amidu so that her son would get well.

Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make ...

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The justice could be that Hamidou didn't die in vain and that his wife and child will be looked after, so the Boy told her truth of what happened to him. Hamidou died in a fall. He wasn't killed. True his body was hidden, but the whole situation there was illegal.

(•_•)

can't outrun your own shadow

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It's up to interpretation where she DOES go, but it's made fairly clear that she doesn't go it Italy, yes.


They've got cars big as bars, they've got rivers of gold

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