MovieChat Forums > Arsène Lupin (2004) Discussion > Can someone please explain the end of th...

Can someone please explain the end of this film?


Hi all, so I saw this movie when I was in Paris and my french is not the best, I understood the general big plot points, but starting with the whole "father revelation" I became utterly confused. Can someone please explain what happened to his father and what an assassination attempt on Arch Duke Ferdinand had to do with it all? Thanks.

reply

Pour la fin ; Ce n'es pas le duc Ferdinand ; l'idée es que Joséphine, qui es toujours présente dans les grand événement de l'histoire de France, avait déjà essayé d'assassinée FRANCOIS JOSEPH, le père de François Ferdinand assassiné en 14, lors d'une visite a Paris par le propre fils d'Arsene.

Théophraste Lupin (le père) connaissait Joséphine depuis longtemps, bien avant la naissance d'Arsene.
Avec elle, il devint voleur, le meilleur.
Pour voler le collier de la reine, il devait modifier sa vie, utilisé son credo 'Détourner l'attention, voilà la clé. Si tu te rappelles de ça, personne ne t'arrêtera jamais'
Pour cela il engagea un petit voleur, demandât a son fils de lui volé le collier, tua son second et le fit passé par lui.
Plus tard il se fit engagé par les services secrets pour avoir une liberté de mouvement.
En fait c'est plus un fil sur le personnage de Rouletabille que sur Lupin

google:

For the end; It does not be the duke Ferdinand; the idea be that Joséphine, which are always present in the great event of the French history, already had tested assassinated FRANÇOIS JOSEPH, the father of François Ferdinand assassinated of 14, at the time of a visit has Paris by the proper son of Arsene.

Théophraste Lupin (the father) for a long time knew Joséphine, well before the birth of Arsene. With it, he became the robber, best. To steal the collar of the queen, it was to modify her life, used its creed ' To divert the attention, here is the key. If you remember that, nobody will stop you jamais' For that it engaged a small robber, asked has his son of him stolen the collar, killed his second and did it last by him. Later it was made committed by the secret service to have a freedom of movement. In fact it is more one wire on the character of Rouletabille which on Lupin

reply

you see samrose, the point is that at the end of the movie they want to explain that Josephine is the kind of woman who never dies and who's always on new projects (evil, of course) and they want to show she's the kind to be involved in political assassinations like the assassination of Austria Emperor (which is the fact that caused the begin of world war I), but of course the movie is pure fiction, and the link between the story and History is fake.

reply

in that year Franz Ferdinand was killed in Sarajevo.

reply

Interessting plot ending, but I do not think it works.
This a "french film" ending in Hollywood style film.

I really really really enjoyed the movie very good but no standard happy ending.
If you are going to make an hollywood action like movie then also make the hollywood ending. This ending was very unsatisfing. I don't the ending always has to be happy, but it must be conclusive and satisfing.
This was not the case to vague!

But overall great movie.

reply

You might want to stick Cagliostro into Wikipedia or the like for an idea of what Kristin Scott Thomas's character is all about (the original Count Cagliostro, widely believed to have been an Italian called Balsamo, was rumoured to have been involved in the Affair of the diamond necklace of Marie Antoinette - yes, that diamond necklace "de la Reine"!).

As for the assasination at the end, it was stated as being 1913 at the beginning of that final section, although I have no idea what that is about in the French above regarding Franz Josef (he died in 1916) because I have never heard of any attempted assasination against him before. Perhaps it was just a sly nod to the assasination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914 and to the idea of a Cagliostro being present at all the major French historical events (as somebody else said above).

And if the ending was ambiguous I think it was probably because they had an eye on possible sequels, there being a wealth of Leblanc's books to mine for the purpose.

reply

In fact, there is a book where Arsene Lupin's son is falsely accused of murder and condemned to the guillotine, if I remember well, the original title is 'Le bouchon de cristal' and it's pretty good, less funny than the other Lupin's adventures but much more intense.

reply

As far as I can remember, Arsene's son doesn't appear in "Le bouchon de cristal"... I guess you must be mistaking it for another novel...

ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if you don't take it out and use it, it's going to rust!

reply

You're probably referring to the novel "La Cagliostro se venge" .

reply

The welcome march is not proper. It is "Preußens Gloria (Prussia's Glory)" by Piefke. They should have used Austrian march like "Unter dem Doppeladler (Under the Double Eagle)" by Josef Franz Wagner or something.

reply