I was a little confused at the end of this film. I thought the guy on the electricity pilons was actually the main character and they'd swapped identities 20 years ago, this was why the mafia goon didn't recognise him when he saw him again at the airport.
Have I got this completely wrong?
I am not entirely sure what the ending was about, but I wouldn't put your interpretation on it. Some-one on the comments board argues that the entire story took place in the imagination of the electrcity Pylon repair man, but I am not convinced by that interpretation either.
My best interpretation is that the scene represented Titta’s dying thoughts. He was imagining how he could have led his life differently by putting himself in the shoes of his long-lost friend.
Yes this is the correct point I guess.
Coz when his brother was on a visit in the Hotel, he defended his best
friend (for what it's worth).
Even when his brother says, he is doing a low budget life job being a
repair man on electricity pylon's.
He answered his brother, You are stupid, you are a child.
He was actually jealous, he had he low paid job, but in his view
a good life with loads of freedom, while he..... you get the point.
Having their identities swapped is kind of far-fetched but does contain some interesting plot-ideas. However, I think the most importtant thing is, Titta wanted to be sure of not being forgotten, or stress the importance of friendship in the very sterile and emotionless world he has spent his life in. Dino is on the other end, and with his reminiscence of Titta, he would be kept alive, there where he would have likes to spend his life.
Also, Titta is of course jealous of Dino, when his brother tries and compare the two lives, because the brother doesn't know anything about the true reasons about Titta living in the hotel. Titta would much rather live in the mountains, in such freedom as Dino lives in. That's why he calls his brother superficial.
It is all,... an illusion
I thought this was pretty straight forward. It is his best friend who he hasn't seen for years. We were told by the main characters brother that this man repairs pylons in the mountains. He was thinking about his best friend and that he knew that his best friend was thinking of him
shareI saw this movie on an international flight... too much towards the end, though. They turned off the video just as he was being lowered. Please, someone, how did it finally end? I saw enough to know how he retrieved the suitcase and that he apparently sent it to the Grabber cheat whom he'd shamed. I gather from remarks here that he thought on his friend's life (I agree with others that it would seem a far preferable life to the virtual prison life he lived), but were there any other details at the end? What about the waitress, does she recover? Any info is appreciated. Thanks.
sharei can't remember is she recovers. i don't think we get to find out. what you saw was pretty much the end of the film.
shareYes the waitress recovers. We see her briefly. He is lowered silently into the concrete grave with his dignity intact whilst thinking of his friend fixing electricity pylons in the alps north of Turin. If you get a chance to see the film again then do; I think it's a beautiful ending. Does anyone else agree the car crash scene was badly handled however?
shareCan anyone explain the car crash scene to me?Was it a set up?I didnt quite get it!
shareI don't think the crash was a setup - just an accidient due to inexperience. However, technically it did not seem nearly bad enough to knock her out and put her in the hospital. I did like the mechanical signal man though.
If that accident hadn't happened I wonder if Titto still would have still faced up to his "boss." He may have changed his mind after spending an afternoon with the barmaid.
I'm not clear on why Titto's childhood friend meant so much to him while almost no one else did. And given that, why did he leave the money to the old couple whom he really didn't care that much for? Maybe felt guilty about the way he handled the husband's cheating at cards.
Paul
"If that accident hadn't happened I wonder if Titto still would have still faced up to his "boss." He may have changed his mind after spending an afternoon with the barmaid. "
I think not spending an afternoon with the barmaid changed his mind. If you lead a life without love and then get betrayed by the first love you find... it fecks you up...
I don't think it was like that. I think because she wasn't there he believed he still wasn't doing enough. I think if she had been there, he would not have felt the need to do more.
From the moment he accepted the need for love, he decided he would do whatever was needed. If she had been there, he would have done enough, taken enough risks.
I think Titta left the money to the old couple after listening to what their wealth, or lack of it had done to their relationship. In a hotel where he is alone 99% of the time i would imagine that he would develop a relationship with the people he saw most often, they were the closest things to friends that he had for a long time and with him practically marching (/flying) to his own death then perhaps it would be the decent thing to do, since his one chance at being able to live his life again had, in his eyes, gone to pot.
I think Toni Servillo sums it up best...
"The film is about someone so unused to life that when starts to live he cannot and gives up"
But did she fail to show up because of the crash, or did the crash happen after their apointment date (she said she'd pick him up at 3.00)? And I agree, the crash was unconvincing somehow...
Also, I didn't get the guy being shot in the back of the car near the end. One moment sees the gun and the guy asleep, the next the gun is gone and the guy is shot... when? how?
Brilliant film though!
I don; think 'no one else meant much to him'. He keeps calling his ex-wife and wants to talk to his kids, but they've shut him out. He's a victim of his situation, obligated by the mafia to live in Switzerland, suffering the consequences of being greedy. He used to have a family life, but due to whats happened to him, he's put up a wall. In a way, I think its just easy for him to idealie his friendship with someone he hasn't seen in years, that way, it can't be argued against.
share"I'm not clear on why Titto's childhood friend meant so much to him"
poetry people, poetry. That is what the ending is all about. It's like Orson Wells' "Rosebud". It's meaning and emotion when your life has been meaningless and wasteful.
I'm with you on the badly handled crash, yes.
As I remember it, she picks up her mobile phone long after she would have noticed the road block. It looks as she's planning to ram right through the whole thing, and then suddenly realizes that it wouldn't be such a good idea after all, and then promptly swings into the field. Which also looked kind of funky, the car wasn't really driving all that fast after she turned into the field, making the carwreak not really correspond to the shot of her car driving in the field.
Strange thing that sequence, since the visuals in the movie was otherwise handled really well. Why would they make such a strange mistake?
"My girlfriend always laughs during sex - no matter what she's reading."
What intrigued me was Titta's reaction when the younger brother mentioned Dino (the friend on the pylon) - he looked as if'd been poleaxed. This,and the ending, made me wonder if there was another 'secret' there concerning him which was never revealed.
shareI think his childhood friend represents to him an ideal of the lost innocence of youth. His reaction upon hearing his name is similar to that of Charles Kane to the word "Rosebud" in the movie Citizen Kane (the name of his beloved sled from childhood). It was probably the closest relationship he'd ever had since he says elsewhere that no one had ever loved him, including presumably his parents and ex-wife, which is why he finds it so difficult to accept love, much less express it. Finally, it's for love that he recklessly risks his life, and for the perceived rejection of love that he sacrifices it.
shareAbout the crash scene...
If you look well, in a sequence inside the car seems like the girl is driving with her eyes closed. An intentional suicide? However, the run in the field after the phone-ring is pretty mysterious.
And - I agree about the bad-handled-scene theory, too.
Are you serious?
It's not an illusion. It's not the main character.
The man on the pilons is his "best friend" (even if he never saw him in the last 20 years): Dino Giuffre'.
There is no interpretation, but only one question: why, before dying in a daring way (as the old man wishes to do), Titta is thinkin about his old friend? Why is not thinking about his wife or about his children?
The answer I think is this: as Titta say to the director of the Hotel before leaving Switzerland, "I've never been loved by anyone in my life". He doesn't really think that his family had actually ever loved him (they don't even want to talk to him, indeed). So, the only thought is about the best friend he had when he was a kid: when a frienship really means something.
Think about the last sentence that Richard Dreyfuss says in "Stand by Me": "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
Agreed, no interpretations to be had here, it's the only meaningful relationship he may or may not have left intact, so he's hanging on to the memory of it and hoping his friend is doing the same.
And so far as why he gives the money to the card cheat and his wife, I think that's due to him seeing them as the only people he knows who will get any true happiness from the money.
Was the car crash with the tractor not set up deliberately by someone, to make her crash? Maybe someone wanted to kill her. It did just happen after he had told her everything. The idea that it was just an accident is difficult to accept. Any ideas?
shareVery very interesting theory...any evidence to back it up?
shareWell, when I saw the film in 05, I thought it was the case that someone had deliberately attempted to murder her with the setup of the road block, calling her at just the right time so that she'd be distracted and crash.
I saw it last night on BBC4 and wasn't so sure as there wasn't really the evidence to back it up. But another thing that happens right after he reveals all to her is that the Sicilians turn up and try to steal the cash they've seen before. How did they get access to his room that time and the first time? Maybe she was really the mafia's facilitator because they wanted an excuse to get rid of him?
Perhaps for two years she has been trying to grind him down to opening up to her, knowing that he had the secret and was keeping everything inside. He only opens up after she catches him with the heroin and this is the catalyst for him telling all. Obviously the dull, secret life (of which the only benefits seem to be an endless suppy of cigarettes and a nice enough hotel) has broken him. He's always known that if he revealed anything at all to anyone about who he truly was, then he'd be done for. That's why he knows it's not a good idea to engage with anyone new. Maybe she's there to break him down.
The ultimate consequence of Love, for those who rely on discretion and secrecy, is that if you want to fully embrace it, then you'll have to be completely vulnerable and open up about everything. You can't really love if you've got deep, dark secrets.
That makes some sense...I also felt like it was a set-up to convince him to leave by the hitmen. Also, Titta spies her with the glasses man, which is not really explained why she is with him. She pretends to be innocent but really shes out for the cash. so it seems (realistic?) that the hitmen bribed her to talk to him, and gave them access to Titta's room? If so tho you'd think the director would want to make it a little more obvious that she betrayed him. I wish that car crash scene made a little more sense.
shareFor me, his friend´s life, is for Titta something better like his own life, but nothing more.
Oscar from Rosario City
Argentina
I think this is actually quite simple and stated in the film. The film is about human contact vs isolation. Titta says to his brother that he thinks of his friend from time to time and that means they are still friends. His brother doesn't understand. At the end of the film we are shown the friend thinking about Titta. This may or may not be Titta's thought as he is being lowered into the cement. The point is either that Titta takes some consolation from knowing that his friend remembers him, or that we do, or both.
The convoluted theories about identity exchanges and the entire story taking place in the friend's mind are remarkably creative, but unnecessary and I think miss the whole point of the film.
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.
[deleted]
i think if someone wanted to kill her they could use a gun.its italy. its not that hard and murderers raerly go to jail (except foxy knoxy. ha).