MovieChat Forums > Lila dit ça (2005) Discussion > Question About the Ending

Question About the Ending


I liked the movie but feel that I missed something.

Thanks to other comments on IMDB about there being a "revelation" near the ending (when I hadn't noticed any such revelations), I went back and rewatched several points in the movie and made the connection that the silver car he'd seen Lila step into (with concern on his part at first) turned out to be the babysitting client. I hadn't recognized the car and personally feel that this was easily missable, but whatever, cool. OK, so we know Lila was innocent in that case.

But what about the "limo" that Chimo's friends claim they saw Lila getting into - the one with the curtains? Was that something they'd made up? Was that also explained (and I missed it again)? Or are we just never to know?

Is the "revelation" that Lila is more innocent than we thought - that all of her dirty talk was just that? To me, if that's supposed to be the revelation, that wasn't very clearly communicated in the film. What I experienced was a more ambiguous ending. Does anyone agree/disagree, and can anyone tell me if it sounds like I missed anything else? :)

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I thought that the ending unraveled Lila's innocence in a few different ways. There was the silver car that turned out to be a babysitting client. There was the moment when she tells Chimo, 'Can't you see that I love you' - and the voice-over narration notes that it was the biggest mistake of his life not to hold her at that moment and tell her the same. Then, when she is raped by his three friends, there is blood on the sheets. Although the blood could indicate violent sexual mishandling, usually it is symbolic of a girl losing her virginity. So, I interpreted this to mean that she was actually a virgin who would say such blatantly sexual things both to attract and to shock Chimo.

A scene early in the movie suggested that the crazy aunt was possibly sexually abusing her, looking at her body and later Lila mentions her aunt "singing to my pussy." In that early scene the aunt also mentions Lila's parents sexually abusing her. It is ambiguous whether this was really happening or whether the aunt was just insane and liked to stare at her niece's "angelic" body, but I took it that Lila was more innocent and inexperienced than she led people to believe, though she was growing up in a sexualized environment.

Another significant moment is when Chimo discovers her little clippings book, where she has sexual images and drawings but also several clippings of red barns. Earlier in the movie she had told Chimo a story about her having sex in a barn (which by now I assumed was another lie) and so I thought these photos recalled that memory for him but also, in a way, further proved her innocence. After all, a red barn is just a red barn, and she had these photos because she liked them. I felt like he was discovering things about her that he didn't know, realizing that he loved her.

I think that if I knew French and didn't have to rely on subtitles, more of the subtlety of the film would have come across. But, that is what I got out of the film.

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That was very helpful - thank you. (I hadn't made the connection about the barn pictures, either. I'm new to foreign films and I find that they present things more subtly than I'm used to.) Your explanation was very helpful and, in fact, makes me want to revisit the movie for a second viewing. Thanks again!

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i cried a fair bit in that scene showing lila after she was raped and shes crying and chimo sees the blood on the sheets, realising that she was a virgin. :( the actor who played chimo was brilliant in that scene! AHH!

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oh i did too. man that was painful to watch...and he was brilliant in that scene, the way he cried with her...heart-wrenching.

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umm yeah the aunt sed she took lila out of pity and if it wasnt for her lila would be gettin raped they never sed she was raped until she actually was by chimos friends but yeaah

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At first it did seem like the aunt was mad and was somewhat abusing Lila but at the end, I came to the conclusion that she was checking to see if Lila was still virgin. Some people, especially in strict households, do that.

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***Warning: Spoilers!***

I never got a good enough look at the silver car to see if the windows were obscured, by curtains or whatever. So I assumed that Chimo's friends had simply exaggerated the appearance of that silver car to build up their accusatory lies. I believe the car was a Mercedes (albeit not a large limo version) so it's not like they had to work hard to build up it's appearance/stature in their lies.

To me, perhaps two of the biggest revelations were Lila's blood on the sheets after the rape scene, proving her virginity and "innocence", followed by the lady who had come to pick her up for the babysitting job--in the silver "limo".

Yet, when Chimo discovered the scrapbook under the bed, its contents revealed that Lila was using these pictures and articles as the basis for her imaginative stories, like the red barns in America. Whether or not Chimo thought or realized that isn't clear, but I think he did.

Perhaps one more "revelation" could have come in that phone call that the cop placed to Lila for Chimo. Chimo was worried that Lila would think he was in on the rape, so he begged the cop to let him get in touch with her. When the cop placed the call, Lela could have refused to answer. She could have hung up on Chimo as soon as he came on the line. Instead she patiently waited for him to gain enough courage to say "I love you." To which she answered, "I know." That may revel that she still had feelings for Chimo and held nothing against him for the rape.

I've only seen the movie once, just this evening on cable. I have discovered here on IMDb that its story was based on a novel. I'd never read the novel, nor even heard of it or this movie until I watched the movie tonight and then came online here. So perhaps there are other subtleties in the story that I missed. But that's my take on it after a single viewing. Wonderful if sad story beautifully told; well written and very well acted.

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I was training heavy that day, that movie showed me some explosive power I doubted in myself while working on the heavy bag. Just a movie, but still very sad nonetheless.

I'd really like to see how the novel and movie differed. Any interesting new facts..

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See now the thing about the blood...

when someone is raped or even having sex with someone a little too big for them bleeding does sometimes occur. So I didnt feel that that proved her virginity.

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But the director purposely made it a deal for them to not just show blood on the sheets as Chimo walks in to provide realism. They show a close up of it. Chimo starts crying noticably harder aftr he sees it. It wouldn't be much of a plot device if they showed it for no reason. The photo album and the car at the end proves that she was all talk.

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I liked the movie but are we really to believe that a mother would entrust her children to a girl that she suddenly is unable to find and with no explanation? I mean is there so little communication between this mother and the people she leaves her children with, that we are not surprised when she just pulls away from Lila's...off to go find another girl then?

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[deleted]

Whether you believe it proves her virginity or not, I'm 100% sure that the movie insinutates that Lila was indeed a virgin.

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It proves it because it's a symbolism thing. If it was just a he's too big thing then they wouldn't have show it and placed the significance on it that they did. They don't want to say 'oh she was a v!' they want the audience to come to that conclusion without making it a dialogue.

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In the book, Lila turned out to be all talk and a virgin. She also committed suicide in the book. It was so depressing, I threw it away...the boys made up lies about Lila out of jealousy and their own misguided lusts...

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blaster151 on Mon Feb 27 2006 16:22:34
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I liked the movie but feel that I missed something.

Thanks to other comments on IMDB about there being a "revelation" near the ending (when I hadn't noticed any such revelations), I went back and rewatched several points in the movie and made the connection that the silver car he'd seen Lila step into (with concern on his part at first) turned out to be the babysitting client. I hadn't recognized the car and personally feel that this was easily missable, but whatever, cool. OK, so we know Lila was innocent in that case.

But what about the "limo" that Chimo's friends claim they saw Lila getting into - the one with the curtains? Was that something they'd made up? Was that also explained (and I missed it again)? Or are we just never to know?
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The gray car from the babysitting client WAS the limo (notice the tinted windows and the nice Mercedes Benz manufacture?)

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