What does the ending mean? (SPOILERS!) - Yella (2008) Discussion

[–] akirasan 17 years ago

Also saw this at SIFF. I am of the same impression, that her experience was her vision of her life flashing before her eyes - what might have happened if she survived.

Although the imdb plot description confuses me. She survived the accident and experienced the final moments of another person? I can't make sense of that. Who is this other person? This plot device seems completely random to me.

I really enjoyed the movie until the final scene. The twist ending is cliche and undermined the whole 1+ hours of entertaining story that preceded it.

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[–] Clifton-K 17 years ago

To me it was exactly what was steve_schonberger's second explanation. Everything happened as it was shown in the film. It was just in that taxi after the businessman's death that she realised how closely she had escaped death herself.

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[–] johncloke 17 years ago

It's Steve's first explanation for me, but I would take it slightly further - in the final scene I think she is making a choice to die. She saw what might have been in flashforward and - for me - realised she was a bad person who causes misery (before the accident, she left her husband just because he went broke, then, because of money, blackmails a businessman into suicide in the flashforward). So she doesn't fight it second time around.

There are lots of other elements that support the idea that the time after the accident in the film isn't real - she sees and hears things other people can see, and there are lots of recurrent elements from the time before the crash which shouldn't be there (e.g. at the first meeting, the price of the computer equipment matches the value that her husband's company sold its for).

The second explanation I think would make the film utterly disappointing! I suspect this is one that will improve with a repeat watching, but excellent nonetheless.

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[–] terryunique 17 years ago

John Cloke's hypothesis that she realised that by living she would cause anxiety and even death in the lives of others is very interesting. I thought the out of body experiences were evocative of the half dream state of someone drowning and thinking "something strange happening here but I'm not sure what it is" The rustling of the leaves matched the rustling of the tinfoil blanket.

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[–] gowland85 16 years ago

Yella wants to leave the East and her estranged husband behind. She thinks he is a loser and she want to be a success in business. Yella's husband drives both her and himself into the river. She struggles against him, but fails. Everything after that is her hallucination of what her life could have been like in the West of Germany. It is sterile and soulless, full of dull comapny Audi's and minimalist offices and motels, and her actions result in the suicide of a man she was virtually blackmailing. Aural codes throughout - when her ears give her discomfort - seem to confirm that she is underwater. She wakes up back in the car and doesn't resist as her husband drives their car into the river. She accepts death.

Great film. Did anyone notice the Coke can floating on the river when the car was sinking? I wonder if that was deliberate or just a bit of flotsam and jetsum that drifted into shot?

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[–] btibbetts 16 years ago

I did notice the coke can. For me, it was the most interesting part of the film. Did anyone notice if it was in the first time they showed the crash?

From Jacob's Ladder to the Sixth Sense to countless other films, the "trick" ending of having the protagonist being dead the whole time has been done. I had the ending figured out as soon as the car crash happened. While I think gowland85's interpretation of East vs West Berlin is interesting, I would have loved to see the director make the same point with a less hackneyed ending.

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[–] johncloke 16 years ago

I'm not sure it's as simple as a trick ending that Yella's dead the whole time, the Sixth Sense comparison only goes so far. In this film, none of what happens after the crash actually happens - this is no "I see dead people"!

For me (and I think Gowland85) in this film the protagonist spends the post-death segment of the film critically evaluating her persona (the hallucination of what would be) and then, at the end, makes the decision to accept death. It's more complex than the Sixth Sense narrative which is, essentially, that a little boy can see ghosts.

I liked the ending, particularly the small shift in time back to the moment before the crash (reminiscent of the non-linear technique in Memento) which allows for her to act on her "experiences" earlier in the film.

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[–] zijdaar 15 years ago

“People say, the dying are seeing their lives go by like in a movie. Yella also watches a movie. But she doesn’t see the life she lived. She wants to leave. Into the other, dreamed life she didn’t live. To a world of hotels, of negotiations, of mobility, of decisions. In her movie something dark has nested. And love. Yella moves through this movie.”

(Director Christian Petzold, introduction to the script of Yella.)

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[–] steve.schonberger 15 years ago

Very interesting! How were you able to see the script?

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[–] cherylrice 13 years ago

To say that she left her husband because he was broke is simplistic. She left him because he routinely abused her (apparently), stalked her, mistreated her--this was apparent in her first meeting with him early in the film and in the car ride to the station; she was afraid of him and, to me, this resulted in her stoic, skeptical persona. She was clearly guarded with everyone she met (only felt safe with her father).

As far as the ending, it did come as a shock and left me wondering...but upon reflection, I agree with the posters who say what happened after the accident isn't real. It's as if Yella's a ghost in the remainder of the film. For one thing, didn't anyone find it odd that she wore the same clothes in every scene--red blouse, black skirt, black pumps? Perhaps when Ben continued to stalk her, he was a ghost as well. Then when the executive committed suicide, she had a vision of him (wet) before he was discovered in the water, as though he had "crossed to the other side" as well. Maybe that's a cheesy (or simple) premise, but it makes sense. I thoroughly enjoyed the film either way. The lead actress is amazing--very beautiful and intense.

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[–] bartireid 12 years ago

I think she is some kind of dream world or a brief purgatorial existence, the big give away aside from Ben and Phillips resemblance and both having red cars for me is the car scene with Ben where he tells her about his business and that the assets Software Network etc are worth 80,000 but are being valued at 2,000. These are the exact same figures and assets mention in the first meeting she attends but only after the glass breaks and she experiences what seems to be water in her ears and the general surrounding of the car crash with Ben. Also at the same meeting at the same point one of the business men refers to Yella having a document, but the only document you see is the one Ben throws at her demanding she read it.

Just my take

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[–] mypantsaretootight 16 years ago

I knew she was dead the whole time, but I still liked the film. It is different than The Sixth Sense, but I can see why there will be comparisons to it.

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[–] Lacoby 16 years ago

I think this is basically a film on the same idea as in STAY (2005) by Marc Forster. Almost a remake in German. In YELLA you have the constant feeling that something is wrong (like in STAY). We have a character experienceing "impossible" things (nobody can repeatedly break into a room, the conincidence with the computer network price beeing exactly the same, the dark haiered wife telling Yella to go away...) and there are characters reacting Yella's previous experiences and what she whitnessed shortly before her death (Phillip getting angry quickly). All is pretty similar to STAY.

So I think the whole film is about the chemical reactions in Yella's brain that cause her to have visions when she dies. She kind of relives her life but with somewhat changed characters and a different ending (not too different though in the end).

I really liked both films. Forster was a bit more unconventional and Petzold made it more subtle. Forster had a very good cast, whereas Petzold basically had Hoss as his powerhorse. She is great, though.

There is also some David Lynch in the film (like in many films nowadays). The sound design is pretty Lynchesque (the deep bass sounds). But Petzold pulls it off and does not overuse it. Basically a very good and intelligent German movie. This is great, as, in my experience, the good to bad ratio for German films is now 1:10. The portrait of the difficult economic situation in parts of Germany is a nice social component of the film.

"All in all the house is very creepy - so you gotta stay with me! Come on!"

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] steve.schonberger 16 years ago

Actually, Yella was screened in February 2007, while The Life before Her Eyes was first screened in September 2007. But neither could be considered to have stolen from the other. They were written close enough together in time that neither writer could have known about the existence of the other script, and they were probably well into production before either crew had any awareness of the other film.

I agree that The Life before Her Eyes is a lame title, but doesn't really give away the ending. According to the idea of one's life flashing before one's eyes, that's something that happens when one faces mortal danger, whether from a medical emergency, accident, or malicious threat. It doesn't say anything about whether the mortal danger actually turned out to be deadly -- only that it the person facing the danger perceived it as life-threatening at the time. After all, if it meant the person was dying, there wouldn't be anyone around to say, "I felt my life flashing before my eyes." A very early scene in the film shows that the two students faced mortal peril, so even that wasn't a spoiler.

However, the fact that it wasn't a spoiler doesn't mean it was a good title. And I thought it was a pretty lame movie. I liked Yella a lot better, particularly after I had taken a little time to think about it. By contrast, The Life before Her Eyes seems just was weak several weeks later as it did when I had just seen it.

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[–] jackpantalones 16 years ago

It means that Christian Petzold has seen the film Carnival of Souls but apparently doesn't think anyone else has.

"[The study found that] indie [rock] lovers lack self-esteem and are not very gentle."

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[–] leifgs 16 years ago

Compare also to Claude Chabrol's 1977 film "Alice" http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0074114/.

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[–] Thorsten_B 15 years ago

You're very right. I saw YELLA and my first thought was CARNIVAL as well. Similarities are more than obvious: the bridge theme; the ending sequence; the woman's "passage"... That said, YELLA still is entertaining enough. It's like CARNIVAL OF SOULS for business people ;-).

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[–] noahtenzin 16 years ago

http://shareddarkness.com/2008/09/17/yella.aspx

^ This review frames the movie as a portrait of strangled underclass striving, which i thought was kind of interesting...

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[–] Chops-4 15 years ago

This film is very close in its characteristics to Carneval of Souls. The conflict leading to the car going off a bridge into a river; the protagonist seemingly surviving the crash; the survivor going on to other events that seem real; the "strange" moments when sounds and sights are surreal; and then the discovery of her physical body back at the scene of the accident.

It's not as spooky as Carneval of Souls, and it may have been based on some other ideas too, but overall it's like a different but very good remake of Carneval...

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[–] steve.schonberger 15 years ago

I've seen quite a few indications that it's a remake (to some degree) of Carnival of Souls. I should see Carnival so I can examine the comparison myself.

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[–] rwilliams4254 15 years ago

I was thinking "Carnival of Souls" the whole time, and I knew nothing about this film going in. Did anyone notice that her hair always seems slightly damp throughout the film. That and her never changing wardrobe tipped it to me.

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[–] kielmanski 14 years ago

Well I'm not too proud to admit that with this movie I did need a bit of help,so I run over to this board after watching the film and as usual you brilliant people have thoughtful and plausible solutions to the question at hand.When the suicide scene is replayed watch how Yella is resigned to her fate and doesnt fight it which makes perfect sense for her life and actions shown in the previous hour(after dragging herself out of the river).And yes midway through the movie "Carnival of Souls" did come immediately to mind.Thank you all and hello from New Jersey.

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[–] Doctor-of-Nothing 15 years ago

The only thing original is what's been forgotten. Forget Carnival of Souls. The true source material of Yella is a 1890 short story by Ambrose Bierce entitled The Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge. It was made into a short film in the early 60's by Robert Enrico and had a US TV premiere on The Twilight Zone.

And that's the main problem with Yella -- despite a talent cast -- it's a 90 + minute version of a 20 minute concept. Most viewers twig to what's happening about 15 minutes into the film and the rest is rehash.

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[–] 15 years ago

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