MovieChat Forums > La teta asustada (2009) Discussion > The ending (spoilers)

The ending (spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by birthdaynoodle
12 replies | jump to latest

The movie becomes more dreamlike and fragmented towards the end, after Fausta is betrayed by Aida (her employer), and she finally finds herself with no other option but to confront her own fears.

Can anyone shed some light on the following questions:

- Why does her uncle suddenly wake her up at early dawn? Is he trying to choke her, or perhaps rape her?
- How does Fausta manage to get back inside Aida's house and take the pearls that were promised to her? Does she physically break in? Is a sense of newfound courage her way in and out? Is it a dream?
- How come someone (Aida?) appears to be lying in bed by the pearls, waiting for her? What sort of exchange may have taken place there?
- Why do you think the director opted for that unexpected change of pace at then end? Is it to convey a rush of newfound freedom?

Any thoughts?

[–] jtaboada 14 years ago

You're right, it gets confusing toward the end. In my opinion

- The uncle is clearly drunk and he probably intends to rape her
- She had a way to get into Aida's house every day, so she probably can use it that day too
- She finds the pearls (or some of them, at least) spilled in the floor of what was her room within the house. Probably Aída repented and decided to put the pearls there so she could take them. I didn't notice anyone on the bed

[–] georgejames82 14 years ago

I thought the ending was great.

My take:

-The uncle may have been drunk, but I don't think his intention was to rape her. He covers her mouth and nose. When he releases he says, "Do you see how you breathe? Do you see how you want to live? You want to live but you don't dare! Breathe!"

Throughout the film the uncle seems sincere but is totally incapable or doesn't understand how to help Fausta. At his wits end, and with a little help from the alcohol, he concludes that he must scare some sense into her. It may have been drastic, but it worked.

-I assume she gets in Aida's house the way she always gets in.

-The pearls are in Aida's room. You can tell by the portrait seen earlier in the film. And I'm pretty sure that's Aida sleeping on the bed as Fausta is collecting the pearls. I think Aida was expecting, maybe even hoping Fausta returned to retrieve them. She hesitates to take the last one near Aida's hand. The last time we saw the pearls she had earned all but one of them.

-Most film climaxes change pace.

I think Fausta, with some help, realizes her mistrust of people is unfounded, and that most of her fears were illusions. She was attacked by her uncle and betrayed by Aida, but were they really bad people? Maybe they were just trying to help her the only way they knew how. Her fears also denied the help from the gardener, whom she ends up relying on when she finally decides to change by having the potato removed.

Earlier she asked the gardener why he doesn't grow potatoes in the garden. He says because "they're cheap, and hardly flower". In the end, Fausta is smelling the flowers of a potted potato.

In my view the movie was executed very well and deserves to represent Peru in it's Academy submission.

[–] iamchus 14 years ago

I agree with georgejames82. The uncle only wanted to shock her, not rape her at all. He was sort of naive in a rural way; perhaps at scaring her, the teta asustada would go away, like the hiccups.

I think at the end, fastening the pace was justified. Fausta realizes she has the courage and fears no more. The teta asustada is gone.

I am impressed with the talent of Claudia Llosa as a writer and director.

[–] birthdaynoodle 14 years ago

Thanks for your answers, everyone.

True, what georgejames82 says makes sense... Perhaps her uncle wants to show Fausta that deep down inside, beyond her fears, there is the urge to live. In a way, it reminds me of the ending of Fearless, another film where people's fears and love for life are put into contrast.

It's interesting that both jtaboada and georgejames82 suggest that Aida might in the end regret her past behavior, that in reality she's not a bad person or that she might even have been trying all along to help Fausta. I've been feeling the opposite, that Aida's character in the story is unredeemably evil, which I find a little disappointing. Mind you, I also like the film very much, but that one aspect has been bothering me: that Aida's character is a bit of a caricature. She reminds me of the villain from the Disney cartoon, The Little Mermaid, who steals the little mermaid's voice. Everything else in the film is so subtle and poetic, that it would seem a shame to make such an important character so bidimensional. What makes you think that Aida meant for Fausta to take the pearls? Is it that she would perhaps have hidden them somewhere if she hadn't wanted Fausta to grab them? I don't think Aida ever imagined that Fausta would have the audacity to go in and take the pearls that rightfully belong to her (plus one, as georgejames82 suggests?). Either way, I do believe that taking the pearls plays an important role in Fausta's quest for courage.

[–] ar656 14 years ago

About Aida, the impression I got was that, from her point of view, she made a contract, she was going to pay Fausta for her songs with her pearls. What got Aida upset was not that she had to pay, but that Fausta might tell others that those songs were not the creation of Aida, but of Fausta.

In the song La Sirena, the singer narrates a legend about musicians making pacts with a mermaid, pretty much like pacts with the devil as made by Fausto. In the song, the musician that wants to get the favours of the mermaid grabs a fistful of seeds that he gives the mermaid, and the mermaid counts them. The result of the count is the number of years the musician will live. The contract Aida makes with Fausta is pretty similar.

Aida was ready to give her pearls for that inspiration, but was not going to accept being humilliated by the revelation that it had not been her, but an illiterate campesino girl the real author of those pieces.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] amsb7 14 years ago

Earlier she asked the gardener why he doesn't grow potatoes in the garden. He says because "they're cheap, and hardly flower". In the end, Fausta is smelling the flowers of a potted potato.

At first I thought the movie should have ended when she was at the beach with her mother's corpse. Then I thought about it and realized that the ending is perfect as it is. If you remember the first scene in the movie when her mother was singing, Fausta appeared from the left frame and was slowly approach her mother as if she was smelling her in a way, the same way she approached and smelled the potato flowers at the end. I thought that was interesting.

[–] Lemoen 14 years ago

I watched the ending a few times last week and correct me if I'm wrong but it wasn't the uncle who put his hand over her mouth but rather the guy who tried to make a move on her in the beginning of the film.

It seems Fausta's Uncle cares a lot about and for her, and would never do anything like that to harm her.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] forbidden10 14 years ago

- "Why do you think the director opted for that unexpected change of pace at then end? Is it to convey a rush of newfound freedom?"

Yes, I think. I believe her life changed for better, it was a very good ending.

"I don't think that there's anything worse than being ordinary."

[–] zwot 13 years ago

- How come someone (Aida?) appears to be lying in bed by the pearls, waiting for her? What sort of exchange may have taken place there?

This scene mirrors the song ("La Sirena") that Fausta sang, wherein a musician gives a mermaid a handful of quinoa. The mermaid grants the musician the gift of life - one year for each grain of quinoa - and his life will end when she counts the last grain. But she grows weary from the effort of counting each grain and stops before she counts the last one, thus allowing the musician to keep the gift.

Fausta is the musician, the pearls are the quinoa, and Aida is the mermaid - she has fallen asleep and dropped the handful of pearls without counting the last one. (Earlier, we saw the pearls in the scale where Aida had been counting them out each time Fausta sang for her - there was one pearl left to go.)

[–] 13 years ago

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