The big sister dies and the mother doesn't even notice? Was the big sister alive in the first place?
shareI just assumed that she hadn't seen it yet, and the film cuts to the end of the 'story' before the mother realises and reacts in grief/shock.
Interesting question, but I don't really see why that would be the case. What relevance would that actually have to the story?
I have NO FRICKIN' CLUE!
Why did Bluebeard have to kill his wife? He seemed like he was bound to some higher order.
Why did that girl fall down and die?
And Why was the 1950s girl in the bloody chamber?
I get that we're supposed to draw parallels...but I don't get it.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PinkCarnationProDux
The story of Blue Beard is meant to teach us that women are not to be trusted. He was looking for a wife that would be obedient and trust worthy but all his wives failed his final test by opening the door, so he killed them.
I don't know what the deal was with the sister falling and dying!!
You'll have nothing and like it!
Double Farts!!!
I don't really understand this movie ... but I did note a few interesting parallels.
One theme between the two sisters in the story was the sibling rivalry, mostly the younger jealous of her older sister. This was repeated, and reinforced when the younger moves into the castle and insists on having a room and bed of her own. She also says, after the first time Blue Beard travels, that she's glad her sister doesn't live with her - but that she misses her sister, too. Though it was not really shown, I think it may be a hint that there was some sibling rivalry between the real little girls in the attic, with the little one being the smarter of the two and the instigator.
In fact, if you think about the wrapping story line, it was the little girl who had the key to the attic and talked her older sister into going up there with her. It was the little girl that snatched the red book away and insisted on reading it, even when her older sister kept asking her to stop. And, it was the little sister that pursued the older one with the terrible story until the older one fell through the open trap door, presumably to her death.
Also, there's an interesting aside when the little girl in the attic laughs and says that marriage is when a woman marries an ogre and becomes an ogress and kills and eats people. Her older sister tries to correct her, but then we see at the end of the movie, the fictional Blue Beards wife in two scenes that makes us think 'ogress'. First, her last meal with him in which she gnaws on the sheep shank with him, and second, when she's lovingly stroking his severed head.
We also see several times where Blue Beards wife is more like him than anyone else. Preferring to be alone, for instance. So, I think we could add all of these elements together with the odd scene in which the little girl in the attic becomes the little girl in the castle that opens the forbidden door and get's a stain of blood on her golden key, that will not wash out.
Is there some part of the little girl in the attic that wanted to get rid of her older sister? Is that why she led her up to the attic in the first place? Is that why she insisted on reading a book that she knew would scare her? Is that why, in her telling, the "ogre's wife" becomes an "ogress" instead of a helpless damsel? It's also a very odd reversal when she's standing up in the attic crying at her fallen sister and their mother runs up and asks her, "has your older sister been tormenting you again?" Which seems hardly possible considering the relationship we just saw.
This whole thing almost makes it seem as if the young girl in the attic managed and manipulated events to get rid of her older sister, who she saw as a rival, and thus became monstrous just like Blue Beard. The movie closes with Blue Beard's wife stroking his severed head and smiling ... again, making you wonder who was really manipulating whom and to what end.
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~runester~
I like what RUNESTER has said about this movie....made me look at a few elements of the film a little differently.
I also thought that BLUEBEARD the story may be viscerally symbolic, especially for young women. The older sister really did not like the story and was terrified of the seemingly horrific outcome looming at the end. I think it was important that the younger sister was seen in the bloody chamber saying something like "I am not afraid". She seemed to have the spunk necessary to see the story till the end, not too much unlike Bluebeard's young wife.
Symbolically, young women hearing the story just before the end "die" as it seems a Bluebeard has all the power even as the wife has used all her cunning to delay her demise. He is coming with the dagger to stab through her heart and all is lost. There is no hope if one does not read further, too petrified with fear of the prospect of the wife's grisly death. Read further as the younger 1950's sister has done and you see the wife is saved at the end and I suppose you can say she had to adopt some of the charaterestics of her husband to escape death. At any rate, she has to brave the possibility of death in order to be saved and continue to live.
I thought about the seemingly antifeminist knight on a white horse ending of the BLUEBEARD tale but do not see it as really being significant to the story. It focused much more on all the ways the wife tired delaying her demise asking for time to pray, and her wedding dress, and a change of weapon to be killed with. There is a sexual element to the end, I think. The husband is the ogre and what dies is the wife's virginity. Focusing on what that first time will be like and the loss of virginity could make one too terrified or nervous to go on and knives make good symbolic symbols for the obvious, especially since it was changed from a curved one to a straight one. If the wife braves all her fears and doubts however what is "killed" is all her preconceived notions on how horrible the first time could be and that ALL is not lost in that first time. There is still something to mourn however, the loss of the innocence of virginity.
The interpretations are all very interesting. I have to admit I'm still a little confused about the older sister dying in the end. perhaps it was to show the parallels of people who are seemingly in control, yet fail to see how they are being innocently (not sure if that's the right phrasing) manipulated?
On a related note, if you want another interesting interpretation of the Bluebeard story you should read Angela Carter's short story "The Bloody Chamber"
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Dignity belongs to the conquered.
I actually liked the movie and my version of the ending is a little different. I think the little girl in the attic (the younger one) was alone ALL THE TIME and her sister was imaginary. That's why the mother asks her somethink like "are you playing by yourself again?". The little girl was manipulating her older, imaginary sister, all the time, and wanted to create a parallel with what was going on in the little book.
The director's choice of having the little girl entering the blood chamber is just bold and hats off to her. Now I can forgive her for "Romance".
In conclusion, an excellent work of art. Enjoyable and fantastic.
Javier H. Moreno
www.cacaorock.com
An interesting interpretation, but it seems clear that the other sister existed when the mother asks, "has your sister been tormenting you again?"
But yes, the scene with the young girl in the forbidden chamber was inspired.
Manuscripts don't burn.
LMAOROFLMRIATRIANASIAMIO!!!!!!
If the sisters are viewed as a feminine being as whole, I think it can be seen as Woman overcoming older stereotypes. The smarter, braver half kills the more traditional (see her views on marriage), timid older half.
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