Is it a happy ending? (poss spolier)
I am not convinced the ending is truly happy given Arletty's initial conversation at the hospital.
shareGiven the somewhat spiritual nature of the film,I think we are meant to infer that when Idrissa shook Arletty's hand in the hospital he cured her,as a way of saying thank you for all that Marcel had done for him?
Mind you that is only my personal point of view.
Arletty might just be in remission as many sufferers of any disease can be,so there may be a happy ending (or not) unfortunately we can never know.
It's a great film because it makes you think,and it makes you see how small actions of people can alter lives(for good or bad)
"There is no road that has not a star above it"
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Very good point of view ! Haven't thought about that. Thanks ;)
shareI thought that his presence in the village was causing her disease, she could only be cured upon him leaving.
Her role in life was pretty much to look after her husband, and in some way the boy began threating that job (there were always shots of him doing 'domestic' activities).
And then the conversation in the hospital was him both thanking her, and apologizing for all the pain he caused her. And that could still make his handshake a type of healing.
Hah, I dunno, just my thoughts. I don't even necessarily believe this, jut an idea. Great film though.
A bit on the racist side, may I say, r-taylor13...
share[deleted]
I imagine they didn't read beyond 'causing the disease' then assumed 'Because he's BLAAAACK!' No, because his presence threatened her purpose for being. White kid instead? Same issue.
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It is a happy ending. Le Havre seems to have a spiritual aspect to its narrative, as if Arletty's recovery was a result of Marcel's good karma.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
The manner in which Arletty was revealed certainly had the look of an imaginary vision, but they played it so straight from that point on that I began to question whether or not it was. Then I remembered that she was wearing her yellow dress even though the package containing it was sitting unopened on her bed...
shareI certainly took it that the wife died and he was simply imagining her.
The nurse saying you can collect her belongings
The doctors implying they couldn't save her
The package of the dress remaining unopened
This was how I saw it too. No doubt in my mind that she passed on. In that scene, the doctor also says 'I don't know what happened, in Japan somebody was cured in one second but here in France...' and it insinuated the opposite, that she died suddenly.
But I feel Marcel knew the score anyway, well before he went to pick her up. I felt in the scene where Arletty tells him to come back in two weeks with the dress she wore on/at 'special time/place whose context I forget' ..they share an understanding that this is the last time they will see each other. May be being too presumptious but the scene ends with a good few seconds of them both looking off into space solemnly, imagining this time they had.
I still found the ending 'happy' though. Idrissa says to Arletty: "please get well, I have a feeling Marcel needs you" but we see in the end that he does not. The film takes on a brightness towards the end, and its pinnacle is the last shot, the tree blooming. Marcel's mission has brought an entire community together. He has his old friend back etc etc.. Arletty and Marcel's relationship WAS one of 'need' before she got ill.
Gotta return some videotapes
I took it that the dress she wore to the hospital was in the package, replacing the yellow dress that she decided to wear.
I assumed she lived and that it was a happy ending.
Why problem make? When you no problem have, you don't want to make ...share