Hi everyone,
I've just seen the film and had a great time. There's just one thing that's not quite clear to me.
So, I gathered that Maureen is the ghost at the end. From what I've understood, she died in that hotel room, never left it alive and that German guy was the killer.
Right.
Now, if she died there, how can we explain the scene that follows between Maureen, her brother's girlfriend and that guy she's intending to start a new life with?
Thanks!
That's what I'm wondering. Everything that happens after the hotel room sequence made me think that she wasn't dead, after all. But wouldn't it make the hotel room sequence pointless ?
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Britta : I don't think police should be heroes.
Annie : Britta, pay your rent.
I've been wondering about the hotel room sequence too. Everything that happens after that scene seems just as "normal" as before - not one clue to make us think Maureen might be dead. She interacts with people, still "senses" her brother's "spirit" as before...
But you're right - the hotel sequence would be completely pointless if that was the case. The director wouldn't show us all these shots of a "ghost" leaving the hotel if nothing special happened in that sequence.
My first guess was that Ingo was the one sending all the texts, and that he killed Maureen in the hotel room. But I don't know how to interpret the last part of the movie.
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"You know, this is - excuse me - a damn fine cup of coffee."
Let's not forgive the very last scene, where Maureen asks her "brother" if he feels alone, or if it's not her who should feel alone, opposing the living and the dead, and obviously putting herself in the first category...
When Maureen was with the cop, I thought : oookay, so, is the killer trying to make her look crazy so that she becomes the prime suspect ? Plus, didn't he go to her place to plant the jewelry ? If he did that as I think he did, it means there's some kind of elaborate scheme somewhere. And we're back to square one : WTF happened in the hotel ? ^^;
It bothers me because I really want to like that movie. Hell, I did like it. It just want to be able to defend it properly when I'm with my friends. Talking about the atmosphere, no matter how haunting it was, or how Kstew was sensational, may be not enough.
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Britta : I don't think police should be heroes.
Annie : Britta, pay your rent.
I am with you on the confusion in regards to setting her up for murdering Kyra. Where was that going? Was there an editing flaw? I didn't feel I was left with the ability to interpret anything.
shareIt's interesting how people interpret the film so differently. My wife thought Maureen and Ingo may have had sex in the hotel, which didn't occur to me at first, but now it seems to be the most logical interpretation to me.
First, I assume we all agree the killer of Kyra and the person behind the texts are Ingo the German guy. Then, the key lies in Maureen's reactions to the texts. She learned very early on that the texts were not from her brother. So why did she keep replying to them? It really seemed like a prolonged sequence of flirting. Maureen was terrified at first, but soon she seemed more excited than scared. She was so excited, she ended up masturbating in Kyra's bed! Clearly, Maureen didn't go to the hotel to see her brother's ghost, and I don't think Ingo went to kill her either.
So, what happened in the hotel room? Maureen understood everything when Ingo showed up, and they had sex (well, what else did she dress up for?) Then Ingo, who might have had been already on the run as the prime murder suspect for Kyra's death, got apprehended when he left the hotel.
As to the "ghost" scenes, notice how no one but Maureen saw the ghosts. It could be that there is no ghost at all and it's all in Maureen's head. It could also be that there are ghosts everywhere, and that the ghost of her brother only showed up once to break the glass in the kitchen (which, ironically, she didn't even notice!) The "ghost" scene at the hotel entrance would then be either just someone pressing the wrong buttons in the elevator, which happens all the time, plus a misbehaving sensor at the front door, or any random ghost leaving the hotel.
I think it symbolizes Maureen's brother's ghost leaving her mind as she lives out her fantasy.
This interpretation also fits the theme of letting go of the dead. We explicitly saw Maureen's brother's girlfriend find new love. Ingo may have decided to "let go" of Kyra too when he met Maureen. Him murdering Kyra seems extreme, but in the end it frees him from her, and in a kind of sick way, freed Maureen from her brother's ghost too. Maureen got distracted from the stupid ghost-hunting by the sexual adventure, and after the murder of her boss, was finally pushed to move on and start living her life again.
I think what's really important that at the very end she asks the ghost 'Am I alone?' and the ghost replies with a single knock, which would be 'Yes'. There seems a conflict there because "obviously" the ghost is there, but that's the point. The ghost tells her that she is alone because no matter how much she wishes to have contact with her brother in the afterlife, he is gone and she has to accept that she is alone now.
You see Republicans and Democrats
I see wolves and wolves in sheep's clothing
It's been a while so my memory's a bit blurry, but IIRC the dialogue ends with "Is it you?... or is it me?" To me, it seems that it finally began to dawn on Maureen that the ghosts were all in her head.
And again, since Maureen could only interact with ghosts when she's alone, I prefer the interpretation that there's no ghost at all.
This^^^^^^
Too me the film was all a visual metaphor for how crazy modern technology is driving us all!!!!!!!
I only saw it once at NYFF last Oct. and absolutely loved it, but thats what I took away from the film after my first and only viewing...I will see this again.....
Plus, everyone who has seen this, should REALLY watch clouds of sils maria if you have not seen it..
There's a couple of potential explanations:
1. The scenes after the hotel room were after she's dead, but Maureen's 'ending', a kind of fantasy or hyper-reality that allows her to move on from the reality into the after life. Her brother is there as well, the one who shatters the glasses. Her query at the end is to herself, that she's now in the afterlife. She needs to let go and move on.
2. She had sex with Ingo and he left her alive, and the spirit we saw leaving the room was in fact her brother's, or even Kyra's.
This theory doesn't fit for me, after all Ingo is a murderer. To me it was obvious that it was him all along, after the conversation they had in the living room and the fact he's a journalist. She revealed a lot about herself to him not only at Kyra's but then even more in the text exchanges. She must have realised who the texts were from, her connections in Paris were very few, he liked her in Kyra's clothes, then he wound up with her keys, clearly picked up from Kyra's flat where he'd been spending time. She played the game with him and she enjoyed it. The question is how did the police know to be there to pick him up? If they were there then why didn't they enter his hotel room rather than waiting until he exited the building? If Maureen had sex with Ingo, then she was pretty blase about having sex with a murderer, let alone the ex-boyfriend of her slaughtered employer.
So I think: She knew the texts were from Ingo and initially played along as it excited her, plus it was sticking a finger up to her employer who she didn't like. After Kyra's death and as the texts grew ominous, she realised he was the murderer and had put the cartier bags in her flat after removing them from the crime scene after she fled, because he was still inside. She agreed to meet him in the hotel but tipped the police that he was going to be there, using a new SIM card, which was why they were waiting outside. Ingo kills her (they don't have sex), her spirit leaves - not realising she is dead perhaps - and Ingo also leaves and is nearly apprehended by the police, escaping on foot - we don't see him arrested we rely on Maureen's confirmation to her friend of his arrest, but if Marueen is dead at that point there's no way of knowing if his arrest happened in reality. The final scenes were as point 1 above.
I would agree with your assessment, but there are too many holes in it. If she was murdered how was she still able to communicate with her brother's girlfriend and her new lover, her boyfriend, and the driver? Also why would the glass levitate if she was dead; wouldn't there be no point of having a spirit try to contact her if she was no longer alive?
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