The Ending Shot


I've heard that the last shot of the film is frequently examined by film students and that is one of the best ending sequences ever put together on celluoid. With this, I would like to know exactly what is so excellent about this shot, if someone could explain what happens in it I would greatly appreciate it.

By the way, I don't mind spoilers...

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not seen it but i think it is notorios for a few things...extended, long single take (10 mins?) camera in this real time begins to look around scene...novel representation of subjectivity in cinema was how someone described it, but i too wanna see it : )

quick google yields this:
However, the more I think about it,
the more I realize it's probably Michaelangelo Antonioni's "The
Passenger" ("Professione: Reporter"). In that film, Jack Nicholson is
a reporter named David Locke. His ending is, in fact, the ending of
the film as Antonioni slowly zooms in on the bars of Locke's motel
room until they fill the frame. Suddenly, we're on the outside of the
room, zooming and tracking in around the courtyard outside, then the
camera find the window again and zooms back in...until we focus in on
Locke, dead on the bed.

and

This is the
final scene of the movie and was acutally quite a technical feet,
considering the length (in time) of the shot and size of the room. The
shot through the gate actually required that they pull the gate apart
for the camera.

and

Six and half minutes for one
unbroken shot (the shot in "Frenzy" is actually two). At first the
snail's pace of the camera itself holds your attention, then the
action outside takes on a life of its own, then the scene behind the
camera plays out in sound with visual cues from the front, and finally
everything resolves quickly as the camera slides through the gates of
the hotel room into the outside world and the pace picks up. The bars
of the window are a metaphor - behind them Locke has lived his slow,
disconnected life as a reporter, and on the other side the real world
rushes by - stark and full of purpose.

Frenzy is a hitchock film with similar take slightly...

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Saw the film this past weekend in New York. The final shot is extraordinary, but so integrated into the film's action that, watching it, one is amazed by the story its telling and not the technical feat it represents. As described in the other message, Jack lays down on the bed in much the same position as the dead man at the beginning of the film; Jacks legs protrude from the bottom left of the frame as the camera slowly creeps toward the window with bars. Outside, a series of actions take place: characters that have run throughout the film cross the frame. The slow move toward the window announces a culmination of the film's action. Since certain elements of the story have been fragmented and are, therefore, inexplicable, we expect an ordered conclusion; soon all will be explained. But Antonioni defies expectation. Yes, the film's action is coming to an end, and, yes, the pieces of this puzzle are all falling into place, but what other film makers would focus to clarify, Antonioni stages to happen off camera. We hear what's going on but don't see it. The camera, in one fluid shot, creeps forward, through the bars, out and away from the window, and away from those actions that normally satisfy the demands of a melodramatic story. The camera's move takes us outside of the film's very focused point-of-view which has followed the Nicholson character from the beginning. All of a sudden we're literally on the outside of his story looking in at it. This shift, simply, gracefully executed, is maddening and amazing, all at once. The wife's final line at first seems strange, out of place. But tempted as we are to dismiss the whole goddamn thing, the way Antonioni stages this finale makes us think back on what's just transpired off camera and, indeed, what's transpired throughout the entire film. As the movie fades out, we keep asking: how did we arrive at this place, what is the truth? Early in the film Antonioni connects different, separate actions by panning from one across space to another. Literally, the act of panning the camera draws these actions together and makes a story out of their connections. Of course, early on we have only a vague idea of just what the story is and where its leading. Certain things are made clear: gun running is a major issue, and Nicholson's character falling into another man's plan and purpose is the set-up. All this comes out in a rather straight forward fashion. It tempts us to believe and expect all will be made clear. Amazingly enough, it is and it isn't. The film's main theme, I think, has to do with perception and point of view. Therefore, what we see, we know; what happens outside of understanding remains a mystery. As viewers, we sit passively taking in only those parts of the story we can see; we are, indeed, the film's passengers.

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