Do you think it's an optimistic or pessimistic ending? What do you make of Cecilia's smile at the end? Does it mean she now has what it takes to leave her husband and pursue a better life, or does it mean that she's again only seeking refuge in movies, which is bound to lead nowhere?
I'm an adult who loves Digimon and I don't care who knows it!
I think that's what makes the ending so great. We all have that choice if we're dissatisfied with life. We can't live as if life's a dress rehearsal and our "real life" is going to start tomorrow - it's not.
I think Allen leaves us hanging with that question by ending the movie there, because it's his way of "turning off" *OUR* fantasy. We're waiting for Allen to tell us what happens. But he doesn't do that, so we have to decide. :-) Just as we have to decide our own personal "storylines." Just as Mia Farrow's character has to decide what *she* is now going to do. We can't just sit on the couch, watching soaps, waiting for life to happen.
I suspect Woody was making a negative comment on the nature of escapism in film and that in the end Cecilia did use movies as a way of coping with her lousy existence.
shareIt amazes me how so many people read what they want to in this movie.
Personally I thought it wasn't very good because I hated the ending. I don't go to movies for heavy thinking. I go to be entertained and want to see a happy ending.
This one just sucked.
There's time I won't get back and wasted. Thank God I didn't give a nickel to this piece of overwrought and overthought movie. It had a pretty neat idea going and then just became depressing.
Yeah just what I watch movies for...to come out depressed.
Woody hasn't made a decent movie in decades.
They who give up liberty to
obtain a temporary safety deserve
neither liberty or safety
daytona bob, maybe you should just stick with disney and pixar if all you care about is a happy ending.
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The first time I saw this film, my reaction to the final shot of the CHeek to Cheek dance was "Here are two highly professional actors/dancers working their butts off to achieve this nearly impossible contortion". THis reaction must have been triggered by what came before, because I had never had any reaction remotely like this while watching TOp Hat.
shareIt's definitely not an optimistic ending. It ties in with a theme which appears in many of Allen's movies - reality is so depressing, you might as well just sit in a movie theater and enjoy the fantasy on the screen.
"Push the button, Max!"
Button pushed
I think an enlightened Cecilia is watching the film at the end. Her tears are a result of realizing that the film is a lie, that the illusion isn't real. Sometimes the fantasy on screen isn't enough - you have to invent your own fantasy to prolong the experience. The movies have shown us that that is a dangerous thing. So i reckon the film as it's made is enough. Go back and watch it again, but not more than three times so that it becomes your life
"We must get beyond passions, like a great work of art. In such miraculous harmony."
I'd like to see a sequel where someone is watching her watching the movie
shareI saw this was coming on a few days ago. I recorded it. One of the weirdest movies I have ever seen. I love movies that were made the year I was born.
Now, the ending, I just laid here in my bed like, what in the hell. Haha
So, few things. First, I will buy the blu-ray. I want to watch again. The people in the theater, were they always the same people? If they were, then maybe that means everything was just in her imagination. Then I thought, maybe they were all dead. Think about it. She only really talked to the same people, everyday, again and again. Everyone looked the same. The song at the end makes you think the guy dies or something. But, it may be the thing with they are all dead. Perhaps they are stuck there. Didn’t someone say something about an electrical short? I don’t think that was the theater they were in. THEN, I saw the way she looked at the screen, at the very end. It either meant she was going to make it happen, again with that man, the guy who was the first actor was going to die, she realized she herself was dead OR, maybe she realized that she herself was in a movie. It was such an interesting thing.
Also, I guess, it could have been the point of, if you have a problem in life, you have to settle it. You can not just run away.