In an interview in Esquire, Woody Allen was asked why he didn't make a happy ending to the film. Allen replied, "That *was* the happy ending."
Well, it was a happy ending because back then going to the movies was the only fun people had or the only way to escape the harsh reality of the great depression. So I guess it *was* a happy ending.
I don't think you can say that movies were a means of escape only during the Depression. Don't you ever watch escapist movies (like 'Top Hat') to escape from the harsh reality of life? I know I do.
share"Happy" endings can be relative. In the BBC mini-series about Queen Boudicca's rebellion against Rome, her rebellion fails, her army is wiped out, she and her daughters commit suicide, and Rome rules Britannia for another 400 years. To an English person, that's a sad ending. To me, that's a happy ending. Why? I'm Italian! My father cheered the "sad" ending in "Das Boot." Why? Because he was a US Navy veteran of WWII and German U-boats tried to sink his ship and kill him for four years.
I liked the Purple Rose of Cairo because it spoofed a lot of the cliches and unbelievable plot devices in so many films. Seventy years after the time of the movie, filmmakers are still using them. Why? Because we still accept them.
I think the real problem with the ending is that we are not given enough reason for Gil having left like that. He just leaves her there, but seems to feel bad about it on the plane? It doesn't make any sense. It's not about whether it's a happy ending, it simply doesn't make the character's motivations clear. It looks to me like Woody Allen wanted it to end with Gil just leaving her there, so that's what happens, and he just doesn't explain it. That's what bothered me about it. Not that he did leave, just that we don't get much in the way of a reason.
http://moviesonthemind.blogspot.com/
The reason he just left is because he had done what a set out to do. He got Tom Baxter to get back into the movie and while he may feel bad for what he did to Cecelia he is thinking more of what will become of his acting career.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
But he didn't set out to make her believe he loved her and then split...supposedly he did have feelings for her, then left anyway...why? It's not clear. If he was actually pretending to love her, just to get her to help him put Tom back in the movie...why would he do that either? It's just not clear motivation.
http://moviesonthemind.blogspot.com/
I don't think he was in love with her at all. He used her.
He used his acting ability to get her to fall in love with him. He knew that he could use that against Tom. Gil knew exactly what he was doing.
He may have felt a little bad about it but he wanted to make sure his acting career didn't go down the tubes.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
Exactly, he manipulated her for his own ends throughout the whole film. I guess he really was a great actor, he even had Tom Baxter fooled into believing in his own existence.
The way I see it, there couldn't possibly be a happy ending as we perceive it, because it would make "real life" no different from a movie (even though we know it really is a movie). That said, I would dearly love to see Cecilia step into the Fred and Ginger film and play her ukelele for them. Or, you know, have her step out of Woody Allen's film because she's noticed me watching it twice in the space of a week.
But he didn't set out to make her believe he loved her and then split...supposedly he did have feelings for her, then left anyway...why? It's not clear. If he was actually pretending to love her, just to get her to help him put Tom back in the movie...why would he do that either? It's just not clear motivation.
****************SPOILERS******************
I think Gil Shepard is Allen's take on many actors: vain, self-centered, shallow, and very manipulative. They'll do anything to further their careers. He used Cecelia to get Baxter back up on the screen. He may have had feelings for her, as is hinted at from the guilty look on his face on the plane, but the fact is that once Baxter was back in the movie he ditched her and hopped on a plane back to Hollywood.
"Push the button, Max!"
Who said these contributions are not spoilers? Good I have just seen the film, otherwise by now these would hve watered down the interest
shareActually, I thought Gil's motivations were quite clear-cut. Tom wouldn't leave the real world because he was in love with Cecilia (hence the reason why he walked off the screen in the first place)so Gil made Cecilia fall in love with him, so Tom wouldn't have any reason to exist in the real world, leading him to head back into the movie world.
It's quite sad, he never had any other intentions with her. He used her for his own purposes and for the sake of his own career.
got a link to it?
shareIt was a very bittersweet ending.
What I loved about the movie was that it was a thoughtful meditation on the magic of the movies and the nature of escapist entertainment. Cecilia finds consolation through these fantasies until those fantasies become more real to her than real life. And when real life slaps her down once more, she goes right back to the comfort and wish fulfillment of the movies, wich haven't let her down.
The movies ARE a big comfort and consolation, no matter how sad, tiring or boring your real life is. The ending would have been as good as if she had put on a happy piece of music to forget her troubles for a while.
Another thing too, at the end when Gil has a guilty look on his face, it could be because of his fear of flying. He says so in his first scene.
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