MovieChat Forums > La cérémonie (1996) Discussion > Bad ending

Bad ending

posted 9 years ago by Tin_ear
4 replies | jump to latest

There is no way around it, the ending sucks.

As another commenter pointed out, the guns would have to be reloaded with fresh shells several times. And even a giant house could not muffle a shotgun blast. The fact they barely heard it is just ridiculous. I live in an area with a lot of hunting, and I can hear shotguns from at least half a mile away.

Also, about the boombox left recording... Some of us poor people used to do that in the Nineties to get free music saved on cassette, but they were talking over it so it was useless anyway, and well, they are incredibly rich. The film makes a point that they have CDs and really nice electronics, so why would she record a crummy version off of the TV? I think they even mention specifically that they have the CD to that very same opera they are listening to. Why is she recording it!? It makes absolutely no sense. It's these obvious gaps in logic that annoy me in movies.

[–] seahawk3133 9 years ago

1995 - probably they had cassette players in their car.

[–] Tin_ear 9 years ago

That's plausible I guess. But I assume you could buy that opera on cassette just the same as CD.

[–] ichray 9 years ago

Boy, is your name, Tin Ear, ever appropriate! I might tend to agree with you on the types of issues you bring up if you were citing a movie like Die Hard, where at least a modicum of realism vis-à-vis "action scenes" is to be strived for--but in a Claude Chabrol movie?? The last thing he cared for in this movie is whether the shotguns blasts were audible to the neighbors! Or, for that matter, whether somebody's inability to read would actually eventually play a role in leading her to slaughter her employers...

[–] Tin_ear 9 years ago

I've been waiting five years for someone to make that joke.

But seriously, why would you expect less from an "art" movie than an action film? From all the abuse I take from Gilliam and Godard snobs I would expect it to meet higher standards. Or rather maybe that lack of standards explains why Gilliam and Godard are defended so bitterly. At least Chabrol had a decent plot, I'll give him that, but this seems sloppily written. These are really simple, obvious things that everyone should have spotted in the script before shooting. I don't know about you, but it kills the atmosphere when the plot and most basic elements make no sense. Three people can't hear a shotgun blast three rooms away? A cop finds a car accident victim and he immediately turns on the boombox to listen to some music?! This was a terrible, cheap climax to an otherwise interesting little movie.