Personally the way I interpreted the ending was that there is an afterlife and a 'Heaven', but equally that must also mean the opposite is true meaning that Hell also exists.
The girl realised that and so told Mademoiselle that there was a Heaven and that it was beautiful in order to trick her into killing herself, knowing full well that Mademoiselle would indeed be going straight to hell...
What are yours? Serious answers only.
I think it was the opposite. I just reawtched it again last night and sat for an hour afterwards trying to grasp those final moments and using what we were shown to formulate a better understanding. The first thing that struck me as odd was when the man asked Mademoiselle that there for sure WAS something, she responded "of course". But she quickly negated this with her last words, "keep doubting". Taking any preconceived notions of mortality out of the equation, i dont believe either way any form of guilt towards her actions is what drove Mademoiselle to take her own life, better yet i believe it was the fact she had exhausted so much time, dedication, effort, hope, and energy into getting even a hint of her desired goal that when it was revealed it was all in vain that the overwhelming sense of defeat is what made her pulled the trigger.
We got to see what Anna was seeing when she had trasncended her physical self and became a "martyr", which could be interpreted to either be a light leading to the "other world" (afterlife) or a nothingless void. Had it been the former, i dont see why that would be a cause for suicide, as she and the rest of the cult knew full well what actions had to be taken to attempt to create a martyr, so had it been a confirmation that would be cause for celebration, not death.
I love the abigutity of this film, because once you remove emotion from it (a very hard task considering the overwhelming nihilism and bleakness of the entire film) you can tap into some really deep places philosophically.
Oh, that's a good theory. I hadn't considered the idea of there being a nothingness. But if Anna had told her that, why would the woman send herself there as opposed to living the rest of her life?
Or do you believe you only visit the afterlife if you become martyred? And otherwise it's the void?
I'll just c&p a reply elsewhere:
For the record, I don't think any of the common interpretations work.share
1. Anna told Madame the Afterlife is awful.
A. Killing herself would send her to an awful place sooner. She'd just stay alive as long as possible.
B. She'd tell the Cult this, so that they too would try to live as long as possible.
2. Anna told Madame the Afterlife is awesome.
A. She would have told the Cult this. No reason not to. She's going to a wonderful place whether she tells them or not.
B. She waited a while to kill herself. Why? If it's so wonderful, she'd have done it right away.
3. Anna told Madame there is no Afterlife.
A, Same problems as #1, actually. She'd tell the Cult, and she'd avoid death.
What I'm suggesting is not that the Afterlife itself is negative, but that the impact of knowing what the Afterlife is, is negative. What the Afterlife is doesn't matter. We humans simply aren't meant to know The Truth until we die. Perhaps our living brains just aren't equipped to handle that Knowledge, like an ant's tiny brain couldn't think like a human. In death, perhaps we are then transformed to a state that allows us access to The Truth without harm. The details aren't important at all. In fact, we shouldn't try to determine them, lest we also learn too much. :)
Madame killing herself is her way of ending the torment of knowing The Truth. She waited some time, perhaps thinking she could deal with the burden. But it became too much and she ended it.
And, she didn't tell the Cult so that they could continue to live their lives unburdened by the Truth. They need to stay away from it, to leave open the possibilities of the Afterlife, to have doubt which one is correct.
This is probably my favorite interpretation of what happens at the that I've bumped into. Two Thumbs Up! =)
shareI don't understand why everyone's hung up on the ending. We're not supposed to know. That's the answer. That we're not supposed to know. That's why it ended without telling you. Because you're not supposed to know the answer.
shareCompletely missing the point of the thread...
It's a discussion regarding people's interpretations and theories about the ending. I get that we're 'not supposed to know', but that isn't what we're talking about.
I don't have an exact idea of what was whispered into the ears of Mademoiselle, but I believe the overriding theme of the movie is about how people struggle to let go of their religious beliefs, due to the fear they have of no afterlife and the hopelessness that comes with that.
But if I were to hazard a guess to what was whispered to her, it would be something along the lines of 'there is no afterlife'. In general, a lot of people struggle with this idea and in turn struggle to find meaning in their life- often leading to suicide (as was the case with Mademoiselle). Just my 2 cents.
To me it always was about judgment. Laugier always said that 'Martyrs' was born out of pure rage and exhaustion of seeing the 'little people' being exploited and 'slaughtered'. So the ending to me is about revenge. The girl will be saved whereas the others will endure permanent suffering because of their behavior. Hell.
shareMy interpretation (which I'm sure I share with many others, perhaps also in this thread) is that once she knew the answer, there was nothing left to live for.
The "keep doubting" is just saying "once you know the answer, nothing matters", or something along those lines. It wasn't what she heard that made the difference, it's that she heard it.
This is the answer that kills all questions. No one could live a good life knowing ultimate horrors happen afterward; no one would stay alive in a life of pain (which is basically all lives, to some degree), knowing that bliss awaits. And once you dedicate your life to the afterlife, I guess you can't live knowing there's nothing now, nothing later. From there on, I have no hypothesis beyond pure guessing.