Ending (spoiler)
Did I get it right, Sepideh lied to the fiancee and therefore dishonored Elly to save herself from further strife?
shareYes and saved all the gang... but then they thought she was dead...
shareI love the film in its entirety, it's incredibly well directed and written... It's the most modern Iranian film I've ever seen, and could easily compare with any american or european psychological thriller. (even beat most of them)
The only thing that bothers me is that the end doesn't leave much doubt about Elly's death (her fiancé recognizes her, from what we can see). I'm not the scriptwriter, so I'll leave it to him, but I think it would have been sharper and more intriguing if Elly had actually just gone away, disappeared, vanished into thin air. It would have been interesting in a feminist point of view, to have a woman taking care of her own destiny by deserting those who kept on laying plans for her (fiancé, friends...)
I think that not knowing if it was her or not in the bodybag would have kept me wondering longer than it actually did. Other than than, GRRRRREAT job mister Farhadi. I'll be sure to see all your future films.
Greg, I respectfully disagree with you. One of the great (and disturbing) things about this film is that we feel like it could happen to anyone of us. All the characters were common people, they could be our relatives, our friends or our next door neighbors. The director did a great job involving the audience in the story, bringing us into that group.
When that innocent weekend trip to the beach becomes a tragedy we are already feeling part of the crew (great camera work, by the way). We find ourselves eagering for that situation to be solved, as if the characters were friends we care about. I felt angry when each one of Sepideh's tricks to keep Elly there were uncovered, felt bad about the widowed fiancèe, felt sorry about Ahmad when he found out Elly was engaged.
Get the audience feeling something for every one of the characters was a great achievment of the director. It was as involving and realistic as any movie could be. If, in the end, we were not "allowed" to know if Elly was dead or not, this connection carefully crafted along the story would be broken. I would feel excluded, cheated. This would then become just another "artistic" movie without an ending.
I think the director made his point about women situation in Iran during the film, with sharp dialogs, cleverly chosen situations and precise acting.
Alex, I guess you are probably making this point from an American point of view :-) (no disrespect) about films needing to have a proper ending. For us Europeans it's been quite a tradition, for the last 40 years, to have local films without real endings, or "solutions". I understand that it can piss off a lot of people (not just Americans !) who don't care much for abstraction, but I gradually came to like being left wondering about the real whereabouts of the characters once the credits start rolling. That explains my slight disappointment, but in no case prevented me from feeling emotionnally involved with every character.
Another great film with no proper ending that I just saw and totally loved (nothing like "About Elly" though) is an Italian film called "La Pivellina". You should check it out if you have the chance.
Since this movie has obvious parallels to L'Avventura, leaving Elly's fate unknown would have made this film too similar to Antonioni's film, creating the impression that the director just wants to be the Iranian Antonioni.
Iranian cinema can go off in its own direction. There is no need for it to follow European (or American) models.
(Excuse me for my poor English)
I Love "L'Avventura" and "About Elly...". Both films are masterpieces but very very different.
L'Avventura is a movie in the tradition of modern European cinema. That David Bordwell calls it "Art Film". But About Elly... is a kind of a Hitchcockian film. It has a classic screenplay. The disappearance of the main character (Elly) is like disappearance of Janet Leigh in Hitchcock's "Psycho".
About Elly... is a film with thrills. It makes thrills from everyday life. That's something that Antonioni's films avoid it. In some ways About Elly... is like European cinema and Art Films and this is the greatness of the film that this is in the same time like a Hitchcockian film and an Art Film.
The disappearance of a woman by the sea is a same event in both films. But what causes the disappearance and what's the result of it is totally different. The result of disappearance in About Elly... is to judge about Elly. And reveals the lies, relationships between couples and...
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Are you Iranian? If you are and you can understand Persian, go to this address and read this. I explained a lot about the film in this article. About details, meaning of the scenes,... . I hope it will be useful for you.
http://www.cinetmag.com/ShowNews.asp?ID=5183
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I will translate it to English myself. I'm a little busy now and I'm waiting for a free time. Wait for me to translate it. I'm sure that it will change your mind.
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But are you really sure it was Elly at the morgue?
I don't need a signature.