What about the knife at the end ?
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wwolf-8 — 17 years ago(July 27, 2008 01:23 PM)
I agree. First I thought that she brings the knife, because she want to get in touch emotionally with Walter, by trying to commit suicide in front of him, but after I watched it again: no. When she saw what she teached to the boy, and there's no way back, she reached for that moment, grabbed it, and finally escaped. From the bars of the music. Erika left, there were no concert that evening, but she paid with her life for that freedom of insanity.
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Petie3-2 — 16 years ago(September 09, 2009 06:31 AM)
IMHO Haneke's films are sadistic and twisted. 'Funny Games' is the most perverted film I ever saw. Haneke wants to get your hopes up then crush them in the most visually shocking manner possible.
He is of the avant-garde, anarchist, depressing school of crap. Filmography is OK though. -
Keely — 10 years ago(July 11, 2015 06:39 AM)
I agree with samuelbronkowitz. I don't think she died and I don't even necessarily think she brought the knife to attack Walter. This is a woman who self mutilates all the time to escape emotional pain. The knife to her was no more than a lipstick or change purse. I don't think she intended to kill herself. She discovered that when she finally got what she wanted all her life to be sexually subjugated and beaten with her mother in the next room it did nothing for her and left her just as dead inside as before. So cutting herself in the chest was just another step in what she already had been doing to herself - remember the bathtub?
Walter snubbed her at the concert, and knifing herself was her release. At first I thought it was going to be the Madame Butterfly scene but then you could see that the wound wasn't that deep, and it wa not in her heart, so she didn't kill herself. -
rocking-horse — 17 years ago(August 22, 2008 07:01 AM)
In the book, she puts a knife in her purse because she intends to kill Walter, but changes her mind after seeing him happy, with friends, 'in the helo of sunshine' or something. In the end, she feels no anger towards him but realises that she is completely alienated and incompetent at life. She stabs herself in the heart but the wound is only superficial. In the end, Erika just hurries home. A very sad story, really.
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GleamingMemory — 17 years ago(March 04, 2009 02:10 PM)
I don't think she intended to kill herself and I don't think she dies by that wound. I do think that she inflicts that wound on herself as a way to take back the power from Walter: only she can hurt herself in a way that Walter never can.
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betweenthelinesfilms — 17 years ago(March 04, 2009 11:50 PM)
I appreciate all of these comments. I just finished this film for the first time, and I am left a tad ambivalent, but I do agree with the one poster who alluded to Schumann before he finally tips the edge of sanity. Thanks to the poster who noted the motives in the book-very helpful. I bought this film on the strength of Benoit's magnificent performance in LE ROI DANSE-a very talented actor.
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lady-dinobug — 16 years ago(January 02, 2010 08:37 PM)
I agree, I also took it as symbolic.
Really, I think that when she saw Walter there, playing it off as if all was wellthat made her want to hurt herself more than him. It's for the same reason people described as "cutters" take a razor blade to their skin. The temporary pain is enough to take your mind off of what's going on.
However, I ALSO saw it as symbolic. She stabbed at her heart.
Seeing the blood running down her shirt I took it as her heart being broken, literally. Stabbed, bleeding, in need of healing.
This movie always makes me so angry at Erika because she could have had a real good chance with a guy that could've helped her to overcome so much, because he genuinely cared. That, and it doesn't hurt her that he was incredibly attractive.
At the same time, I do appreciate that there is no "happy ending." So many romances (if you want to call this that) these days always end with happy couples, but this is to attest that sometimes, things just don't work out, and you have to make a choice, for yourself, about how you're going to deal with it and where to go from there. -
fuguette — 14 years ago(February 23, 2012 06:36 AM)
This movie always makes me so angry at Erika because she could have had a real good chance with a guy that could've helped her to overcome so much, because he genuinely cared.
I don't think so. Erika's sexuality brings out what Walter really is: entitled, sadistic, manipulative, and emotionally imbecilic. Notice he is completely through with her after he rapes her, despite claiming that he needs her to "give" and to love him. Walter will continue hurting women in calculated ways, while Erika saves her cruelty for herself. -
PoppyTransfusion — 14 years ago(March 06, 2012 03:02 AM)
Walter will continue hurting women in calculated ways, while Erika saves her cruelty for herself.
It makes me think how cruel that final scene is: Erika has been waiting to see Walter and we don't know her intention with the knife. He breezes in with his aunt and others and bids her a hello like she is
just
his piano teacher and not someone he's been involved with and raped the night before.
Both Erika and the audience need some release for the tension that had no release when Walter appeared and so she does what she knows best to do and self harms; shocking and releasing the audience.
my vessel is magnificent and large and huge-ish -
Der_Schnibbler — 13 years ago(March 29, 2013 07:35 PM)
You're deluded. Walter was a sensitive, caring person before she made it perfectly clear she deserves to be treated like nothing more than a filthy piece of meat, and that's what he did.
The only thing that infuriated me about this movie was that Walter finds a sublimely dirty harlot like this woman and then is too much of a wimp to give her what she wants. Here's a woman who knows her place in life desperately looking for a man strong enough to give it to her, but this imbecile is too young and stupid to understand it.
what a shame.
"Den Gleichen Gleiches, den Ungleichen Ungleiches." -
Krustallos — 13 years ago(May 08, 2012 09:55 AM)
This movie always makes me so angry at Erika because she could have had a real good chance with a guy that could've helped her to overcome so much, because he genuinely cared.
You mean
this
guy? I don't think so. This was all about the battle for control between the two of them and of course in the end he wins. (The extent to which it's symbolic of the relationship between men and women in society generally is open to debate but there are plenty of clues if you ask me).
Walter is basically a complete bastard who just wants to hump and dump her. A guy who genuinely cared could have engaged with her fantasies in a playful and creative way and just maybe there would have been the basis for a satisfactory relationship. (Although something tells me Jelinek and Haneke aren't of the same opinion).
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity. -
Der_Schnibbler — 13 years ago(March 29, 2013 07:37 PM)
Walter is basically a complete bastard who just wants to hump and dump her. A guy who genuinely cared could have engaged with her fantasies in a playful and creative way and just maybe there would have been the basis for a satisfactory relationship. (Although something tells me Jelinek and Haneke aren't of the same opinion).
While I really did Walter had done that, you must agree most "normal" men would find that letter incredibly weird. You calling him a "bastard" after he made EVERY ATTEMPT to reach her emotionally just shows how immature you must be.
"Den Gleichen Gleiches, den Ungleichen Ungleiches." -
Bree_33 — 12 years ago(May 08, 2013 02:33 PM)
What a brilliant & disturbing Ending.
According to wikipedia: Erika stabs herself in the shoulder and leaves the foyer. Her onscreen injury is not especially severe, but the implication is that further self-harm will ensue.- __@
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