THE ENDING - MAJOR SPOILERS
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socorso — 14 years ago(November 06, 2011 10:54 AM)
great take, SuzieWrong.
It was just on TCM and I had to watch the end again. It's one of THE saddest (and most depressing) scenes ever committed to film, IMHO.
Cold sober, I find myself absolutely fascinating. -
CheeryToes — 15 years ago(August 02, 2010 03:53 PM)
badnomad, I hadn't looked at it like thatbut then he's more of a metaphor than a real person, and perhaps she took her own life?
Perhaps if I hadn't stayed up till 4 am to watch it, I wouldn't have been so indignant!
"I jumped off a roof for you" -
celbopgirl — 15 years ago(August 09, 2010 03:41 PM)
In the first scenes of the Roman Steps, it was pointed out that its where the men hang about, looking for lonely ladies. One was shown, handing his card to an elderly woman.
The lady pimp had threatened Paolo, in her apartment. "Do you want to be on the streets with one shirt and no socks?" He became compliant.
I felt that the young man, following Mrs. Stone, was a victim of the lady pimp and her threats. There has to be a connection, because there needs to be a common thread. He might have not played by lady pimp's rules and was cut off from her favors and connections. He might have also been degraded, by what was insinuated with the Baron who was waiting in lady pimp's hallway for a date. His watching, and waiting, was his way of finding a way to survive. Mrs. Stone was fresh meat and she had something for street boy, too.
I felt that Paolo, mentioning the dead lady in France, was a way to try to scare Mrs. Stone away, let her cut things off, so he could get past the boredom and onto something new. -
info-3508 — 15 years ago(October 21, 2010 12:30 AM)
I agree. Watching the last five minutes again, each voice over is significant. It seems to me the voice over repeating this phrase at this point in the film makes it clear buh-bye Mrs. Stone. In her vanity, she'd rather die than watch her own youth, beauty and fame fade. In her loneliness, she cannot bear to live.
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richardgroen60 — 15 years ago(November 15, 2010 01:31 AM)
it is open for interpretation, however, in the end scene we are remembered by the scene where Paolo tells her about the danger, that you could ben killed by letting anyone into your life and house in this matter. So the director is pulling into the direction i would say.
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ELashes — 14 years ago(June 03, 2011 10:09 PM)
It seemed obvious to me that he killed her, but I didn't like the ending so I'm glad to know other people interpreted it differently. In fact, I'd forgotten all about this movie until I watched Identikit with Liz Taylor and found people comparing the two. Maybe I will watch it again.
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Echo_in_big_sky — 14 years ago(December 09, 2011 01:13 PM)
The last time I viewed this film I strongly felt that her stalker killed her. It so strongly made that impression on me to the point that when I viewed it just now I was shocked that he hadn't killed her. So much for memories and impressions.
Either way, it was a pretty depressing ending. Even if he were just a stalker who was hoping for his opportunity, she is just being passed down to avoid her loneliness.
I would have just gone shopping or did something creative. It's sad that such a beautiful woman of only 50 would see herself as not worth loving, or that she had nothing fun left in life except for pursuing tacky young men.
Always the officiant, never the bride.
http://www.withthiskissitheewed.com -
npaxton-3 — 13 years ago(January 17, 2013 04:09 PM)
Paolo, even though a gigolo, has the "niceties" that he learned from the contessa in contrast to the young man in rags waiting for his opportunity to move in. It appears that he knows it will just be a matter of time before Paolo will go and Mrs. Stone will be desperate enough to accept him. She is resigned to her fate but I believe it is more of a metaphorical death as the street boy will not have the finesse and connections of Paolo but will be more crude, more cruel, and more demeaning to Mrs. Stone. She will not be able to pretend that he loves her.
I took his putting the keys in his pocket as meaning that he will now move in to the life that he has dreamed about as she slowly withers away. So, in a sense, he can be called "the Angel of Death" who by taking the keys has moved in with Mrs. Stone. He may end up killing her (or a subsequent derelict might) but if that was his original intention he would have dropped the keys, taken what he wanted, killed her, and left. -
Mikel3 — 13 years ago(February 06, 2013 08:20 AM)
I believe the ending meant she didn't care anymore one way or the other, whether inviting a new lover in or death. When the stranger was entering her room we heard in flash backs Paolo's prediction that she would end up with her throat cut like so many others like her. Perhaps this was the very man who had been committing those other murders. The man she threw her keys to. We also heard a flashback of her saying she didn't care if she died in a few years. In her mind she believed she might be able to hold on to Paolo that long before she was too old or the money ran out and he left her. Since he left her years ahead of her schedule she decided the time to die was now instead of later. I do wonder what would have happened if she had reached her friend on the phone who had just left minutes earlier for NY. Would she have left with her? If so the implication is that she was not ready to die.
Either way, taking a new lover or inviting death, the ending showed Mrs. Stone no longer cared what happened to her. I usually don't care for endings that leave it up to the viewer, in the case it was fitting. -
Puckdeestubenfliege — 9 years ago(January 02, 2017 09:54 PM)
I don't even regard him as a real person. He follows Mrs. Stone, and, yes, Paolo sees him too. He appears, disappears, and doesn't seem to have any human needs like sleeping, eating etc. at all. He is beautiful, tempting, dressed in a grey coat, and utterly pathetic - the personification of suicide.
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Tankweti — 10 months ago(May 08, 2025 09:03 PM)
It is obvious to me that he wants to hurt her Not her personally, mind you, but what she represents.I think he, himself, was once a "marqueta" (gigolo). But something very bad happened to him during that time and he was rejected by rich women and perhaps any connections who helped him get to those rich women. When he was a marqueta, he had all the comforts: a well-appointed apartment, fine clothes and shoes, cuff-links adorned with precious stones,gold chains and dining in expensive restaurants with expensive champagne and wines. His fall from grace was may have had some issues with mental health while he was a marqueta but they became full-blown when he became a street-dweller. By the time we first see him, he has become psychotic. And he is looking to blame someone - and get revenge on the social structure of rich Westerners who have done this to him. He wants them to feel pain just as he has.
In fact, he wants to "piss on them." This is born out in the Helen Mirren version when the young man "pisses on her" while standing in a corner and leering at her. He is letting her know that she is trapped and she flees. But there is no escape for either of them from their shared destiny. -
Tankweti — 10 months ago(May 08, 2025 09:08 PM)
It is obvious to me that he wants to hurt her Not her personally, mind you, but what she represents.I think he, himself, was once a "marqueta" (gigolo). But something very bad happened to him during that time and he was rejected by rich women and perhaps any connections who helped him get to those rich women. When he was a marqueta, he had all the comforts: a well-appointed apartment, fine clothes and shoes, cuff-links adorned with precious stones,gold chains and dining in expensive restaurants with expensive champagne and wines. His fall from grace was may have had some issues with mental health while he was a marqueta but they became full-blown when he became a street-dweller. By the time we first see him, he has become psychotic. And he is looking to blame someone - and get revenge on the social structure of rich Westerners who have done this to him. He wants them to feel pain just as he has.
In fact, he wants to "piss on them." This is born out in the Helen Mirren version when the young man "pisses on her" while standing in a corner and leering at her. He is letting her know that she is trapped and she flees. But there is no escape for either of them from their shared destiny.