THE ENDING - MAJOR SPOILERS
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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.