Someone told me he had seen Antonioni’s Blowup again and he thought the film was horribly dated. Well, the film was shot during London’s ‘mod’ culture of the mid to late 60s, so it is not fair to say it is dated, because it is a period piece. I wondered whether he felt the pantomime performers at the end made the film look dated to him. But I remembered the amazingly ambiguous ending to the film the pantomimes helped create and that, yes, folks were into pantomime back then. So, the film still works.
But this helped me get the idea for this film list – I discovered there is a plethora of lists of movies with shocking, ambiguous, unhappy and hard to understand endings, but they really fail to delve back into film history or into the art film genre. So here’s my shot at classic art films with ambiguous, bizarre and shocking endings, in no particular order. Indeed, this list contains some of the most famous foreign films of all time. Please note that this list contains spoilers.
La Dolce Vita by Fellini (1960)
Marcello is a journalist who covers celebrity gossip and religion. He goes through a series of adventures in Rome’s high society and intellectual class, revealing that nobody really seems to be happy or feels as if he/she is living a life rich with meaning. Indeed, a highly educated and prominent friend even commits suicide for no discernible reason. After the suicide, Marcello and his small group of overachievers wander along a beach where they find a huge, dead, sea creature. They take a look at the dead animal, say good-bye to each other and leave. The film ends.
Z by Costa-Gavras (1969)
This is an amazing film about political corruption. A popular, sincere and kind-hearted politician is assassinated in an apparently random manner. Yet, it turns out the Greek military is behind the whole thing since this politician had wanted to force American troops out of Greece and that would have meant less money lining the pockets of the generals. A lackey prosecutor is assigned to ‘investigate’ the case and he surprises everyone by actually investigating the case instead of going along to get along.
Indeed, he indicts a huge number of generals and military guys. So we think, wow, great film, justice was done! Nope. Before the closing titles run we are hit with the big shock as we see what happened to each general – not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty…the prosecutor became uncorrupted and fought for justice in his homeland, but corrupt judges never change.
The Blue Angel by von Sternberg (1930)
Professor Unrat is a paragon of civic morality and models the most upright behavior for his class of high school boys. He runs a tight ship. He’s the kind of teacher who believes in the value of discipline. But he falls apart when meeting the nightclub singer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich’s breakout role) and obsesses over her to the detriment of his career. Lola is a type of Carmen, who likes you when you are socially respected, enjoys it when you throw your prestige away to live for her, but then rejects you as a “loser” after all is said and done. So after throwing his life away chasing Lola Lola, Professor Unrat crawls back to his desk at the school he was fired from. He dies there.
The Marriage of Maria Braun by Fassbinder (1979)
Maria works hard as a post WWII German businesswoman partly in the hopes of finding her husband again, who disappeared in the war. The bundle of dough she is hoarding from her numerous successes will ensure a wonderful life for them upon his return. She dreams of him daily and longs for his return. So he finally returns years later. Life sucks anyway. West Germany wins the 1954 World Cup. Maria kills herself. The film ends.
2001: A Space Odyssey by Kubrick (1968)
Kubrick gave us a few OMG endings. Slim Pickens dropping with his H-bomb and Dr. Strangelove suddenly walking, for example, would be one example. But I felt it was de rigueur to include the ending of 2001 here. Arthur C. Clarke once quipped that 2001 was the most expensive religious epic ever made and we see a goofy kind of psychedelic Christian rebirth at the end.
Seven Beauties by Wertmueller (1975)
Pasqualino believes in maintaining his honor above all things. After killing a man who sexually exploited his sister, and cutting him up, and packing him in three suitcases, but then getting caught, he is allowed to join the Italian army, which he deserts, leading the Nazis to send him to a death camp.
But Pasqualino was blessed with the seven beauties and when he finds the Commandant of the camp is a woman – older, morbidly obese and, frankly, repulsive to Pasqualino – he realizes his only recourse to survival involves seducing her whether he likes it or not.
It works. We leave the film realizing that others in the camp with courage and integrity and compassion have died in the most disgusting manner – one of the most humane men in the camp commits suicide by jumping into a trough of human excrement – but Pasqualino survives. Wertmueller’s admitted theme was that the Pasqualinoes always survive and she challenges us to think about the extent to which we would compromise our dignity to survive.
Kanal by Wajda (1957)
A group of Polish resistance fighters has to go down into the Warsaw sewer system to try to evade a squad of Nazi soldiers who are hunting them down. One by one each Polish fighter is killed in an often humiliating and degrading way, in a sewer among all kinds of muck. You slowly begin to realize this is one of the darkest and most pessimistic films ever made. At the end you sit in shock realizing all the good guys have been picked off and the Nazis have triumphed in this sewer.
The Host by Bong (2006)
Due to experiments conducted by the US military, there is a monster living in the Han River running through Seoul. It eats people. Early in the film we are introduced to the sweetest, cutest, most lovable little Korean girl you might imagine. Toward the end of the film she is captured by the monster who holds her in his lair as one of his next snacks. You really get to like this girl for her character, personality and courage as she protects a little boy who is also being held for a meal in the lair.
Finally, the monster eats her and you feel like crap and almost want to yell out loud, “Come on Bong! Did the monster REALLY have to eat this little girl in this film! You couldn’t save the cute little Korean girl!” OMG.
Psycho by Hitchcock (1960)
No, Norman’s mom is not the killer. He has, however, preserved her corpse and dons her attire when he chooses to kill. But, deep in denial at the end of the film, he wants to convince you he is so peaceful and gentle that he wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Nazarín by Buñuel (1959)
When you present something so ambiguous that you get praise from both the Vatican and an international atheist society, you know you have created an art film classic. This is a one of Bunuel’s less ‘surreal’ films but one of his more affecting and meaningful projects. It’s a tale of a genuinely sincere and humane priest who gets railroaded by corrupt small town officials in Mexico because he is just too honest and too good. At the end, as he is chained to a group of other prisoners and about to be marched off to a prison camp, an old woman walks up to him and gives him a pineapple. At first he tries to push it away, but then realizes something and accepts it. The film ends.
Aguirre, The Wrath of God by Herzog (1972)
So a nutty Conquistador (played by Klaus Kinski) usurps power from a competent Conquistador to look for a City of Gold which, in reality, is part of a mythological story and not a literal place. Ultimately his party gets ambushed by indigenous folks who realize he is stupid, lots of white folks get shot with arrows and a huge bunch of monkeys swarm the ship Kinsky is on. He yells at the monkeys. The film ends.
The Bicycle Thief by De Sica (1949)
So the dad is a hard-working guy doing everything he can to support his family after the war, when times are tough. Shortly after he gets a nice job of biking around Rome to glue up posters for upcoming American films, someone steals his bicycle. Throughout the film we’re hoping the guy finds his bicycle again, but at the end, with his son by his side, he decides to steal another person’s bicycle. Bad move. The dad is caught and publicly humiliated, then walks off with his son. We can only imagine what will happen next for the family.
Jules and Jim by Truffaut (1962)
This film is almost a thought-experiment on what meaningful companionship could be if two mature, kind, self-actuated men formed a friendship. Into this friendship steps Catherine, who favors one guy and then the other. There’s no reason for Catherine to drive with Jim off a bridge to end the film. But she does it. Why? Your interpretation is as good as mine.
Y Tu Mama, Tambien! By Cuaron (2001)
So the sexy woman traveling with the two teenage boys is going to die soon. OMG. The two teen guys have awkward sex with each other, for no good reason, on her prompting. OMG. Since they are of different social classes they will soon end their deep friendship and go to different types and qualities of colleges and live different lives. OMG. And, the punchline of the whole film is that one of them has been literally having sex with the other guy’s mother (and your mother too!).
Eraserhead by Lynch (1977)
There’s not much of a storyline in this surreal cult film. The film seems to be about factory worker Henry Spencer and his tubular yet amorphous offspring which won’t stop crying. Why does that lady at the end have the weird broccoli-like sideburns? Why is she singing an allegorical pop song at the end (In Heaven Everything Is Fine)? Your guess is as good as mine.
Blowup by Antonioni (1966)
David Hemmings plays a photographer, the 1960s Carnaby Street fashion scene is his bread and butter. After developing some photos taken in a park, he realizes he has caught the immediate aftermath of a murder. He tries to blow up the image to see exactly who was murdered and who was at the scene, but blowing the photo up distorts the image. He gives up, goes to a rock club to hear The Yardbirds, has a couple adventures and at the end he watches a pantomime troupe playing pantomime tennis.
When one guy hits the fake ball with his fake racket over a fence and everyone looks at David Hemmings on the other side of the fence, he walks to where the fake ball has landed, picks up the fake ball and throws it back to the pantomime troupe, which begins playing pantomime tennis again. Is the ending about fulfilling imaginary expectations? Doing what people expect of you to please them? Another ambiguous OMG ending to mull over.
City Lights by Chaplin (1931)
The little tramp makes numerous sacrifices, including going to jail, to help a blind woman recover her sight. She loves her anonymous benefactor, until she meets him face to face after her sight-restoring surgery. She is appalled by the appearance of the homeless “tramp” and breaks his and our hearts.
Previously published on Taste of Cinema: The 20 Best WTF Movie Endings in Cinema History – Taste of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists and is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
“City Lights by Chaplin (1931) – The little tramp makes numerous sacrifices, including going to jail, to help a blind woman recover her sight. She loves her anonymous benefactor, until she meets him face to face after her sight-restoring surgery. She is appalled by the appearance of the homeless ‘tramp’ and breaks his and our hearts.” Uh, no. Did you even watch the entire ending of the film? I doubt that you did- The ending of City Lights is moving; not heartbreaking. If the film had ended 30 or 40 seconds sooner, then it might have been heartbreaking- but the… Read more »