MC Wednesday Inventory #14: Your Favorite Films' Ambiguous Endings

[dreamdead]

So open-ended, hesitant, circuitous endings to films are one of the reasons I find cinema to be a rich medium. What about their ambiguity in closing do you find transformative, powerful, or otherwise subversive to what has come before.

Most recently, I rewatched Hertzfeldt's It's Such a Beautiful Day, and everything that comes after Bill dies , when Herztfeldt explores cosmology and eternity, was wonderfully evocative. Yet the way it's presented allows the central mystery of life to remain full and vital, and reminds me of how powerful film can be.

[Dukefrukem]

I'll get it out of the bag now,

Inception.

[Skitch]

Lost Highway

[Ezee E]

What was the first movie to pull it off? The 400 Blows comes to mind.

[Watashi]

Just off the top of my head...

Limbo
The Thing
Angels with Dirty Faces
No Country for Old Men
The Graduate

[D_Davis]

Mind Game
2001

[Robby P]

A Serious Man, most recently.

[Dukefrukem]

Also more recently

Life of Pi
Prometheus

[Russ]

Apart from the bellwether that is 2001, I'd say:

Caché (Michael Haneke)
Hotel (Jessica Hausner)
Fear X (Nicolas Winding Refn)
Bibliotheque Pascal (Szabolcs Hajdu)
Memories of Murder (Joon-ho Bong)

[D_Davis]

Is there a bigger, more mainstream film with an ending more ambiguous than 2001?

[Pop Trash]

What was the first movie to pull it off? The 400 Blows comes to mind.

Good call. Although L'avventura is generally credited with being the biggest sea changer for ambiguous narrative film.

I'll mention two of my favorite TV Shows: The Sopranos and Twin Peaks.

[Derek]

Far from comprehensive, but at a quick glance, these come to mind:

1. L'Eclisse (Antonioni)
2. The Conversation (Coppola)
3. City Lights (Chaplin)

HM: Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich), The Birds (Hitchcock), Taxi Driver (Scorsese), Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick), A Separation (Farhadi)

[megladon8]

I've always found the ending of The Conversation to be simultaneously haunting and heartbreaking.

Great pick, Derek.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Is there a bigger, more mainstream film with an ending more ambiguous than 2001?

What's ambiguous? The old guy turned into a space fetus with the help of a big black rock.

[MadMan]

All of my answers have been taken so I'll pick The Wrestler.

[chrisnu]

Hmm. I'll mention...

The Big Lebowski
In a Lonely Place
Blue Velvet

[D_Davis]

What's ambiguous? The old guy turned into a space fetus with the help of a big black rock.

You know, when you put it that way it does make sense!

[amberlita]

3. City Lights (Chaplin)


This was going to be my choice as well.

I also think Field of Dreams has a very ambiguous ending. Almost irritatingly so. But I wouldn't call it one of my favorite films.

[Raiders]

Two Lovers, yo.

[Russ]

Bibliotheque Pascal (Szabolcs Hajdu)
I love this movie and wish more people would watch it so I could discuss with.

It's like Big Fish or Life of Pi for the Clockwork Orange set.

It's on Amazon Prime.

[Yxklyx]

3-Iron

[MarcusBrody]

I'm not sure that I'd consider them ambiguous in the way that 2001 or L'Avventura is, but both Before Sunrise and Before Sunset fail to tie up key elements that the viewer is wondering about and are the richer for it.

I haven't seen Before Midnight yet, so I've avoided all discussion of its ending.

[dreamdead]

I rather like how Nichols's Take Shelter echoes the Coen's A Serious Man in theme and mood, yet both remain thoroughly open-ended.

[Izzy Black]

L'Avventura
Beau Travail
Stalker

I don't find 2001's ending ambiguous. It's abstract. I think there's a difference, though.

[Dukefrukem]

STALKER is a great pick. Nice.