The ending of the film.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Damage
mikema74 — 20 years ago(January 29, 2006 08:51 AM)
I just saw the film again last night and have a question about the ending. Where do you think Steven was when he was walking down the street? It looked like Italy or Paris? I thought it was strange how he had that huge picture of him, Martin, and Anna on the wall.
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Croupier74 — 20 years ago(March 06, 2006 04:44 PM)
I thought it was a bit much as well. A nod to Blow-up perhaps. And a nod to Vertigo with the fall. (I'm not sure he really seemed quite so shocked as to walk backwards and fall like that.)
The location could've been any number of European cities maybe there's a landmark I didn't notice. The bag of fruit may be hinting that it's a Mediterranean locale. -
WarpedRecord — 17 years ago(September 17, 2008 10:08 PM)
That's weird I happened to watch "Blowup" last night and "Damage" tonight, and I was thinking the same thing. Of course, how realistic would it be that he would want that photo in his living room, considering what it represented?
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karen526 — 18 years ago(March 09, 2008 08:25 PM)
Yes, agreed that's the "damage" done in this film. Every single person involved was damaged by this affair. He's damaged for life now and lost everything dear to him. YET. he is still obsessed with her after all he's lost. It's not normal, you're right it's quite insane, actually. That's why I found the ending so brilliant.
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ecjones1951 — 17 years ago(May 25, 2008 05:02 AM)
The reason those scenes make us fidgety is that they
aren't
love scenes. The word "love" is never mentioned. They barely kiss. I can't even really use the word "passion" to describe what Stephen and Anna feel. It's an obsession more for him than her. He couldn't put a label on his feelings if he had to; he just wants to "put them in some kind of order." Having sex with Anna becomes the only reason for Stephen's existence. He fills a smaller space in her life, but when they come together it is for the same reason.
The only time Stephen and Anna are happy together is the last time. She has made the kind of preparations food, drink, flowers that you make for a date. She's never had occasion or time to do this before. (In the book this scene is set the day before her wedding to Martyn, which makes it very disquieting.)
When Stephen arrives she jumps up to greet him with the biggest smile we've seen on her face yet. He's giddy, too. Everything leading up to the sex unfolds slowly, and is warm, gentle and relaxed. In a strange way, it's possible to feel something close to empathy for them in this scene. Maybe because it's the first time they've behaved like a normal couple. We, of course, know before they do that it will be the last. -
Bklyn4ever — 17 years ago(June 01, 2008 01:26 PM)
I remember reading the final location is the old quarter of a French mediterranean port city. Someplace near Marseilles but not as big. The geographic location is not as important as the meaning of the place in cultural terms. It could just as easily be a Greek, Italian or Spanish Mediterranean city.
The Mediterranean is the cradle of European civilization. Hence, Stephen has found his "eternity" there. He will spend the rest of his life gazing upon the his beloved's face (echoes of Dante). She is his Faustian "Eternal Feminine." Faust is also one of the central myths of European/Western civilization. Faust cannot be content with reality but must always strive for the Ideal, even if that hurts everyone he knows. The literary Faust causes the suicide of his first love, Gretchen. In this reworking of Faust, it is his son who unintentionally kills himself, then the wife inflicts very painful self damage because of the emotional turmoil Stephen/Faust has caused her. But the conclusion is strangely harmonious, in that he is content to love Anna from afar, while she has gone on with her life and possibly gotten over her "damage" because of the trauma she went through with Stephen and Martyn. In other words, the destructive impulses have been purged. The Mediterranean is a good a setting for the end of this Odyssey. -
ciprianl — 12 years ago(February 14, 2014 02:36 AM)
I agree that at the end he is content to love Anna from afar, but this afar it's not a distance in space. When he said that he's seen her one last time at an airport, he also stated that "she was no different from anyone else". The Anna he still loves is removed in time, the one in the photo, in the memory of his overwhelming passion, blotting out everything, as the image of her face blotted out everything in the final zoom.