A lovely piece on endings in art. The ends of books, plays, symphonies …
An excerpt:
A great artistic ending, by contrast, is both startling and inevitable, mysteriously certain. It clarifies even as it complicates, crystallizes and expands. Think of the snow that falls across Dublin in James Joyce’s short story “The Dead,” or the ravishing last scene of “Der Rosenkavalier.” Think of Rosebud in “Citizen Kane” or “Ode to Joy,” that exultant crown of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony….
For David Thomson, author of the New Biographical Dictionary of Film, the last image of John Wayne in “The Searchers” comes to mind. The shot of Wayne silhouetted in the doorway, deciding whether he might stay or must move on, telescopes the film’s action to a single moment. “Extraordinary,” says Thomson, his voice hushed. “When he walks away and that door closes, we know this man is an endless wanderer, doomed to never live indoors.”
Great stuff. The last sentence of The Dead is the best ending ever written. This isn’t an opinion. It’s a fact. Do not argue. At least not on this blog.
The end.
And that was Bohemia as I knew it, hilly like light music and suddenly level again behind its apple trees, flat without much horizon and divided by ploughed fields and rows of trees like a folk song from refrain to refrain…
-Rainer Maria Rilke,
Paris, October 25, 1907
Letters on Cezanne
Lovely.
The end of The Searchers has always been one of my favorites. The excitement and warmth of the reunited family is heard, not seen, from inside the cabin. Wayne watches from outside, hesitates, then turns, and walks away. He will never completely share the community, comfort, and peace he has just seen. It is beautiful film-making.
ok, sheila, i have to ask this question. do you work at all? like, have a day job? if no, how do you find time to write / read as much as you do? if yes, can i come work where you work?
DBW:
Yup – it’s one of those all-time great shots. It goes over the border into myth, practically.
beth –
I am a manic personality. That is the only way to explain it.