Another "help me remember a movie" thread

Cafe Society
1

This is what I sort of remember. It was a foreign movie-- possibly Italian. Not recent, probably within the last 25-ish years. The setting was also not recent-- maybe in the 1950s or earlier?

All I recall is one scene but it has really stuck with me. The protagonist, or one of the main characters anyway, is in a very bad place. He’s elderly and is sick or dying. It’s a very dark, gloomy, sad setting, desolate, dangerous-- possibly wartime or a disaster. He either dies or falls into a coma.

Now we are looking through his eyes at a scene that’s unfolding in his imagination, memory, or maybe a dream. He is suddenly in a beautiful field outdoors. It’s springtime, Lots of flowers, bright blue sky, white puffy clouds-- a complete contrast to the scene he has just left.

We are still looking through his eyes as he begins to run joyously through this field, liberated from the suffering he was enduring moments before. Free from pain and sorrow, breathing the beautiful air, feeling the sunshine. He is so full to the brim with relief and happiness and can’t imagine being any happier.

And then in the distance, he spots an old stone farmhouse. It looks familiar. He keeps running toward it. It looks like-- wait-- it’s MY house! A tiny figure in front of the house sees him and starts coming toward him. A woman in a long dress with her hair tied in a flowered scarf. She’s young and beautiful with rosy plump arms and a beautiful smile. She begins to run.

Oh God-- It’s Mama! He runs faster and she stops, kneels, and holds out her arms to him. Then the camera pulls back and turns to him, and we see that he is a six-year old boy in country clothes, with a little cap and short pants, laughing and smiling as he throws himself into his mother’s ferociously welcoming arms.

At that point, I’m a sobbing wreck on my sofa… That sense of final homecoming, of seeing your mother again as she was when she was young, of knowing you’ll never have to say goodbye again. I don’t remember if he has in fact literally died and gone to heaven or whether he wakes back up in his awful reality from this sublimely comforting dream.

This sound familiar to anyone?

2

It sounds like you are misremembering the end of Gladiator.

The woman and child are his murdered wife and son, not mama and himself.

3

That was a great movie, and I loved it, but not the movie I’m thinking of. The guy was definitely running through the Italian countryside and morphed into a little boy.

4

I woke up this morning thinking the movie had to be Fellini’s 1973 film Amarcord. I haven’t seen all that many foreign films.
Okay, so 1973 is 48 years ago. So sue me.

But this detailed summary on Wikipedia does not mention the scene, although the opening passage captures the mood:

A young woman hanging clothes on a line happily points out the arrival of “manine” or fluffy poplar seeds floating on the wind. The old man pottering beside her replies, “When fluff-balls come, cold winter’s done.”

The scene is also not cited in this review by Roger Ebert. The atmosphere described in both these places exactly fits the scene I’m remembering. Maybe the scene made more of an impression on me than it did on Roger.

I’m not convinced Amarcord isn’t it.

The theme music is lush, evocative, and romantic.

5

This number from the Producers (“Betrayed”)

Nathan Lane - Betrayed - The Producers - YouTube

seems to be referring to the scene you’re thinking of (go to 1:15 or so)

" (spoken)
I’m drowning! I’m drowning here! I’m going down for the last time
I-I-I see my whole life flashing before my eyes. I see a weathered old farmhouse with a white picket fence. I’m running through fields of alfalfa with my collie, Rex. Stop it, Rex! I see my mother standing on the back porch, in a worn but clean gingham gown, and I hear her calling out to me, “Alvin! Don’t forget your chores. The wood needs a-cordin and the cows need a-milkin’. Alvin, Alvin…” Wait a minute! My name’s not Alvin! That’s not my life. I’m not a hillbilly. I grew up in the Bronx. Leo’s taken everything. Even my past!"

6

Um, thanks… but no, not it. :slightly_smiling_face:

7

I think Andy_L wasn’t saying The Producers is the movie you meant, I think he was saying this scene in The Producers is making reference to the scene that you’re thinking of.

8

Yes, that’s what I meant. Should have been more clear.

9

Oh. okay. Interesting. Thx.