The last 30-50 seconds of Netflix: The Forest for the Trees are somewhat mysterious to me, an old man who spent his whole life in the US. I rather like German movies. I really, really like this movie and then - she drives out of the parking lot and I don’t understand.
Is something “lost in translation” figuratively speaking? Are the last several seconds supposed to mean what we see while watching the movie?
I reported this (without bias) for a move to Cafe Society
Edit: I don’t have a Netflix account, therefore your link does not work for me.
Sorry, can’t access Netflix and don’t know the movie, but I’m German and maybe could explain if it was a twist that somehow only makes sense in a German cultural context. So could you perhaps describe the scene and especially the things you don’t understand about it?
She is pulls on to a highway with trees on both sides. She takes her hands off the steering wheel to remove a sweater. Then she climbs into the back seat, the car still running with no ‘‘driver’’ and starts admiring the passing trees. I am assuming that Germany is not yet to the point where cars and highways will technologically handle driver-less cars. It is almost as if this is her symbol for abandonment of everything and all hazards be damned, which would be an appropriate ending. It is the length of the scene with the car without a driver and no crash that is bewildering.
BTW, the movie is Netflix streaming. One could probably get it free over the internet without too much bother. They often have a free trial offer.
Subsequent to the above writing, I have found a lengthy review: Variety Reviews - The Forest For The Trees - Film Reviews - Sundance 2005 - Review by Eddie Cockrell which says "a climactic act at once jarringly unexpected and gracefully ambivalent. " Perhaps that is all there is by way of explanation.
Sorry, in this case I really can’t help, since the weirdness of the scene isn’t in any way specific to German movies or cultural memes in general. Without having seen the film, I’d go with your own interpretation of a symbolical statement.
I do not know that specific film.
However, as an American who lived in Berlin for 14 years, I went to lots of movies. I reviewed movies for The Advocate and went to the Berlin FimFest for many years, and I even had a role in a German TV series.
European films are often odd, to say the least, especially for American viewers. I can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to throw things at the screen at the end of a film. Films will suddenly end - practically mid-sentence - with no conclusion whatsoever. Germans would try to explain, “It’s a slice of life - not every story has a Hollywood happy-end.”
“True,” I would say, “they don’t need a Hollywood happy-end where everything is tied neatly in a bow, but I think all good stories should have a beginning, middle and a fucking END!”
Films would be really compelling - great story and characters and then suddenly the last scene will be some woman looking at a dead flower for 3 minutes and the credits start to roll. Did she kill her husband? Did her son live? Did the bomb go off? Did the dog save little Gustav from the well?!
In the film you are describing, I am sure there is some ethereal point to be made - the futility of life and you should let fate guide you while you look at the trees instead of the forest. Oh how artsy. Oh how fartsy. Oh how lazy the writer was.
As you can probably surmise by now, I never quite warmed up to these types of films. Call me an old-fashioned, typical American - but I kind of like to know punch lines of jokes, the final score of a ball game, and yes - the ending of a film I have just invested two hours in watching.