endings

The other day Alida Valli died. She was not a really a well known actress, but she appeared in one of the greatest movie scenes of all time: the ending scene from "The Third Man". In a movie world where the nice guy gets the girl, here is a scene that says otherwise.

The guy rescues the woman from a genocidal killer (her boyfriend). Days later, the rescuer runs into her. You expect she will be grateful for saving her life and run into his arms as romantic music plays in the background. But she reacts in a more human way. She walks past him. She ignores him. He has killed her true love, even if her true love was going to kill millions of people, even if her true love was ready to kill her.

It is either most romantic movie ending ever or the most cynical of all time. Or the most real. Or maybe, I guess, all the above.