At the very end, when Claudia suddenly looks up at the camera and smiles, I always tear up: for in that moment we realize Claudia might just make it after all, against the odds. It is a smile of tentative hope, breaking through despair as the sunlight breaks through a cluster of endless winter clouds. And Claudia's hope is our hope: for we are all burdened with our own demons, and we all need to know there's sunlight beyond those clouds; so this moment is an inspiration to me (thanks Paul).
I'm glad this film affects others the same way it affected me. I was unemployed, but with money in the bank and absolutely no purpose when I saw this film and it got in my guts. I had to see it two more times to process all the feelings I had watching it. And I do agree that his dialogue is unimportant in that we KNOW what he'd say anyway. Her smile is the thing that the film builds towards.
Crying for real now. This is such genious, so beautiful. I'm just a 29 year old in Sweden but I relate with other people who had gone through similar experience as her in real life. I cried cried when I watched/listened to this.
I just watched this film today and loved every second of it, but i still dont understand why p t anderson chose to have the music drown out the dialog in this last scene, i know there has to be some significance. Can anyone help me out please :)
@LaxNoise another youtuber summed it up real well a couple pages ago: ''we, just like Claudia, can't hear everything Jim says, just some keywords pop out through the song. Just like in real life when somebody comforts you, you only hear the words that sound the most soothing. The song makes us perceive exactly what Claudia is perceiving & makes us feel exactly how she's feeling at that moment. When she finally looks in the camera you feel a connection with the character that's so profound.''
I just watched that scene for the first time in about 2 years and the smile still makes me tear up. It's the only real smile she gives in the whole movie. That's what gets me. It's like she feels good for the first time in a long, long time...
I think the smile has a certain ambiguity to it, it is not directed at John c Reilly, but at the audience. A meta-fictive element , making a statement about our expectations of a
happy ending, Nothing is resolved , but a process.
I think that this film is one of the five best films I've ever seen. Almost every person I know who's seen it goes 'Why do you like that super-grim three hour movie?'. Each man to his own I guess, but this movie does what art is supposed to do as far as my life is concerned, which is not to escape from life, but to RE-AFFIRM that life is worth living. And that smile does just that.
PTA, You're honestly the best filmmaker of your generation, and your movies have made my life better. Thanks.
Jim Kurring: [to Claudia] I can't let this go. I can't let you go. Now, you... you listen to me now. You're a good person. You're a good and beautiful person and I won't let you walk out on me. And I won't let you say those things - those things about how stupid you are and this and that. I won't stand for that. You want to be with me... then you be with me. You see?
I feel that Magnolia is one of the most underrated movies of all time. It truly is a masterpiece. It's so ambitious and epic, but not in the usual sense. The ambition and epic feeling come from the themes and emotions on screen. It is transcendent. The ending is absolutely perfect, one of the best of all time. It is so uplifting to see that smile. It fills me with happiness every time and I still tear up watching it.
Perfect! I love how the camera pushes slowly into her face, the way the music kinda builds up, how the music is so loud it makes it difficult for you to even hear what they´re saying but that doesnt matter because its all about feeling and then to top it all with that beautiful smile that says so much! PT Anderson you are fucking genius!
@cosmocreeper The first time I watched it, it also went over my head, I didnt like it at all, I was like frogs falling from the sky? What the fuck?.. but trust me the more you watch it the more sense it makes and the more you´ll like it! even though its a 3 hour film, Ive seen it like 20-25 times and I can tell you is one of my favorites.
@moomoosborne are you sure? he misses with the gun because of the frog, and it hits the wire, but don't really know what happens to him, thanks for the reply,
like pandoras box, that smile says that when all else is gone, the only thing that remains is hope, how a simple smile reveals the hope within all of us who feel hopeless at one time or another in our lives.
I like how we, just like Claudia, can't hear everything Jim says, just some keywords pop out through the song. Just like in real life when somebody comforts you, you only hear the words that sound the most soothing.. The song makes us perceive exactly what Claudia is perceiving and makes us feel exactly how she's feeling at that moment. When she finally looks in the camera you feel a connection with the character that's so profound i cannot think of another example like this in any movie. Magic!
the sense of catharsis and redemption this scene brings is indescribable. one of my all time favorite films and endings. both are criminally overlooked
Watching Claudia smile in this scene picks me up on even the worst day. The feeling that you don't have to go through life alone, and hearing that someone cares about you is so beautifully presented in this scene. PT Anderson is a very special person to me, and I would cherish a chance to tell him how much this one scene means to me let alone all of his other considerable effort. Thank you for posting this.
also the only strange thing that happened was the frogs falling from the sky ( i know i say only but anyway) i thougt everyone was going to be killed when the frogs fell. i thought william h macy was going to turn round and shoot john c riely. you know i thought it was realy going to explode at the end but i'm not saying this ending was bad it was great but i just thought it was going to go off and everyone dying
when she looked at me it freaked me out just like when the frogs started falling on john c reily it freaked me out. i kept thinking john c reily was going to get killed everytime he was in the film even when he was arresting the black woman i thought he was going to get killed that would have been a sad ending him dying before he got to be with claudia. also does the game show host manage to kill himself or does he miss cause of the frogs.
@GianTheMan91 According to the original script, Jimmy (the game show host) dies. Not by suicide, but by his house burning down. When the frog hit him, he shot the TV which caused a spark in the electrical outlet. In the script, that set his house on fire and Jimmy, too unconscious to move, ends up being burned in his own house. Why Anderson scrapped it? I have no clue.
Add me to list of people to whom the final moment of this scene induces the 'cry reflex'.
That final moment is a CLIMAX MOMENT of such raw, naked, penetrating power that I find it unable to adequately-accurately be described in LITERAL speech/language. And this illustrates precisely where and why FIGURATIVE language - and the corresponding FIGURATIVE thought that both [actually] shapes said language and is [potentially] shaped by it - proves to be so vitally important.
Oh, but a huge 'thumbs down' to the uploader for cutting off this scene in mid-song. Just because the visual component of this transcendent scene concludes doesn't mean that the scene itself is over as the aural component is still resonating through the remainder of Aimee Mann's gloriously melancholic 'Save Me'.
@Limposium So true. After all the pain, grief, betrayal, abuse, lies, hatred and so on, we need that smile and it only would have worked as amazing as it does from Claudia. Poor girl.
Favorite scene ever. No exaggeration.
jollybengali887 1 month ago
Still one of the most amazing movies ever. Period.
MGReilly86 2 months ago
only top comments to ever articulate my exact same opinion.
dariusasghari 2 months ago
this movie is only surpassed by its ending. best ever.
anon94707 3 months ago
At the very end, when Claudia suddenly looks up at the camera and smiles, I always tear up: for in that moment we realize Claudia might just make it after all, against the odds. It is a smile of tentative hope, breaking through despair as the sunlight breaks through a cluster of endless winter clouds. And Claudia's hope is our hope: for we are all burdened with our own demons, and we all need to know there's sunlight beyond those clouds; so this moment is an inspiration to me (thanks Paul).
SaintDufus 3 months ago in playlist magnolia soundtrack 3
I'm glad this film affects others the same way it affected me. I was unemployed, but with money in the bank and absolutely no purpose when I saw this film and it got in my guts. I had to see it two more times to process all the feelings I had watching it. And I do agree that his dialogue is unimportant in that we KNOW what he'd say anyway. Her smile is the thing that the film builds towards.
droid740 3 months ago
Crying for real now. This is such genious, so beautiful. I'm just a 29 year old in Sweden but I relate with other people who had gone through similar experience as her in real life. I cried cried when I watched/listened to this.
GoldenChantarelle 4 months ago
I love those slow close-ups. P.T. is absolute genius filmmaker.
CloudX100 4 months ago 3
I just watched this film today and loved every second of it, but i still dont understand why p t anderson chose to have the music drown out the dialog in this last scene, i know there has to be some significance. Can anyone help me out please :)
LaxNoise 5 months ago
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@LaxNoise another youtuber summed it up real well a couple pages ago: ''we, just like Claudia, can't hear everything Jim says, just some keywords pop out through the song. Just like in real life when somebody comforts you, you only hear the words that sound the most soothing. The song makes us perceive exactly what Claudia is perceiving & makes us feel exactly how she's feeling at that moment. When she finally looks in the camera you feel a connection with the character that's so profound.''
idkwhat2puthere 4 months ago
@LaxNoise
cause the dialogue its not that important anymore and this beautiful song tells everything
wiiDd91 4 months ago
This is the most fucking beautiful thing I've ever seen
jollybengali887 5 months ago 5
PTA is a genius..
Iker122 5 months ago 5
I just watched that scene for the first time in about 2 years and the smile still makes me tear up. It's the only real smile she gives in the whole movie. That's what gets me. It's like she feels good for the first time in a long, long time...
rimreck 6 months ago 3
That smile!!!! That smile!!!!
Cris1949 6 months ago 3
"You want to be with me... then you be with me. You see?"
FrancescaNina82 6 months ago
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This is my favorite movie of all time. I don't know what that says about me but... it's true.
cdwadams 7 months ago
I think the smile has a certain ambiguity to it, it is not directed at John c Reilly, but at the audience. A meta-fictive element , making a statement about our expectations of a
happy ending, Nothing is resolved , but a process.
6TROPIC 7 months ago 4
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Man...this movie was fucking amazing!
andyandcarl 7 months ago
I think that this film is one of the five best films I've ever seen. Almost every person I know who's seen it goes 'Why do you like that super-grim three hour movie?'. Each man to his own I guess, but this movie does what art is supposed to do as far as my life is concerned, which is not to escape from life, but to RE-AFFIRM that life is worth living. And that smile does just that.
PTA, You're honestly the best filmmaker of your generation, and your movies have made my life better. Thanks.
WWAAK 7 months ago 36
@WWAAK couldn't have said it better
SnaphappyMcfishsuit 5 months ago
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"See?"
And we do.
greyeyed123 7 months ago
Jim Kurring: [to Claudia] I can't let this go. I can't let you go. Now, you... you listen to me now. You're a good person. You're a good and beautiful person and I won't let you walk out on me. And I won't let you say those things - those things about how stupid you are and this and that. I won't stand for that. You want to be with me... then you be with me. You see?
[Claudia smiles]
distensible 8 months ago 5
Great ending, I just wish I could understand what the fuck he was saying.
Ichiboy900 8 months ago
When she smiled, my life started healing..slowly from that point.
Meereeo 8 months ago
I feel that Magnolia is one of the most underrated movies of all time. It truly is a masterpiece. It's so ambitious and epic, but not in the usual sense. The ambition and epic feeling come from the themes and emotions on screen. It is transcendent. The ending is absolutely perfect, one of the best of all time. It is so uplifting to see that smile. It fills me with happiness every time and I still tear up watching it.
Firinfamas17 8 months ago 6
@Firinfamas17 It is pretty highly rated mate, but yes, masterpiece
MisterPretzmann 7 months ago
Perfect! I love how the camera pushes slowly into her face, the way the music kinda builds up, how the music is so loud it makes it difficult for you to even hear what they´re saying but that doesnt matter because its all about feeling and then to top it all with that beautiful smile that says so much! PT Anderson you are fucking genius!
DonRMB 8 months ago
That smile!!! This movie is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO perfect!
Cris1949 9 months ago 3
That smile!!!
Cris1949 9 months ago
Save me from the ranks of the freaks. Those crazy people who can't learn to love.
Organdonnor 9 months ago
given then comments on this, i have a feeling this film may have gone waaaay over my head...
cosmocreeper 10 months ago
@cosmocreeper The first time I watched it, it also went over my head, I didnt like it at all, I was like frogs falling from the sky? What the fuck?.. but trust me the more you watch it the more sense it makes and the more you´ll like it! even though its a 3 hour film, Ive seen it like 20-25 times and I can tell you is one of my favorites.
DonRMB 8 months ago
That final scene is one of the best closings ever!!! It really gives the film the closure it needs and it just lifts up your heart and soul. AMAZING
andresbv18 10 months ago
oh, My! That final scene can´t be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Good!!!!!!!! Thanks for posting!
Cris1949 10 months ago
"I'm gonna do what you said Claudia". Perfection. The perfect confluence of acting, visuals and music. Makes me cry every time without fail.
AK2927 10 months ago
2 freaks... Jay & Silent Bob?
JesusLeeMcWashington 11 months ago
just checked on IMDB and it says the actress who plays Claudia was 40!? when she filmed Magnolia? that can't be right. i thought she was late 20's.
Kevtb87 11 months ago
does jimmy gator die? is his house set on fire?
seanymo 11 months ago
@seanymo yeah he dies
moomoosborne 11 months ago
@moomoosborne are you sure? he misses with the gun because of the frog, and it hits the wire, but don't really know what happens to him, thanks for the reply,
seanymo 11 months ago
@seanymo yup. read the screenplay.
moomoosborne 11 months ago
@moomoosborne thanks ;)
seanymo 11 months ago
@seanymo no problem.
moomoosborne 11 months ago
this movie is beautiful in blu ray
elitestar 1 year ago
God once told me....."everything that says Written and Directed By Paul Thomas Anderson is gold"...
ninjutsu87 1 year ago 6
is this the only time she smiles in the movie?
Emanusmell 1 year ago
goosebumps.
adfuzz6 1 year ago
@adfuzz6 yes, same here
NoiseBerserker 1 year ago
like pandoras box, that smile says that when all else is gone, the only thing that remains is hope, how a simple smile reveals the hope within all of us who feel hopeless at one time or another in our lives.
MrRobertcantu 1 year ago 2
Masterpiece shot.
tristano1984 1 year ago
Greatest...ending...ever.
alexxxdamasta187 1 year ago 4
That smile, oh my God! All the hope of our world is in it... I LOVE this movie!
Cris1949 1 year ago 5
bellissimo
YUMYUMYAAH 1 year ago
I like how we, just like Claudia, can't hear everything Jim says, just some keywords pop out through the song. Just like in real life when somebody comforts you, you only hear the words that sound the most soothing.. The song makes us perceive exactly what Claudia is perceiving and makes us feel exactly how she's feeling at that moment. When she finally looks in the camera you feel a connection with the character that's so profound i cannot think of another example like this in any movie. Magic!
rvanderhallen 1 year ago 25
the sense of catharsis and redemption this scene brings is indescribable. one of my all time favorite films and endings. both are criminally overlooked
alittlemikeful 1 year ago
i love melora walter's smile at the end its brief but powerful
kapillie 1 year ago
Fantastic scene. Nearly made me cry the last time I saw the film.
rijstevlaai 1 year ago
All time favourite film!
magnolianiac 1 year ago 7
@magnolianiac MIne too. =)
ProportionalResponse 1 year ago
Watching Claudia smile in this scene picks me up on even the worst day. The feeling that you don't have to go through life alone, and hearing that someone cares about you is so beautifully presented in this scene. PT Anderson is a very special person to me, and I would cherish a chance to tell him how much this one scene means to me let alone all of his other considerable effort. Thank you for posting this.
diamondice56 1 year ago 8
Comment removed
diamondice56 1 year ago
A film as good as this has earned that moment when Claudia smiles into the camera.
jakespick 1 year ago 3
Anyone who watches this scene and doesn't recognize PTA as a genius should to be declared legally retarded.
IRBucephalus 1 year ago 6
Goosebumps
diceyoreilly 2 years ago
That final smile makes my heart skip a beat. It's such a simple yet incredibly cathartic moment.
And this song is absolute perfection, I can't believe it lost the Oscar to Phil Collins' monkey love song!
derbydaiquiri 2 years ago 6
also the only strange thing that happened was the frogs falling from the sky ( i know i say only but anyway) i thougt everyone was going to be killed when the frogs fell. i thought william h macy was going to turn round and shoot john c riely. you know i thought it was realy going to explode at the end but i'm not saying this ending was bad it was great but i just thought it was going to go off and everyone dying
GianTheMan91 2 years ago
when she looked at me it freaked me out just like when the frogs started falling on john c reily it freaked me out. i kept thinking john c reily was going to get killed everytime he was in the film even when he was arresting the black woman i thought he was going to get killed that would have been a sad ending him dying before he got to be with claudia. also does the game show host manage to kill himself or does he miss cause of the frogs.
GianTheMan91 2 years ago
@GianTheMan91 According to the original script, Jimmy (the game show host) dies. Not by suicide, but by his house burning down. When the frog hit him, he shot the TV which caused a spark in the electrical outlet. In the script, that set his house on fire and Jimmy, too unconscious to move, ends up being burned in his own house. Why Anderson scrapped it? I have no clue.
madgang201 1 year ago
Add me to list of people to whom the final moment of this scene induces the 'cry reflex'.
That final moment is a CLIMAX MOMENT of such raw, naked, penetrating power that I find it unable to adequately-accurately be described in LITERAL speech/language. And this illustrates precisely where and why FIGURATIVE language - and the corresponding FIGURATIVE thought that both [actually] shapes said language and is [potentially] shaped by it - proves to be so vitally important.
phishpeaks 2 years ago
Oh, but a huge 'thumbs down' to the uploader for cutting off this scene in mid-song. Just because the visual component of this transcendent scene concludes doesn't mean that the scene itself is over as the aural component is still resonating through the remainder of Aimee Mann's gloriously melancholic 'Save Me'.
phishpeaks 2 years ago 4
agreed... all time masterpiece, greatest ending eva.
daflew 2 years ago 3
greatest final moment ever
DerOgraf 2 years ago
That smile makes me tear up every time.
martn2420 2 years ago 6
Masterpiece.
Vameon 2 years ago 3
*sighs emphatically*
it is indeed a reward, this scene...but it's maybe not so much like cheating if you watch it after a long, hard day :-)
newg123456789 2 years ago 3
That's cheating! Everytime I watch the movie, I look forward to that scene and only after three hours you deserve to see it.
Limposium 2 years ago 91
@Limposium So true. After all the pain, grief, betrayal, abuse, lies, hatred and so on, we need that smile and it only would have worked as amazing as it does from Claudia. Poor girl.
SecretAdept 11 months ago
@Limposium You're right about the "ONLY." Three hours is a pretty short time to see this scene. Especially when those 3 hours are Magnolia.
knotightul 4 months ago
This video brings me close to tears everytime. Such beauty... The movie is in my eyes a masterpiece and far more complicated than one can grasp
Flaksting 2 years ago 5
That smile!
GTAfanSam 2 years ago 77
@GTAfanSam That smile embodies the very anguish and hope of us all!
Cris1949 9 months ago 4