What a brilliant ending! At the beginning of the film Alexander tells his son the story of a monk watering a dead tree for years until it suddenly is full of leaves again. Then they both plant a dead tree. In this final scene, we see Alexander’s son watering their dead tree; and when the camera moves upwards and stops at the tree’s empty top, the reflection of the sunlight on the waves of the sea gives the impression of leaves moving gently in the wind. An incredible scene!
"The little man" rather. Nameless. Contemplation or thinking (words). When I watch his films it is almost pure contemplation. Thinking comes afterwards, maybe to screw it all up.
To see it as hallucination or fantasy or dream, whatever, is exactly seeing it symbolically, not literally. The scene, the entire film actually, is the finest of the comedies, the most subtle sense of humor in each and every scene, with the most penetrating caricatures of each and every character. Sublime and hilarious at the same time. Being or doing, that is the final question. The "boy" has the answer.
A very deceitful comment... to ignore deliberately the symbolic elements of the scene, and laughing at that as if they were a literal thing. To change your inner world is actually to DO something. Without that inner change whatever yo DO in real life is useles and meaninles... that is why you can't help but laughing at something yo DO not understand. What is really sad is your mere literal interpretation nor just of this scene but of your own existance.
