Abstract
Most films end at a threshold or boundary, as in the familiar examples of weddings, deaths and funerals. But thresholds and boundaries also extend to (a) the places where endings typically occur, such as doorways, points of departure (railway stations, airports) and watersides and (b) significant times when endings may occur, such as sunset, sunrise, Christmas and the New Year. To illustrate the prevalence and diversity of thresholds and boundaries, the endings of six of the first seven films voted in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll as ‘the greatest films ever made’ are examined. Other liminal sites frequently found in film endings—e.g. bridges, frontiers, hospitals and gravesides—are summarised. Finally, a selection of station endings from different periods and countries are looked at in more detail.
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Walker, M. (2020). Thresholds and Boundaries. In: Endings in the Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31657-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31657-0_2
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