Can we touch feelings? Do we need to grasp anything so that we can make sure we have such feelings?  After shocking audiences with its surprising ending in The Crying Game, Neil Jordan directs The End of the Affair which lets us think about the feeling of love. In this essay, I am going to discuss the two kinds of love described in this movie, and its outstanding achievement in performers, screenplay, music and cinematography.

The End of the Affair is about two kinds of love. Sarah, the wife of Henry, is a fine lady. But in a party, Sarah falls in love with a writer, Maurice. They love each other deeply. However, they are very different in treating love. Maurice, a jealous man as he describes himself, uses jealousy to measure the degree of love. Sarah, on the other hand, provides boundless love to Maurice. Because of the difference in facing love, misunderstanding happens and this causes the end of their affair.

Maurice, as mentioned above, uses jealousy to measure the degree of love. He believes that love cannot be maintained.   He is jealous of the silk stockings of Sarah as they can touch her all the time. He is jealous of her shoes as they take her away from him. He is jealous of Henry, as she can do everything with Henry, leaving sex with Maurice. Maurice is even jealous of the rain as the raindrops can touch every part of Sarah. This jealousy extends. He becomes suspicious. He suspects that Sarah does not leave her own husband because she knows she and Maurice will break one day. He suspects Sarah has another affair with someone else. He is afraid to lose Sarah after the war as she can no longer have excuses to stay at Maurice’s home. He is afraid that their love will soon fade as they cannot touch each other. His jealousy is getting more and more. Actually he does not understand Sarah. He wants to possess her. He even does not trust her. Although his jealousy proves his real love to Sarah, it is surely not a good way to express the feeling of love.

Sarah, on the other hand, offers boundless love. She loves Maurice deeply and she will love him forever. In this love affair, she just wants to make Maurice happy. She says that if having sex with other girls can make him happy, she will let Maurice have sex with other girls . She does not want to occupy Maurice. She just wants to love him. In this way, marriage is no longer necessary. When Maurice is dying in an accident during the war, Sarah prays for miracles. She prays for his survival. She promises God she will never meet him again if the God saves him. Soon after she finishes praying, Maurice stands up. Sarah does not break her promise. She would rather see him live than have him. She has not met him for the following years but she still loves him. Her love and caring does not fade with the passing of time. On the contrary, what Maurice leaves after years is his jealousy. In the case of Sarah, love does not wear out. It will not become less and less. Sarah loves Maurice from the past to eternity. This is another kind of love described in the movie.

Will love fade ? Both Maurice and Sarch think it would Sarah says that all of us have not seen God but we still love him. Love will not lose when we can no longer meet. Sarah and Maurice, coming across much misunderstanding, finally are together. But fate separates them. Sarah dies but Maurice lives. But the love from God shines everyone, including the livings and the deaths. Such kind of love certainly will not fade.

The End of the Affair is about love, and the two leading performers act with their true sensation. Ralph Fiennes, who brightly shows in The English Patient, plays another jealous man in The End of the Affair. He is absolutely great! His jealousy shocks the audiences while his love touches us. His performance is like Anthony Hopkins’ in The Remains of the Day. When Maurice meets Sarah years later after the end of the affair, Maurice’s jealousy rises again. He thinks back the sweet memory. His eyes are full of sadness. His countenances move not a bit. There is no tear from his eyes but I can feel his sensation deep inside his heart. His performance is plain superficially. But his affection is performed with his heart, not his action. Ralph Fiennes is really a talented actor.

The other leading actress, Julianne Moore, playing Sarah, is also brilliant. Getting a nomination of best supporting actress in the Oscar for Boogie Nights, Julianne Moore is rising and gets another nomination in the Oscar in 2000, this time for the best leading actress for The End of the Affair. In the End of the Affair, Julianne again shows her talent. Unlike her performance in Magnolia in the same year, she performs a rather kind lady in England. She is not the kind of actresses that are very beautiful, but her acting does attract all of us. Playing Sarah, Julianne successfully shows her contradiction between the promise and the desire to meet Maurice again. Her love to Maurice, as well as to everything in the world, is very touching. Tears will easily drop for Julianne’s breathtaking performance!

Apart from acting, the screenplay is also an excellent piece of work. The Crying Game gives us a surprise in the end of the film, while The End of the Affair tells us the secrets of Sarah in the middle of the movie. The movie is narrated by Maurice through first-person narration. The story starts with Maurice’s story. He is confused when Sarah leaves him suddenly one day. Within his story, his love, anger and jealousy are greatly portrayed with all minor matters. Then the story turns to Sarah’s with her diary. All confusion of Maurice is released. Maurice knows Sarah leaves him in order to keep the promise. In Sarah’s story, the contradiction and depression of Sarah is also greatly portrayed. The screenplay not only brings us a surprise, but also portrays the feeling of two leading characters brilliantly.

The music and cinematography are also outstanding in this movie. Michael Nyman is a talented and experienced composer of film music. Music of The End of the Affair is similar to The Piano in style. Two kinds of music are written. One is rather passionate. With strong orchestration, the atmosphere of depression is greatly produced. Another kind is simple in tunes with notes played by the piano. But it is absolutely not boring. At first, the music is lighter. But the piano’s sound is getting heavier and heavier, producing the feeling of loss Michael Nyman does another great work here!

For the cinematography, Roger Pratt gives the best achievement of the year. He successfully grasps the soft beauty of London in a foggy condition. When it rains, the raindrops are photographed beautifully. Inside the houses, the cinematography is also soft. With the downfall of sunset, a shiny and soft picture is shown in front of us. How can we not be fascinated? Overall the cinematography is very good.

All in all, The End of the Affair is a very good movie. It is an ambitious work to analyze the love of human beings as well as the love of God. Although its descriptions on the love of God and its way of transmitting are not perfect, the overall production is great. It tells us what love is. As a human, we need love to support ourselves. This movie let us know more about love, fate and God.