I’m a big fan of endings. I can forgive many a problematic film that manages to move or provoke me with the ending. I chugged through Chloe in the Afternoon, mildly engaged by the tiny brilliant things only Rohmer can do (Chloe sees all women except the wife as a threat and is constantly testing the protagonist’s attraction to his secretaries, etc.) But the ending tore out my heart and gave it wings. I cried. A lot. (I cry too much.)

I was never on set during the shooting of Around the Bay, and rarely for Canary. Alejandro would bring me home footage, and lay it at my feet like a proud cat who’s caught a particularly wily mouse. For each film a moment came where the tension I didn’t known I was carrying was suddenly released. An ending. Ahhhh. There it is. The ending. Oh, beautiful ending. Daisy and Wyatt at the harvest party. Carla and Chloe converge in the back of the van.

I was actually present for the shooting of Babnik’s ending. And maybe that’s the problem. I’m too close to it. I’m aware of what was intended, what was missed. Walter Murch said he never wanted to be on a set. He didn’t want his manipulation of the footage in post to be colored by whether or not he liked an actor, how hard it was to get a shot, what was happening just off screen at the time. With Around the Bay and Canary, I approached all footage with very little preknowledge. I knew some of the cast members and some of the directions the film wanted to go. But I was able to look at what was captured with innocence. Purity.

There is so much brilliance in the scenes I didn’t shoot. But I was there for the end, and I can’t achieve objectivity. Does Babnik have an ending? It will. It must.