For my third movie of the day, I drove about thirty miles in the dark back to the tiny town of Wilton, to the town cinema where I've been twice previously. Since I was coming from a different direction this time, I didn't wind up driving along the same spooky road across the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.
This time I was on my way to see I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime), a French movie that had come through theaters in November, but was playing for a week in Wilton. Thursday night was the last opportunity to see it.
Being hungry from having just see two other movies, I wanted to get some popcorn in Wilton, but I got there a half hour early and wound up eating a cheeseburger at the same Greek diner across the street. I was glad I did, because it turns out the theater was out of popcorn, because their machine broke. Sometimes things work out.
I wound up sitting in nearly the same seat as last time. I get pretty habit bound like that. Unlike last time, when I was surrounded by teenagers, the audience was mostly older women. The entire row behind me was a church group.
Kristin Scott Thomas was up for a Golden Globe for this role. She speaks French with an English accent, which is explained away in the story. Mostly what she does is look very, very sad.
We learn that she has been released from prison. Slowly we learn the crime---murder---and eventually who the victim was. The essential tension of the movie surrounds the details of the crime. What exactly happened? Why did she do it? We as the audience in the same position of ignorance as the family of the paroled woman. The revelation of the details of the crime are what will drive the plot.
As it happens, we don't learn the details of the crime until the very end of the movie---at the climax of the story. There is virtually no denouement. The movie just ends, leaving us with this revelation as the credits roll.
It is the kind of story that could only have been made in Europe. A Hollywood movie would have had this revelation as Plot Point Two, at about the hour and twenty minute mark. If this movie were remade in the United States, it would need an additional third act that resolved the narrative so as to make the character's journey more dynamic.
This lack of resolution makes the movie more of a character sketch than a cinematic story. We don't really get to see what happens to the main character, only a glimpse inside her soul, a view that is somewhat static in the aftermath of her prison release. The upside of this is that the movie can indulge in a portrait of her extended solitude and loneliness. That her situation is somewhat akin to anyone in modern society makes it universal. Her condition as a released prisoner is the existential condition.
After the movie was over, during the drive home, I tried to come up with a theme that united the three disparate movies I'd seen that day. It occurred to me that the theme was release/escape in various stages. In High School Musical 3, the characters are anticipating their upcoming release from school into the world as adults. In Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, the animal characters are in the midst of attempting to escape an island exile back to their home. They make it only part of the way by the end of the film, leaving room for the next installment. In Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, the character is in the aftermath of release, with the physical journey completed.
Playing these kind of mental games is sometimes one of the best parts of seeing lots of films.
No comments:
Post a Comment