It doesn't appear that Sabrina's father ever found the suicide note...or that part was cut out in the final edit? Thoughts on this?
shareIt's a movie. Who cares. More likely than not, there was nothing filmed specifically regarding the note because it was not germane to the outcome.
shareI cared. It may not have been germane to the outcome, but it was a freakin' suicide note, which probably would have caused Fairchild a certain amount of stress if he had found it. I imagine Sabrina retrieved it early the morning of her departure, and Fairchild never saw it. Or he found it, asked her about it, and she admitted it was impulsive and no longer important. Either way, she went on to Paris and everybody lived happily ever after. But it was bothersome.
sharebonidea, I agree. bothersome. Someone suicidal and you send her to where she said she didn't want to go? Unconscionable.
shareShe wasn't really suicidal..she was just young and in stupid love
share...Except, she would have died in the garage had Linus not shown up and the movie would have been 20 minutes long. She pretty actively tried to kill herself there, not theoretically. And if it had come out what she really was trying to do, that'd have been a pretty big red flag that likely would have earned her at least a psychologist meeting, not sent to another country with no guarantee that she wouldn't try that again. She wasn't suicidal later, true, but she did nearly succeed.
shareBothersome because they go to lengths to show her sliding it under his door. If the idea was that she would quietly retrieve it and cover it up after the fact, why not just have her leave it in her own room? Then, after the attempt fails, no scene would have been needed and everyone would have understood she disposed of the note. But by the sheer fact that she slid it under his door, you have to assume she couldn't get it out of there before he was able to read it. Sloppy.
sharehave a seance and channel Billy Wilder. he'll be able to explain who found the suicide note, and what became of it, and how that note changed her relationship with her father irrevocably.
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I LOVE Billy Wilder films and his writing. He's my all time favorite. HOWEVER, he is not impervious to gaffs and mistakes that have you wondering, "Why wasn't that caught in the final edit?". Examples: "Sunset Blvd": The obvious shadow of the huge camera on the back of Joe Gillis when he approaches Norma's bed after she attempted suicide. "Stalag 17": The continuity edit mistake after we see Price fully unzip his jacket during the 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' scene and have it sill partially zipped on the cut back. There are few more in these and other films but you learn to forget them if you like the person enough :)
That said, Yes. The open-ended issue with a pretty scary suicide note was a HUGE hole... not in the story but in the device. Let's just pretend she retrieved it early the next morning and accept that Mr. Wilder was a mere mortal. :)
I absolutely agree with you. I don't think it needed to be addressed in its own scene.
"After this he'll be a perfectly normal human being, and you know what stinkers they are!" Harvey
I don't think it's a plot hole. I think in the 1950s if people thought you were mentally unwell, they sent you away to hide you from polite society until you were 'better.' In this case, they sent her to finishing school abroad to 'grow up.'
share