MovieChat Forums > À nos amours (1983) Discussion > Sexuality and Violence

Sexuality and Violence

posted 18 years ago by pjzero-1
12 replies | jump to latest

Amazing movie. I'm so glad Criterion Collection released this.

I heard this film was a bit controversial. The shock value in this film is not in the nudity however, but in the violence (abuse given by father, mother and brother). It seems so real. I have a hard time believing she didn't take those blows for the sake of cinema. Hah.

Also, is there not underlying incestuous connotations in the dinner scene? I love the father in the film, as much as an anti-hero he can be at times.

[–] style414 18 years ago

There definitely was an incestuous connotation, it was actually pretty blantant. I agree that the scenes of violence were the more shocking ones, but it also got a little too over the top at times.

[–] candries-1 17 years ago

OK, I saw this very late at night, so I may be blurry, but I do not think there was any question of incest. Sure, it was hinted at; but I don't think anything more than some innuendo happened between father and daughter. They had a close relationship but never talked about what was at stake. The marriage was not working out, so I agree you could argue that the father was starting to have feelings for his daughter. But he left when he realised this himself, and he returned once he (somehow) heard that she was getting married.
Basically, I think the father indeed had feelings for his daughter but he fled and hid behind a curtain of detachment.

The movie is interesting, but in my opinion, too much was wrapped up in the last 30 minutes, and I never really understood why she needed to get married in the first place.

[–] Human_Remains 17 years ago

I actually found this movie to be really good. It's life.No bangs, no whistles just life. You've seen it before. You've heard it before. But yet you can't take you're eyes away. I'm not sure what draws me to it. It's not all that pretty. I've seen many girls go through the same things. So why does this movie captivate me? I think because I can see it from her perspecitive. I'm one of the guys and yeah I'm sensitive but looking at it through anothers eyes minute by minute...well the camera never leaves her and why should it? It is her life after all.

[–] liljobuttercup2001 17 years ago

Actually, a lot of the blows in this movie WERE taken for real - the director (who also played the father) wanted it as realistic as possible. He also cultivated the jealousy between the actresses playing the daughter and the mother so as to make it easier for them to play it on screen.

[–] seekermatt 13 years ago

<<the director (who also played the father) wanted it as realistic as possible.>>

that's funny, 'cause he wasn't the one taking the blows.
i think the routine violence toward the girl is partially a reference to a different time and a different culture.
but seeing her so casually struck in the face by the father, the mother and the brother was shocking.
and she forgave them so easily.
is it a little odd that that pattern of behavior seemingly did not repeat with her boyfriends/lovers/husband?

[–] sihpi 17 years ago

I guess I am just one of the few who did not get any sort of sexual connotations between father and daughter. It, to me, was more about the drama of family life playing out, relationships, and the absence of relationships--more precisely the relationship of father and daughter and the absence of father--in the eyes of a teenage girl involved in the theater of life.

And I agree, the violence was unsettling. Much more than the nudity.

The film is far more complex than one would think and, I hate to be repetitive, check out the extras on the Criterion edition.

[–] blacklives4ever 14 years ago

I never thought about incest between father and daughter but definitely between brother and sister.

"The success of the horror genre has led to its downfall."
-Dario Argento

[–] Full_of_Noise 14 years ago

"I never thought about incest between father and daughter but definitely between brother and sister. "

Same here, I thought the brother was a total creep. I think the film did a good job of portraying the weird stage Suzanne was going through, discovering sexuality and her father having to deal with that, but that's all as far as they go.

Oh, Adrian. Adrian always tells the truth.

[–] Squeeth2 12 years ago

A middle-class familiy do unto each other, what they normally only do unto us.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] PoppyTransfusion 9 years ago

As others have noted, the violence was real including the slap the director takes when he returns home and interrupts the gathering. Suzanne's sexuality is presented as problematic in terms of promiscuity but by the end of the film she seems the most normal.

I never thought there was anything incestuous between father and daughter. I didn't think there was anything incestuous between brother and sister either although he comments on her beauty at the start of the film. The problems lie between mother and son and how these affect the son's sexuality; he marries but it's implied he's homosexual. Mother and son were entangled and this led to the brother's violence towards his sister. He's acting out his mother's rage on her daughter who is becoming beautiful at the time when her husband leaves her. I thought the work of a furrier was interesting in relation to all this.

What shocked me was Sandrine Bonnaire's nudity at such a tender age. I wonder how she felt being nude in front of the camera?

A bird sings and the mountain's silence deepens.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]