Why kill Cecile?
Why was Cecile killed? She didn't do anything wrong. If anything, she was charitable. She did not deserve to die!
shareIn the book, Bonnemort has already had an encounter with Cecile in the midst of the rioting mob, and refrained from harming her. He then has a stroke, and is moved to action only when he is again confronted by the young girl.
The film omits the previous encounter and doesn't explain the stroke, which makes the strangling scene seem meaningless.
So given that we never see this initial confrontation in the actual film we are left to assume that he killed her in revenge.
This works, however evil or drastic it may look, because he's a broken man having seen such misery and felt such pain. Wanting to seek revenge on the wealthy who had everything he or his family could never have.
Should he be grateful for the pity of the wealthy who had caused his suffering?
At least now because of all that had gone before they had one thing in common... Utter grief.
"... a-a-and what if we're wrong and that is MacReady out there???"
"THEN WE'RE WRONG"
I saw it the same way. Since I didn't have any other point of reference, it seemed like Bonnemort reacted to seeing the wealthy, the ruling class standing there right in front of him, in all his loss and misery. A son shot down, a granddaughter dead of consumption/malnourishment, the whole family at the mine all day & night, trying to save Catherine. The strangling should have seemed a random act, but somehow it didn't.
shareHe didn't refrain from harming her in the crowd scene, he tried to throttle her then as well but she was rescued by Deneulin I think it was.
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