the phonecall
can anybody help me out - when Olivier got that phonecall and went to the restaurant to get a kid (Dany?) out of trouble (?) - who was that kid? and what was the deal with the kid's mother (i.e. when rehab is mentioned)?
shareThat’s a good question. I have concluded that this sequence is included to show that Olivier is involved in other people’s (maybe other students’) lives as a mentor. The scene is perplexing because – I believe – we only expect to see action in the story where it involves the plot. Otherwise, we moviegoers get confused. Also, in line with the approach of the rest of the film, the actors do not fill in the details by explanatory dialog for the sake of the audience. Olivier and the other people know what they are talking about, so why would they explain it to each other. They are not supposed to know they are being watched by a movie audience.
This scene in “Le Fils” is a cousin to a scene in “Fargo” where Marge meets an old school friend in the Radisson restaurant. Because it did not relate directly to the main kidnapping/murder plot, there were complaints that it was not necessary or filler or a film maker’s error. Time, however, has proven that this to be many people’s favorite part of the film.
mf
Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.
This scene does seem strange (and the Fargo comparison is a good one). For me, it's partly about showing that he has other students he cares about/for (and this breaks the focus on Francis, thus enabling the film to avoid being claustrophobic), but it also adds to our understanding of Olivier at this moment in the story. Having received the phone call, he has spied an opportunity, and he steals Francis's door key from his coat pocket. The confrontation in the cafe, then, happens when Olivier is on the way to breaking into Francis' apartment. Therefore, the cafe scene can be read as illustrating the tension Olivier feels at what he is about to do, which he knows is wrong but which he feels compelled to do because he wants to understand Francis better than he currently does.
share