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Answer to why the younger brother broke up with his boyfriend

posted 18 years ago by londonpaul
9 replies | jump to latest

Olivier broke up with his boyfriend in the third part of the movie for no reason at all. Read on.

I bought "Le clan" [Three Dancing Slaves] from fnac.com, a store in France. It came in a boxed set with the dvd "Les premières neiges," another film by Gaël Morel with his friends Stéphane Rideau and Elodie Bouchez. On the US released dvd of "Le clan," the only Bonus Feature is a photo gallery. On the French release Bonus Features there's the theatrical trailer, a sneak peak at Morel's next movie, the music video, and a 45-minute "Making of" featurette with interviews with the director and stars.

In the interviews, Morel (the director) plainly states that there is no reason whatsoever for the break-up between Olivier, the younger brother, and his Arab boyfriend, Hicham, other than Morel wanted to make the third part of the movie melodramatic.

Morel stated he has 3 favorite movie genres and he incorporated them all in this movie: the first part was American-teenager style, as he called it, with the guys all doing adolescent guy stuff; the second was slice-of-life, centering on Christophe's return home and getting a job and the conflict with his brother; and the third part he wanted to make a melodrama. Morel is very keen on melodramas, and commented that when he makes a movie he always keeps such movies as "Splendour in the Grass" and "A Summer Place" (two heavy-duty melodramas) in the back of his mind, along with everything he learned from André Téchiné.

In order to make the third part of the movie, Olivier's story, melodramatic, he had to make Olivier break up with his boyfriend, so he just arbitrarily wrote it that way, no explanation needed. Morel just made it happen to suit the film. He wanted the viewers to feel sad, hence the break-up, and then all the audience needed to feel happy at the end was the younger brother finding another boyfriend, which he also did. And the Arab guy was going to be happy too, having gone to Paris, living his life away from a group of people he didn't actually belong to, even though all through the movie he thought himself as one of the brothers. Which he was not. It took Olivier breaking up with him to realize that, and that his life was elsewhere.

So that's the only reason for Olivier breaking up with his boyfriend: the director wanted to make things more melodramatic.

A little bit of trivia about the movie from the interviews: although it was set in the Summertime during a heat wave, it was filmed in late October, and every time the actors were in the water, either at the lake or in the canal, they were freezing cold, and the reason they moved around and jumped around so much in any water scenes was to keep the camera from seeing how much they were shivering. In his interview, Kechiouche said the actors had "ice on their teeth" when filming the canal scene.

[–] chasing 18 years ago

Hi! I'd be interested to know if the dvd you bought at fnac.com has English subtitles?

[–] londonpaul 18 years ago

<you wrote>
>Hi! I'd be interested to know if the dvd you bought at fnac.com has English subtitles?

There aren't any subtitles at all. I tried to enable subtitles to try to make out some mumbled dialogue at one point and there aren't any. However, I'm told by a friend who bought the single non-boxed-set dvd from another store in France, like, a normal video store on the street, that it had German, Italian, and English subtitles, but the bonus features were not subtitled.

[–] chasing 18 years ago

Hey, thanks!

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Mikou 18 years ago

Thanks for that information. I just saw the movie and that was my biggest question about the 3rd act. Such a shame because I think the lack of reason behind the breakup was a poorly thought out decision. They easily could have made it such that Hicham decidedes to move to Paris before the breakup and maybe asks Olivier to come with him. Olivier, of course, would refuse because despite his talk of getting away from his family, he's tied to his brothers.

It would still have been melodramatic and it would have made sense, in terms of the characters.

Still, an interesting and beautifully filmed movie.

[–] pylade 18 years ago

I didn't see the interview, but when "Morel (the director) plainly states that there is no reason whatsoever for the break-up ... other than Morel wanted to make the third part of the movie melodramatic," I think he may be having a bit of fun with the audience, along the lines of "don't ask me to explain my movie to you."

As to why Hicham and Olivier broke up, let us remember that Olivier is not even 18 years old. It could have been one a thousand trivial things -- at that age guys often act for any reason or no reason at all.

And just a comment on the reference to Hicham as "the Arab guy," remember that the boys' mother was Algerian and Muslim, although the father is probably French. Thus they are at least half-Arab.

[–] seakman4 17 years ago

Thanks for the explanation. I thought it was kind of cold, by intent, when I saw Olivier going into the cabin with someone (won't say who, don't want to spoil it for someone else). But I guess there didn't have to be a reason. I just put 2 and 2 together. I also thought it may have been Olivier's segway into the image of his immediate brother's ways. Since that's who he'd been around while the eldest brother was gone.

Beautiful movie. I love a well told story.

Would have loved to have seen some very lite touches of personality/character imagery of the mother. The father was so distant. It would have been nice to have a connection with where they got their closeness. (Assuming it was the mother.)

[–] loopdloop11 7 years ago

another take away might be when Hicham says something about how Oliver would never leave his brothers. Those three are thicker than thieves. I think a lot of Marc's care will come from Oliver.

Also I think they all knew Oliver was gay as he is often called "Olive" and "Pink Canary."
There is no way Marc doesn't know Hicham was gay. I don't think Marc could see past his own mental issues to see that his friend was sexing his baby brother, tho.

[–] blindvias-071407 10 years ago

The response that explained how the movie never intended any particular reason at all for the breakup with Hicham is difficult for me to appreciate. Who creates a screenplay like that? But at least this explanation helps resolve in my own mind why the movie made little sense to me. The fact that Hicham's letter underlined his disappointment in the breakup and how he wished he had gone to Olivier and beaten down the door does sound melodramatic as Morel apparently intended, but I crave a little bit more meaning in film.