Did the cheating man's wife want to be with him even knowing about the whole affair? Is that why she gave the super model the tape recorder? Or was that merely for spite? Because it seemed she could have gotten more monetarily if she had not done that. Just trying to figure out the wife's motive here. Although, I guess that could have been her that set up the whole prostitute bs scandal.
Thanks for your opinion.
IMHO I think the wife gave the mistress the tape just to be mean. The wife didn't love her husband anymore and could care less. She controlled 60% of the company and him being CEO was causing strikes with the workers. It was better to give him the bad press to out him.
The mistress and the valet set up the husband for the paper. Remember when the husband said " she won't get the money." and the valet said, "she's thought of that..or she has a plan for that."
I think the wife knew she had the power in the company and while she had obviously tolerated her husband's affair (typical French), she was angry that it was coming into the public eye.
In a way, I hope that her motivations weren't just to spite the model or hurt her husband, because I thought there might have been some feelings left for him. Like when they were on the stairs, she looked as if she genuinely wanted to stay with him, but instead he sent her off to the dinner party.
O-well, it's ambiguous but I still really liked the film.
Christians threatened by Harry Potter have faith as weak as their minds.
The ending is certainly ambiguous. This is my guess as to what happened.
I think that the wife would like her husband back if he is going to give up his mistress and be faithful to her long-term. The situation has gone on too long, and he has to make a choice. I think that the wife wants a resolution more than she wants either specific outcome. I don't think the wife is so jealous that she hates the mistress, and the mistress's personality is not such as to inspire hatred. They both seem to me quite nice people, and I expect that they would get along.
I believe the wife sends the tape recording that she has made of her husband to the mistress by way of saying, "This is what he is saying to me; what is he saying to you?" When they compare notes, I think they have both had enough and quite reasonably want some payback. The payback is actually quite mild; the divorce may be another matter.
I find it much more plausible that the wife had a hand in the setup at the end than that the valet and the mistress came up with it on their own. The wife thought of the curtains which is a subtle move, and the mistress immediately understood that it had to be the wife.
The wife and the mistress are very much on the same page, and I think of the plot at the end of the movie as a collaboration between them though likely inspired by an idea from the wife. The ending has a cunning and sophistication to it in which I see the hand of the wife, and the enthusiastic complicity of the mistress.