MovieChat Forums > Un secret (2007) Discussion > what was up with the coughing?

what was up with the coughing?




there were a few scenes François starts coughing.

and the other women (i 4get her name) starts coughing like crazy at the dinner table too and everyone just looks at her.

was there a point to that? I might have missed something.



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Please take out your own dead

Yes! The coughing bothered me, too. I thought for a while that it might be foreshadowing a time when they go into hiding later in the film and the cough betrays them to the gestapo, but these circumstances never materialized. Instead, the coughing led to nothing I could discern. I hope that someone else can answer.

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OK-I'll chime in. I'm sure it had meaning. I'm not sure what.

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I thought the coughing simply showed stress. Perhaps Simon had learned to mimic Louise, with whom he had spent so much time...and finally learned of the secret.

Perhaps, the effect of smoking too? Anyway, that's all I have.

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I think you mean Francois (second son) coughing not Simon(first son)....

I believe it was indicating stress and an anxiety attack. Kind of like they were having a hard time catching their breath because of anxiety....
..Here are 2 times that I remember..One with Francois and one with Louise...

(1) When Francois had the attic toy at night in his bedroom his coughing seemed like an anxiety attack and he couldn't catch his breath...Thinking about his brother that he psychically was sensing...Then he throws the toy out the window

(2) When the adults are at the dinner table after Hannah and Simon have been taken by the German's, they start to discuss Hannah. Louise starts coughing and can't catch her breath because of a kind of shock and an anxiety attack about her friend and Simon being gone....

I don't remember other coughing spells.

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