MovieChat Forums > Copie conforme (2011) Discussion > I actually have a different theory...

I actually have a different theory...

posted 11 years ago by sebastian-145
2 replies | jump to latest

Ok I think this is my 1st post ever on a board since like 5 eyes but I really wanna share this idea I've got about the movie. I agree on the idea that she was her mistress but I think that there was accident in which he was involved and lost some memory in it. He even say sometimes that he can't remember things like in the hotel for example and she really tries all through the movie to make him remember. Maybe that's why he couldn't remember that she and her son were the inspiration in Florence for writing Copie Conforme and why he didn't remember some other things. If you noticed, at some times you feel like she's treating him like a child asking him questions about remembering something or making comments like "you didn't notice my lipstick, earrings, etc" He has become cold and separate/indiferent since the accident. At least, that's the crazy idea that came to my mind. Someone kind of agree with me?

[–] yseban 11 years ago

I don't think there's so much subtext to the characters, back stories. I think the movie works also if we accept that both of them play along a make believe story that they were married before, or are still married, with James not living with Juliette and her son. One starts the game of make believe because there's an obvious mutual attraction, then the other follows and they never stop (it's only an afternoon.) They can then re-play 'scenes de la vie conjugale', since these scenes are repeated in any relationship.
Ultimately maybe the subject that is dealt with is that we are all copies of each other. How can a human being be 'original', although we all want to be unique? Both characters can play the scenes because they know that is what they would have gone through in fifteen years of married life.
Other directors that come to mind who have surveyed the field are Ingmar Bergman, yet the homage to Antonioni is the most flagrant here, especially in the last image of the small window with the bells ringing that call to mind many small windows in Antonioni's movies, maybe more precisely "L'Avventura".

[–] Keely 10 years ago

sebastian-145, your theory is so interesting because it reminds me of what they were saying in the car about her sister Marie - she has found an attitude toward life that works for her and gives her pleasure. I think one of the great things about this movie is that your theory could be entirely plausible and just as valid and as much fun to deconstruct as any other theory.