MovieChat Forums > Ricky (2009) Discussion > what's the point of the first scene? (po...

what's the point of the first scene? (possible spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by jtaboada
17 replies | jump to latest

In the opening scene of the movie we see Katie in front of an offscreen police officer or social worker claiming that her husband has abandoned her and that she can't take it anymore and wants to give her baby to an orphanage. However, the film never gets to meet this scene: we should suposse that it happens after the end of the film. Personally, I don't think that this kind of alternate depressing ending adds anything to the movie, and it seems to come out of the blue, since the actual ending is more in the joyful side. Does anyone think that it made any sense at all?

[–] camillereynders 15 years ago

I don't think it's the ending of the movie, but rather somewhere in the middle: a few days after Paco has left and before Ricky's wings have broken through

The purpose of the scene would be to foreshadow the troubles she'll be having with Ricky. It focuses (and prepares) the viewers attention: it's a story about a mother and her baby, not a woman without a job trying to find a husband.

But I do think Ozon should've referred to that scene somewhere again, it feels a bit 'tacked-on' as it is.

Movies don't kill people. People kill people

[–] jtaboada 15 years ago

mmmmm it didn't occur to me that it might be at the middle of the movie. If it were: she would be deliberately lying to get rid of the baby, since she says that she had been trying to contact her husband and he doesn't answer his phone, when in fact she hasn't even called him. Not to mention that she in a way asked him to leave, instead of him abandoning them. Moreover, her love for the baby and the shock at the thought of him being abused by his father does not really go along with her desire of giving him away to an orphanage.
In any case, we both agree that the scene as it is does not completely fit in the storyline.

[–] camillereynders 15 years ago

True. It starts to sound like sloppy writing to me, which would be very surprising, because Ozon is very meticulous.

Movies don't kill people. People kill people

[–] geode 15 years ago

I missed the first 5 mins. or so and did not see the scene in question. Is it possible that the baby Katie is talking about is Lisa and this all took place some years earlier ?

At the end of the film Katie is shown being pregnant again. I wondered if non-linear editing was involved, and she was carrying Ricky who would be born without ever gaining wings leaving all those scenes simply her imagination. The way we last see Ricky fly away, after surviving days on his own (and being naked) leads me to distrust that any of his scenes are meant to be real. It has not been all that long yet Katie remarks how much he has grown, and that he is walking.

Oh Lord, you gave them eyes but they cannot see...

[–] still_a_TCurryfan 13 years ago

This is a very intriguing possibility you've suggested. I have been trying to make sense of the odd ending and this gives me something to think further about.

[–] samantha_smith-249-798772 12 years ago

the whole movie seems nonlinear. we see paco in for one night, then she tells lisa he 'might' be moving in.. the next scene he's getting called to the hospital for the birth. we never see her pregnant with ricky!

[–] glitteringshoals 11 years ago

yes! this drove me crazy! What? How much time has passed? Didn't they just...?
Very confusing, especially since just this week I watched the episode of Fringe where the woman gives birth only a few hours after being impregnated... I kept expecting something like that kind of body horror to pop in.

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"What would you do if someone actually understood you? You'd have to change everything."

[–] przgzr 9 years ago

For a few minutes during a movie I have also thought that the opening sequence might have happened after her first husband left her alone with baby Lisa; but then I remembered that after this sequence a title appeared on screen saying "several months before". However, this "several months" was one mistake more, because from the scene when Paco left his family we are taken back to a moment before Paco and Katie met for the first time, so even if she became pregnant the very first day this scene still had to happen at least a year before the previous scene.

[–] Oskiros-Arg 14 years ago

Yes, the opening scenne is a bit out of story line, because it should be happened inmediatly Paco is going, but after Ricky has his wings.

But in the movie this is practically 1 or 2 days .... mmmm (??) strange....

I think another possibilities to the complete movie like a dream or a wished... but.. this is strange for Ozone.

Oscar
Hablo mejor español :)

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 12 years ago

This is what I came to the message board to post about. There are some interesting alternate speculations in this thread, but I still think the most straightforward explanation is that the scene is intended to take place after Paco leaves but before the wings come through (since we know that once the wings come, she does not want anyone--especially doctors or social workers--to find out about Ricky's wings for fear he'd be taken away).

It's not that unusual these days for movies to be presented out of chronological sequence. Here though I think it is unnecessary and strange given that the rest of the film *is* presented chronologically. And there definitely should have been a callback to the scene later in the movie: show at least part of it again after Paco leaves, or at least reference it--and then also show her contacting the social worker again to say "never mind, I don't need child care after all, sorry". Makes me wonder if there was something edited out that perhaps should have been left in (or else the editing should have continued and the first scene edited out as well).

[–] przgzr 9 years ago

But it's not logical: at social workers Katie talks about problems that have been accumulating and became worse since her husband left (she says exactly that a week had passed since he had abandoned them). However, there was a very short period (only few days) between the day when Paco left being wrongly accused, and the day when it became obvious that the swelling on Ricky's back wasn't injury but wings that started growing. She also says that she hasn't been working (off period) because she had to care for her baby; we don't see it in the movie - on the contrary, Lisa took care for Ricky and when Katie returned home she was shocked when Ricky hasn't been in his bed, so she accused Lisa that she didn't care properly.

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 9 years ago

Yeah, those are good points.

So what do you think that opening scene is about?

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[–] przgzr 9 years ago

I beleive that some flaws in the movie could really be (as you suggest) a consequence of editing, maybe reducing some content from the screenplay or, more likely, during afterproduction to avoid the unwanted length of the movie. So, probably the wings didn't appear in only few days after Paco had left (as we can understand from the movie) but the process lasted several weeks and during that time Katie visited social worker. So, the director or the producer later decided to leave this opening scene hoping that we will understand at which moment of the movie it should be chronologically placed; however, not only that they made it rather clumsy but they also left some obvious flaws like Katie's off-period that not only hasn't been mentioned later, but according to the plot she has been working all the time (starting with one or few days before Paco left.

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 9 years ago

Makes sense. But why use it as an opening scene anyway?

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[–] przgzr 9 years ago

That remains unexplainable...

[–] spizzmole23 9 years ago

I also came to the message board about this. I kept waiting for this beginning scene/situation in the movie to happen again in the film but it never did. The "few months earlier" doesn't make sense as it had to be almost a year that they flash backwards after the scene.

A flawed film and one of Ozon's lesser efforts.