How realistic was it? - Partir (2009) Discussion

[–] britwrit 14 years ago

I agree. I liked the film. But it seemed abrupt, her taking off with this guy.

Besides, wouldn't she be able to sign on to get benefits while she looked for work? Sure, she was British but she'd also lived (...and paid taxes...) in France for a long time. I buy the fruit picking but not that she'd be completely destitute.

And the scene at the bank? If she was still married, her debts would still be her husband's debts, no? And in the US, any divorce lawyer could make enough trouble for her spouse, cause so much hassle, that he'd eventually pay her something to leave.

Who knows? Maybe the director and the screenwriter(s) grew up in a gritty working class neighborhood somewhere. But from the plot, you got the impression they were somewhere removed from scraping by.

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[–] cornelia123 14 years ago

Yes I do not think it's very realistic. The emotions, yes, the actions, not really. Why would she tell her husband she's inlove with another man? Wouldn't you wait until you have set up your practice, saved money etc, and THEN tell him?

The previous poster is right, wouldn't she be entitled to unemployment benefits etc?

Also, why would she get her lover to help her steal from her husband, (the paintings etc), when she KNOWS he's already been in jail and therefore she would be putting him at great risk.

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[–] Krustallos 14 years ago

I think the one key thing about Suzanne's character is that she is impulsive. Almost everything she does in the film she does without thinking it through - the affair, telling the husband, selling the Cartier watch, climbing out of the window, the paintings, the gunshot - even the story of how she came to France in the first place and met her husband indicated her propensity to make decisions without having a clear plan. Bear that in mind and her behaviour is not so hard to understand - in real life after all people very often act illogically.

Plus there is this concept of Amour Fou in France that is quite culturally important - the Surrealists were particularly keen on it but it crops up again and again in French film - see also Resnais' recent "Wild Grass".

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] PoppyTransfusion 11 years ago

I think the one key thing about Suzanne's character is that she is impulsive. Almost everything she does in the film she does without thinking it through ...

Plus there is this concept of Amour Fou in France that is quite culturally important

Good points that make the film a bit more credible although I disliked Suzanne's character and her impulsiveness, but that's another issue.

Fatima had a fetish for a wiggle in her scoot

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[–] blue-3 14 years ago

britwrit on Sun Jul 11 2010 16:18:58 wrote:

I agree. I liked the film. But it seemed abrupt, her taking off with this guy.

Besides, wouldn't she be able to sign on to get benefits while she looked for work? Sure, she was British but she'd also lived (...and paid taxes...) in France for a long time. I buy the fruit picking but not that she'd be completely destitute.

Women in France don't have the rights they do in countries which use an adversarial legal system. Her husband has the first rights on the children particularly if she's the one to leave -- even if that was because of his violence (she might be able to prove emotional violence, but she's too impulsive to organize such). He has all the power and influence in this story and is a control freak. It's completely believable that she would want out -- particularly if she felt the way KST appears to feel in this story.

I don't even mind that the story's not particularly original. Every story is a combination of bits of half a dozen standard stories. When I see one that's acted as well as this one, I could easily believe her fancying someone who doesn't exhibit Hollywood charm. Some of the people I find most attractive aren't particularly pretty, and I can't agree with my sister's idea of attractive, but there you go: everyone is at least a bit different.

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[–] fanaticita 14 years ago

As I said in another post, Suzanne was a selfish, thoughtless, out-of-control woman who gave up everything for her hottie handyman. The character of Suzanne was disgusting, the type of person who will hurt anybody and everybody to get her rocks off. What she did at the end was unforgiveable, and the hint in the last scene tells us that she will pay dearly.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] fanaticita 14 years ago

Well, she and her husband were together for 20 years. She had a good life. Maybe the romance was waning, but hey, people who are married for a long time need to keep working at it, be creative, caring, and find ways to keep the romance going. It's not like her husband was a bad guy or mistreated her.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] so_she_says 13 years ago

Very true. Especially since her husband doesn't have anything reproachable in his behaviour she becomes even more immoral.

Aprat from teh gun shot everything else seems possible and convincing in this story. I enjoyed the movie.

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[–] marudd50 12 years ago

No, but it was wrong of him to ensure that she and her lover had no means of making a living. However, I do think that surely there are some safety nets available in France that she could have availed herself of. This movie puzzles me. Were we meant to be a party to her impulsiveness and the severity of her situation and the banality of her lover and swallow the whole plot and motivations, or were we meant to see all those things for what they are? I'm not even sure if we are meant to sympatize with her or condemn her.

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[–] blue-3 14 years ago

GBsHandThatNeverPullsAway on Mon Nov 1 2010 08:14:18 wrote:

Love and reason aren't friends. Neither are love and doubt. Haven't seen the film yet but perhaps, much like in I Am Love, she was just walking through it. Maybe she wasn't in love anymore with her husband and this regular guy made her feel alive again?

That's the general idea. More or less the same story as I am Love but probably acted better and a darker ending.

The OP questioned how realistic it was for the husband to exert such financial control. My view was that it was not particularly exaggerated for France, though probably less believable in countries with adversarial legal systems. In any case, she was very impulsive and not particularly logical. It's KST's acting that makes it such a good movie, not the magnificence of the characters.

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[–] thebucketrider 13 years ago

I had a lot more sympathy for the character than you did--maybe not at first but I did in light of the husband's response. It seemed fairly clear that what he felt for her was possessiveness, not love and that her happiness didn't weigh at all in his balance. Although pursuing her own fulfillment put her children in a difficult position, she came across as a caring mum. Her son, at least, seemed to accept her as such.

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[–] zaragozana 13 years ago

I completely agree, I kept thinking, "what, you'd give up your house/lifestyle/restarted career? Not on your life." She would just carry on secretly bonking hunky Ivan, who anyway seemed quite happy not to derail her life or get her away.

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[–] akrisluvskev 13 years ago

It's not realistic at all. What women in her 40's, from her life style gives it up to work in a lettuce field, just for a piece of tail. Comeon she would have gone to a lawyer and fought for her share before just packing up and leaving with nothing.

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[–] bartireid 13 years ago

What surprised me was the Husbands insistence on having her back. She was banging this guy left right and center, and didn't even hide it and broke out of the house for it too.

I know people love their wives but seemed a bit OTT.

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[–] Krustallos 13 years ago

I don't think that was about love. I think it was about his desire for control and to keep up appearances.

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

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[–] lamont-hard 13 years ago

Or he was fighting to keep his wife though I would not go that far but the mother of his children should at least been worth fighting over. He would have eventually gave in.

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[–] onegreendress 13 years ago

The film is totally realistic. Honest people will admit that the desire for bodily pleasure and freedom are huge motivating factors in our lives. If a married couple can keep those things over time, super. A lot of them don't--and can't. The movie doesn't ask you to like the heroine, but I do because I empathize with her . . . as well as with her husband and children and all of the characters. We are all stumbling through life, and we screw up and we fall in love and we violate others and get violated and . . . it's just realistic, that's all.

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[–] lamont-hard 13 years ago

When you shoot your husband in his sleep and leave the body for your daughter to find I say that is not even close to love but a person with little regards to life and decency. I agree with we don't have to like the character but we don't have to show sympathy for them either. I also would like to comment on posters saying her husband drove her to this point and disagree that her own childish way of i want what I want is a better fit at what drove her to murder, as simplistic as it sounds it may be true....Still great post...onegreedress

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[–] onegreendress 13 years ago

Thank you, lamon-harden, but I must point out that I said I "empathize" with the characters, which is quite different from sympathizing with them.

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[–] huwdj 11 years ago

I think it's realistic on all counts or at least as realistic as a French film could make it. That Suzanne falls in love and throws everything aside to be with Ivan is believable - foolish and thoughtless probably but I don't making she's making rational decisions at that point. The deeply hurt and total arse of a husband then uses his influence to make it impossible for them to be together and forces her back. I'm sure you could find examples of these aspects in newspaper stories in most weeks (not that I bother reading newspapers any more myself). It also seemed to me that the final act between them looked a lot like a rape and maybe that pushed her over the edge and off to the gun cabinet.
But what struck me about some of the comments above was how unkind they were to Suzanne. I'm wondering if the criticism would have been so harsh if the dependent husband of a domineering wife tried to throw it all away and start a new life with the woman he had just fallen on love with.

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