MovieChat Forums > Elle s'appelait Sarah (2011) Discussion > Julia Story-line Unnecessary

Julia Story-line Unnecessary

posted 12 years ago by GoBrookeYourself
7 replies | jump to latest

I understand that was how it was originally written in the novel, and I have not read it, and it probably worked well in the book. I just did not think they were able to smoothly correlate the two stories in the movie. I found myself wanting to skip over Julia's parts, and just watch the 1942 scenes.

I thought the present day situation was boring, bordering on cheesy. The ending was not at all what I was expecting. I saw the "name the child Sarah" thing coming a mile away. The only thing that would have made the ending anymore cheesier is if the son and Julia had hooked up. I just could not care about Julia and her husband's conflicts, when there was a little girl in a concentration camp with a brother trapped in a closet.

Other than that, I thought it was a pretty interesting movie. I think some liberties should have been taken to make Julia's story a little more exciting, but I loved all of Sarah's parts. I can see why they were no major noms for it thought. 7.5/10

[–] CrystalRain7 12 years ago

I really enjoyed Julia's storyline. I think the point was to show the contrast between Julia's life and troubles and Sarah's. That made the movie unique. Without it, it would just be another tragic Holocaust story. And just because something is cliché, doesn't meant that it's not heartwarming and realistic. And I don't think a woman trying to convince her husband that she doesn't want to get an abortion is very trivial.

[–] EJverh 11 years ago

I agree. The contrast worked very well and therefore there is even more relevance today. Seeing our life (as Julia did), from that perspective, makes you think twice about complaints you'd normally make, now trivial in comparison.

[–] jjamison-2 12 years ago

I read the book a couple years ago and have been waiting for the movie. I watched it last night, and I don't remember the book switching back and forth between the past and present. Or the storyline about Julia. Maybe it's been too long since I read the book, but I thought the present day storyline was put in make the movie more easy to bear. It was such a hard book to read in that all the misery was spelled out and described in ways that on screen, it would have been unbearable. So maybe they added the Julia story to break up the hard parts. The book and the movie are hard to experience-- and harder to forget.

[–] bpollen 11 years ago

For me, the point of the Julia-Bertrand family storyline is to give substance and intimacy to the French families who profited from the deportation of the Jews in France. This was an inside look at one family who did profit, although in a small way I suppose, from that situation.

Also, having the story occur in modern times lets there be gaps in the 1942 story. We don't find out what happened to the parents, the dark haired woman who is allowed to leave the first holding tank, or other things. If we hadn't had the modern storyline, viewers would be complaining of all the storyline gaps and questions left unanswered.

But in reality, we cannot have all the questions and gaps filled in on events that happened decades earlier, especially in situations like the deportation.

As a woman, I related to Julia's quest for investigating the story. She did a story on the event in total, and she investigated a single instance in that story, to put a face to the statistics (as that man hosting the museum put it). Although it's not clear to me whether Julia puts Sarah in her magazine story. I don't think she did.

Just like in real life, we cannot know what is going through Sarah's tortured mind exactly. We can only know what she DID, what she said, what she wrote. We cannot know what she thought. The movie accomplishes this by placing it in modern times.

[–] bonniebonniebanks 11 years ago

I finally got around to seeing the movie the other day. Actually, it worked well here than in the book. It was almost two different stories in the book and she went on a bit too much about Julia's personal life. I haven't read it for awhile but I think she was more obnoxious and intrusive with William because there's more time in a book.

The only thing that the movie didn't do was show the filth at the Vel d'Hiv and the camp. Otherwise, they did a great job but it may just be because they pared back the part I didn't like anyway LOL.

(This is my signature line. Do not confuse it with the contents of my post.)

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

I just did not think they were able to smoothly correlate the two stories in the movie.

The film was a pretty literal interpretation of the book. I think the parallel stories work and is done to emphasise the links between past and present and the effect that Sarah's life has on Julia. I agree with you that Sarah's story tends to have much more initial emotional impact. However Julia's story comes into its own at the film's conclusion. Unveiling Sarah's story has prompted her to move to New York, where she assists William to finally find out about his mother's background and therefore his heritage. Her baby is even named after Sarah, underlining how events in the past can profoundly affect the present.🐭

[–] fn-sj 8 years ago

I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the 2 stories. Thw whole point was to perpetuate the past. Julia is a writer, a story teller, who was utterly determined that Sarah s story would not die with her. As the voice over says, if stories aren't told they're forgotten. That is the ladt thing that Julia wanted to happen to Sarah s story...in all its tragedy, pain and triumph of survival through horrific circumstances. KST is always an excellent actress and if the modern day story were in any other hands than hers it may have been seen as more 'cheesy' but I think it's the stark and shocking qualities of the wartime elements that give the modern part more of a shallow feel...anything would in comparison to such atrocities .

I don't think it's just a narrative tool for the novel , it lends light to the shade thst the past casts over our own history as it played out in WW 2...showing the onward motion of society and women within that society...and the age old tradition and importance of the story teller and their role in history.