MovieChat Forums > Elle s'appelait Sarah (2011) Discussion > Montages of her brother starving to deat...

Montages of her brother starving to death?


The movie should have stayed true to the original story, in which there are many miniature chapters having to do with her younger brother, loyally staying inside the family's secret closet.

He goes through a hallucinatory metamorphosis, sometimes almost reaching out to open the door, and then remembering his sister's words. There are moments of torment, when the pangs of his thirst and hunger are overwhelming, but he refuses to leave.

The movie should have shown this, pieces of him crying, starving, and the actual corpse should have been shown, as it was described in great detail in the book.

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...Why? That would have been torture porn here and we would have lost the shock of Sarah discovering her dead brother.

So lay down
The threat is real
When his sight goes red again
Seeing red again...

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I vote a resounding NO. It was heartbreaking enough as it was.

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[deleted]

When she finally was able to unlock the door, the look on Sarah's face and her horrible screams said it all. No gorry details necessary.

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I feel like there should be an un-rated version of this movie, for True Believers. One movie for people that don't want to see the corpse(they are scared?)

and one movie for True Believers that want to see the reality of starvation

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i think the decision to not show the body made it more heart-wrenching. some people don't need to see everything to feel.

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I really don't see the point of it. Plus he would have died from lack of water long before he died of starvation. I don't think he could get out anyway and unless there was someone in the apartment, no one would have heard him. The cat died in the apartment too because no one came to the apartment.

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The man stated that the apartment had been looted ("It was during the war"), but he probably would have remained quiet, if being true to his sister's warning.

I agree that there was no purpose in showing the corpse. The great acting showed us all we needed to see, not to mention the story about how they couldn't place the mysterious smell. Showing the corpse was unnecessary.

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I agree that the the shot of Sarah throwing open the closet door and seeing the horror inside was more than enough.

Does anyone have a clear idea of how long it was between her family being arrested and Sarah's return? I can't tell if it was a matter of days? weeks? months?


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The Starzynski family was arrested in July 1942; the Tezacs moved in to the apartment in August 1942. Julia's father-in-law told her that Sarah showed up on the second day they were there, so Michel was in the closet about 4 weeks.

In addition to suffering from thirst and starvation, Michel could also have died from the intense summer heat--it was probably sweltering in the closet.

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Eh...I don't think that's necessary. Most people have enough imagination to conjure up a realistic image of the brother's demise.

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So, in your imagination, how would you describe the scene we were denied? We are facing Sarah when she opens the closet door and begins screaming. Not only the scene, but the days he spent suffering of thirst.

Please be detailed, I mean, most people have the imagination!

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My version of the book has no miniature chapters from the brother's perspective; are there different editions?

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Is yours written in the original language or English?

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Ugh, english haha. Is that the problem? I'm surprised they'd choose to leave out important chapters in a translated version of a book.

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i apologize for lying about chapters including the younger brother's 'slow dehydration/starvation' they were purely fictional fantasies i wished were in the movie

and were not a part of the novel in any way

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Seek help.

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You won't help me, you shoo me away to someone else.

'seek help' means 'i don't want to help you, go somewhere else'

it means youre not compassionate toward a person in crisis(a person needing help, in other words), and that is worse than imagining a boy starving to death.

you actually participate in the starvation of another,
'seek help,' you say.

'get a job,' someone says to a beggar holding out an empty bowl.

i don't expect you to understand, but this is Truth

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There are considerable differences between how a story is written and how it is filmed effectively. But beyond that, you prefer horror to human elements.

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life is horror. what happened to some of those people would be considered 'smut' to be put in film.

some people need a fluffy version of events,
even historical fiction

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TROLL ALERT - Oakface admits above that s/he lied -- there are no 'miniature chaptures' with scenes of the brother dying.

Oakface is just trying to divert everyone from the very human problem of Sarah's error, and the effects of the error on everyone else. Oakface fails and gets called out, then accuses the poster of 'not helping him'. A truly sick troll.

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TROLL ALERT -- Oakface later on admits to being a liar: no miniature chapters, just something s/he made up to write ghoulish things.

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i'm not sure about troll, liar: yes. i'd rather contest with trolls any day over someone policing the forum like a MOM.

"troll alert! troll alert!" haha.

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Looking for attention? U got it! Why else would u lie? Anyway, some people come here to discuss the book/movie, the real words, not made up.

"I'm not worried, Harry, I am with you"

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