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Just saw this film. Missed some parts tho. Please answer (spoilers)

posted 10 years ago by shecan34
6 replies | jump to latest

Alright so I saw the film and I absolutely loved the acting however I missed some crucial parts because I did so many errands that day hence I was tired and I watched it that night because this was the only day I was going to be able to watch the film and I don't want to pirate it.

1. Did the daughter really show Celine the emails?

2.What was up with the dress and Celine?

3. What was up with the illegal worker? What did she do wrong?

4. Why did the mother not believe her daughter when she said she forwarded the emails?

[–] emvan 10 years ago

I think if I just state the story that eventually emerges, it should answer aall the questions but the last.

The daughter, Lucie, went to the laundry to ask Celine for her e-mail address. However, she unwittingly spoke to Naima, the illegal immigrant worker. Naima pretend to be Celine and gave Lucie Celine's e-mail address.

Naima justifies her doing this by arguing (reasonably persuasively) that Celine believed that she was Samir's mistress. She wanted to demonstrate to Celine that the person Samir was having an affair with was someone else.

Naima believes that it was Celine who stained the customer's dress, in an effort to get Naima fired. If this true, it is hugely ironic, because it was the fight over the dress (and whether to refund the customer's money) between Celine and Samir that was the last time they spoke to one another, and it was at the end of this fight that Samir put his hand on Naima's, while (IIRC) telling his wife to leave.

Marie-Anne initially does not believe that Lucie forwarded the e-mails, because she learns that Celine was not in the shop that day. That's how the truth emerges about Naima posing as Celine (Lucie tells her Mom that "Celine" spoke with an accent).

Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical, scientific values, gentlemen.

[–] Cinehound 10 years ago

The daughter, Lucie, went to the laundry to ask Celine for her e-mail address. However, she unwittingly spoke to Naima, the illegal immigrant worker. Naima pretend to be Celine and gave Lucie Celine's e-mail address.

Lucie didn't go to the dry cleaners; she called (phoned). This information was given in the original French and also, I believe, in the English subtitles of the film I watched. Had Lucie gone to the dry cleaners and spoken to Naïma face to face, she would have recognized Naïma when Ahmad had her come to the café to explain to Lucie what had happened when the customer complained about the stain on the dress.

[–] saren-897-764968 10 years ago

2.What was up with the dress and Celine?

I still can't get my hear around why Celine drank the detergent in front of Naïma (as Naïma said to Samir in their last conversation).

So Celine thinks Naïma and Samir are having an affair and tries to frame Naïma for the dress. Celine then learns about the real affair but her suicide-revenge is still against Naïma and not Samir or Marie - but why? Maybe we aren't supposed to know.

[–] mamlukman 10 years ago

Celine doesn't NECESSARILY know about the real affair--that's the point. She would only know if she read the e-mails between Ahmad and Marie. Maybe she didn't read them at all. Naima says at the end, "If she read the e-mails why would she drink the poison in front of me instead of going to the pharmacy and drinking it in front of Marie?" Which is a good point. So she probably didn't read them, but we don't know for sure, and I think that's the point of the movie--we can't know exactly what happened in the past, just little pieces of it, so instead of making all sorts of assumptions, it's better to just forget the past and move on.

[–] Waldimore 9 years ago

It's deliberately ambiguous.

But she did not drink the detergent right after the argument in the cleaners with the customer and Naima. The suicide was timed to the Forwarding of the emails. So it's up in the air.

As to the reason she did it in the cleaners in front of Naima, Samir and let's not forget Faoud, perhaps it's because Naima knew of the affair even if she was not the person Samir was involved with. Also, they lived upstairs so convenience is a factor. And clearly, if she knew about the affair, then she, rightly, held Samir responsible as opposed to walking over to the pharmacy and doing it in front of Marie. Perhaps, Naima and Faoud's presence was unavoidable. The person she really wanted to hurt was Samir. (Faoud might be an extension of that revenge.)

I find it fascinating that you feel she would go to the pharmacy and do it in front of Marie and that since she didn't, she must not have read the emails.

Personally, I like to believe she held the right person accountable for the infidelity: her husband. He made the commitment to her, not Marie.

[–] yurenchu 8 years ago

From what I remember of the dialogue, Céline drank the detergent in front of Naïma and Fouad, not in front of Samir; Samir was not in the laundrette at that time.

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