MovieChat Forums > Juste la fin du monde (2017) Discussion > i don't understand the movie at all

i don't understand the movie at all

posted 7 years ago by overactive-bladder
4 replies | jump to latest

the purpose of it all i mean. what was the motif or the metaphor or the lesson to be understood from it?

to me, the author was the least endearing character of them all.

we might think that antoine is the mean one but he felt emasculated by his younger gay brother who was the "male head of the house" as said by his mother.

but louis? if he had any compassion for his imploring sister or his loving mother, he would have faced them and said something instead of making them feel like crap. at one point he even addressed his mother in the polite grammatical form "vous" which, in french-speaking countries is done when you address strangers.

in the end, we have the bird who flies from the clock, which has to symbolize time that has ran away and eventually died out. but i don't get the "why" of it all. the main PURPOSE of the movie and what it addresses...a family broken by a single person who makes a reappearance in their life only to not say ANYTHING in the end. he made them feel even crappier than before for naught.

can somebody please explain it to me? thank you.

[–] Gold_Moon 7 years ago

Vous not only applies to strangers, it is also a formal way to address adults.

He knew his reappearance would mess the family up, but maybe that's one of the reasons why he left, his family was already dysfunctional.

No one knew he was going to die, except for Catherine (which he tells her at the end of the film to keep his secret). He went for the sole purpose to fix things up. To make amends in his own way.

In someway he took mercy upon his family by not telling them that he was going to die.

[–] overactive-bladder 7 years ago

you're rigth about the "vous", but i meant it as a polite form you use for strangers or higher ups etc. it's weird nowadays to call their parents "vous" unless you're part of those rare aristocratic olden families.

as for the family being dysfunctional, i sense he was the one to blame. his departure from the family scarred everyone. i sense like they were never the same after he left and their attitude was deeply shaken by it.

i like your interpretation of having mercy on them by not telling them, but in the end, him not telling them only reinforces the fact that he is an egotistical narcissist who blocked out his family without any explanation or reason really. i blame it all on the ~tormented artist persona who feels alone in the world. which is of course bs since his family loved him to pieces (the mother saying it explicitely, the brother holding a severe grudge towards his abandonment - remember the vision where the brother was always carrying him and playing with him in happier times-, and the sister with cutouts all over her room).

anyways, i'm sure the movie like "mommy" was left vague to spark convos betwen viewers. so thanks for chiming in and sharing your thoughts.

[–] itstom 7 years ago

This movie is about innuendoes and the consequences of not facing the truth when it's still possible.

In my opinion, every characters know that Louis is going to die except the young sister.
His brother, Antoine, figured it out because he's way more sensitive as he looks. In the car scene, he said that he knows why his brother came back but he doesn't want to hear it, he even say that he's scared. And in the final scene, it's pretty obvious that he tries to silence his brother because he's afraid of his family's reaction and his own too.
The mother is just faking it. She acts like she doesn't understand a thing but it's obviously the opposite. Even her appearance means a lot of things. She looks very eccentric to better hide her true feelings.
And Catherine is the attentive one. She understands everything by looking him in the eyes.

I love this movie because it's all about the frustration that the audience can feel at the end, during the final scene. It shows that when people refuse to communicate with each others, they keep trying to communicate through their eyes and their behaviour. There are just desperate. They love each others but they are incapable to put words on their feelings.

[–] overactive-bladder 7 years ago

ok seriously thank you for this. i think you nailed the explanation and in a clear and concise manner. i actually appreciate the story even more.

it was enough for the family that he came back one last time to them. to show he loved them enough to do the trip. a lot of scenes now make sense and i am seeing it in a new light. the mother putting make up and wanting to dance and blabber was just to mask her uneasiness. mothers always know what their kids are going through. and the brother really was the most sensitive one and i understand why he rushed him to the airport; he was gutted that he said he had to leave and didn't fave them with the truth. as for the sister, she is still sheltered and innocent without any real experience of life to read people and situations.

maybe you can make a post of your own for everyone to see? it is such a good explanation thank you.