if so I am pretty positive this defies the basic rules of adolescent psychology.
Well, she's not an adolescent.
Think about this: Her dog is tiny. Her parents are huge. She can carry the dog and take care of it. She can't do the same for her parents. She feels regret over leaving her parents and wants to go back to see them and take care of them, but is told they're no longer there. They're in a hole. They're safe in a hole. Her parents' fate are out of her control, but she can still protect her dog. Her dog also needs a hole to protect it. She is then told a cemetery is so the dead won't be lonely. But her dog is all alone. So they need more dead animals. Her dog will have friends.
I'm not the biggest fan of this film, but Paulette's psychology isn't the problem. In my view, the out of place slapstick elements and country bumpkin buffoonery is what brings this down.
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14 years ago
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jlent
14 years ago
This thread gets better as it goes along. The OP can't see the forest for the trees.
cafais has it exactly right. Dog is small, parents are big, in more ways than one. Paulette spends the entire film subconsciously trying to find a way of dealing with her parents' death. (the stricken look on her face when she tells Michel she wants to put people in the graves is just one example - she's making graves for something other than just the dog and seeks comfort in her new-found religion. This movie is very anti-Catholic, or at least anti-clergy.)
The ending of the film is one of the most devastating in all cinema, as Paulette finally realizes she has lost her parents forever as her cries for Michel change to cries for "mama."
One of the greatest films ever made.
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TheCineSinge
11 years ago
I'm really annoyed then. The screening I've just came out of, which was a new "digitally restored" print didn't have her changing the name to 'Mama' at the end. I'm convinced of it. I neither heard it not saw it in subtitles and I was fully awake and alert.
If I had heard it, I'd have been a lot happier with the ending.
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jlent
11 years ago
That's weird. I've often thought the subtitles I get of Paulette: "Mama, mama," were unnecessary considering the French she spoke was exactly the same.
Get the Criterion release is my advice.
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TheCineSinge
11 years ago
Sorry, I've cleared it up.
She does indeed say 'Maman, maman' but she only says it twice before going back to 'Michel'.
I made it out that people were saying she continues walking away saying 'Maman' and I was thinking "no she doesn't" and true, she doesn't.
Having said that, I'd have preferred if she did. I think it honestly would have had more impact if in that final pan-out she was shouting 'Maman' or 'Maman' AND 'Michel' rather than saying 'Maman' briefly and going back to 'Michel' alone.
It's a very precise criticism, I admit, but I personally find it quite important.
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cbeckerman1
13 years ago
about her parents; it's that their deaths were so overwhelming she could not deal with it or do anything about it. They are big deaths; the dog's death is a small death (like you said). She can actually do something about her dog's death.
last time I checked the only one that could do anything about death was jesus and/or god. if anyone tries to convince me that someone can recognize a pups death but not that two parents are dead they will never win the reason why pure and simple is this if a child is smart enough to go get a doctor or another adult or call 911 then they can recognize the absence of life even if they cannot understand that death is permanent. either this little girl had damaged mental abilities or she had very delayed development which is the opposite of what normally happens look at child soldiers in Africa. they may not understand what they are fighting for but they do understand that if you shoot someone they die.
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