Was there a connotation that the Madame's name was never spoken or in the title.
Also, did the Madame ever know that The General was unfaithful to her first
My reflection on this film was the age old macho isms that have prevailed through- out history.
Why didn't she care about the jewels that were representative of her husband?
The lover has a full name (Fabrizio Donati), but the husband and wife only have first names and titles. Perhaps to indicate that (in upper class terms, at least) they could be any couple? Or to hint (not seriously, of course) that we are glimpsing scandals in high life?
No, Madame did not seem to know for a fact that the General was unfaithful to her, but they had a relationship where lovers were permitted as long as the rules were followed and no one got serious.
She was the only one who broke the rules, by getting serious and by lying in a context where apparently lying wasn't allowed. I don't think much of the lover for not countenancing this, when he's perfectly willing to make love to another man's wife (and the wife of a man he knows).
She didn't care about the jewels as a gift from her husband, because she didn't care about him. Once they represented her lover, however, she cared about them very much.
I feel sorriest for the husband. He thought their relationship was only "superficially superficial," not realizing that to her it was genuinely superficial.
The film is based on a short novel whose author, Madame Louise de Vilmorin, curiously shares a first name with the protagonist of the film.
Snobbery is a form of romanticism, the chastity of the perfectionist