as someone else said in a post, the answers were all there.
Viewers just had to focus on Henry's view of it all, which you'll notice is pretty much 100% focused on his wife and her love (or lack of love) for him throughout the movie.
Here's my (lengthy) take on it:
His wife is so ridiculously jealous that it has driven them apart -- into separate bedrooms and he lives his whole life "under suspicion". But he still loves her and holds hope, but when he realizes that its more than jealousy .. that she is so suspicious of him that she believes him a child molester, he gives up on everything.
**
Early on Henry says "Chantel won't.. (stops himself) ..Chantel can't have children" later, in between the lies he uses to cover up the death of his marriage, he reveals the relationship truths..
Henry: "Upstairs - it gets instructive"
"The extra bedrooms were for the children, which were never used."
"The guest bedroom was redecorated- for my wife, our old room is now mine"
"In between - a hallway - 60 feet long"
"My lovely Chantel's affliction is the green-eyed monster"..jealousy.."Chantel can be -unbearable- I promise you."
"The only thing I ever wanted was to be happy with Chantel and have children, but the pitter-patter of little feet was not to be."
**
When the Detective is taunting Henry about how old his wife was when they married and how old he is, he blows up.
then has a flashback of Chantel's face when she saw his with her niece, Camille.
Henry turns to Victor: "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry this is all really rather unbearable for me.."
The detectives are trying to piece together what happened to the girls...
Henry is piecing together what's happened to his life.
**
Next Henry is humiliated in front of his admirers and peers. But gives his speech...
In his speech, he talks about the hurricane, and looks his wife dead in the eye as he says "There's no greater gift than a child's smile."
And his speech ends with "look into your hearts, realize what truly matters in life, and find the love to help our family."
His speech about the hurricane paralells his situation..
"...perhaps catastrophe is the natural human environment. "
(looks at Victor) "..we find ourselves attacked by unforeseen forces come to harm us -even though we are innocent of any wrongdoing. But it is human nature to overcome if we work together. So please, help me to help the children."
He looks and his wife's seat is empty.
He returns to the police station and sees her talking to the detective.
When Chantel recounts the night Henry came home late, her flashback leads her walking into Henry's room and finds him standing looking at himself in the mirror... he immediately puts the towel over his balding head, and closes the door on her. Henry's feeling old and lonely and unloved.
Henry is confronted by Victor about the hookers, and Henry desparately worries that Chantel might learn.
Yet Henry doesn't focus at all on the case.. he is taking a look at himself and his life. And Victor is forcing him to confront all the lonely, lowly things his life has now turned to since losing his wife's love.
**
Victor talks to Chantel and when he mentions Camille, she says "..He's out there, afraid... Hoping for a Miracle: that one day things will turn out right."
She reveals that up until two years ago.. when she had her jealous episode.. they saw her sister and kids every xmas. This explains why Henry got drunk years later and took xmas presents to the sister's kids.. he had not only lost chance of having his own kids, he was taken out of the lives of her sister's kids as well.
Victor tells her she's messed up to become so extraordinarily jealous over her husband talking to her niece. Then Victor says "Dont you want to know you've been right about him?" And she gives her permission for the police to search their house.
**
Henry explains the separation of he and Chantel, and the symbolic hallway:
"I'm seperated from my wife by a hallway, a 60-ft hallway... ...and at the very end there's a door, and when it's locked, you can knock all you want, but that door wont open."
**
Chantel comes back with the detective from the house search and is behind the two-way mirror. Victor realizes she too has joined the accusation and inquiry team, she is no longer there being questioned -- she's accusing.
He says to her "Youre good at hiding behind things."
(Just like she hides behind the bedroom door)
Henry looks into the glass where he knows she's watching from and says "Come in here and face me" turns to Victor, "She thinks that I did this."
He looks back at the glass sadly.
As Victor recants their judgment of Henry's guilt, and
When Henry says "I cant believe she would go to these lengths, ..to make this kind of point.."
I think he means her point is to show him just how convinced of his guilt she is (not just the murders)
He sees that the 'door is closed', so to speak, and it won't open.
I think he confesses to make the point back to her just how much he has given up on trying, they cant overcome. he's broken and has no hope of achivieng the only things he ever wanted in life. He's guilty of all if it.. in her mind. So he might as well just confess.
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gorgonos
21 years ago
I think that Henry thought that his wife had done the murders and she tries to protect her because he loves her after all, that's why he confesses though he didn't do anything. I am not completely sure, but if you think about it, it seems like a possible explanation
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bmrh
20 years ago
But as someone else pointed out, although she could have killed the girls for that reason, she could not (and would not) have raped them.
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angelalynn114
20 years ago
I agree that the wife killing the kids does not make sense, but there was one short cut of the wife in the flash back scenes that looked as if she was on the beach at night, with an odd look. Does anyone else remember this and have an explination for it?
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cinemartiste
18 years ago
bump
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sockscats
16 years ago
1. I think the first basic message of the film is that if you question and badger somebody enough they will say almost anything.
2. Yes it has to do with the devastation of knowing his wife believes he would do something like this.
No I wouldn't call him a pervert that is dumb. He is a guy who goes to whore's to satisfy his sexual urges. The reason he doesn't have a more meaningful emotional affair is because he loves his wife. He does not want a real relationship. Also by going to low class whores he psychologically is getting back at his wife in some way.
Remember what he said that a whore is someone who gives you a lot for very little. He gets lots of sex for little money. Well his wife is the opposite a very expensive person who gives him no sex.
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Ketzel
15 years ago
Looking at the film from a more feminist perspective, I think Henry suspected that his wife was somehow involved with the murder of the girls and was trying to protect her. I don't buy that the wife was pathologically jealous. Why would a beautiful young woman married to a wrinkled balding man old enough to be her grandfather have any reason to be jealous? She probably has never even been in love with him. So let's go back to why she would have married him in the first place. She was in her teens when Henry began having sex with her and only 20 when she married him. She doesn't have the opportunity to meet young men her own age and begin a family like other young women do. Young girls who have sex with old men almost always have an economic motive for the marriage, and the likelihood of truly falling in love with the old man is remote. She's not in love with him so she is not jealous. She may be concerned about her financial security if Henry dumps her for a younger girl, but that's not the same as jealousy. The whole jealousy aspect doesn't make sense. It is possible that Chantel becomes furious with Henry and cuts him off sexually when she first realizes how he used his money and power to steal a normal adolescence and young adulthood from her. Seeing Henry with her neice helped her put the pieces together with sudden clarity. She realizes that she has always been a sexual possession for him, someone easily replaced by any other young girl, that who she is as a human being is irrelevant to Henry. Chantel becomes enraged with Henry for using her and at herself for allowing herself to be used as an adolescent. Her neice and the other young girls represent herself as a naive girl in her psyche. Her rage is pathologically channeled into killing the girls. She does not do this alone, but does this with a partner, probably a young man with whom she is involved sexually or romantically. The partner rapes the girls, then he or Chantel kills them. Chantel takes the photos. How else could so many photos of the dead girls end up as photographs in Henry's albums since he was not the killer? So Henry, out of guilt for the schmuck he knows he is and ashamed of how he used Chantel to meet his sexual needs and egotistical need for a trophy wife, tries to protect her by throwing the detectives off track. Henry believes that she must be one of the killers, but feels obligated to report the discovery of the body. Still, he wants to protect Chantel from suspicion. Chantel is one very sick puppy and Henry is seeking some sort of self-forgiveness by confessing and thus allowing her to be free of him. If you view the film through Hollywood eyes where beautiful young girls so often have the hots for Gramps, it's easy to miss all of this.
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FangsFirst
14 years ago
That's a delusional perspective, not a feminist one. Smacks of misandry, in fact.
Chantel's first visible action outside the presence of Henry is to try to gain the attention of two men ogling a woman. She IS jealous. Her concern about her niece is because he "had no right to make her smile like that."
She THINKS she is replaceable to him, thinks that any young woman can take her place.
But it's pretty clear that Henry at *least* BELIEVES he loves her. Maybe it is all some psychosexual thing where he possesses her and she is but a trophy, but in his mind, he loves...well...loved...her. It's conveyed in the very first scene they appear in together, and in the way he breaks when he realizes she could think so poorly of him.
And if you think that any of the main characters was involved in the murders, you're an idiot and weren't paying attention.
Chantel starts crying at the end, stares out into space, because she was WRONG. That's WHY. Not because "some wrinkled balding man old enough to be her grandfather" was using her.
Seriously, I am all for feminism as a descriptor for moving toward equal perceptions and treatment of men and women, but go back and look at your utterly shallow comments: "beautiful young woman" and "wrinkled balding man" both describe the patriarchal definitions of beauty in society. Really, you just proved you actually think the way a sexist society does. Why are you judging them on age and appearance? Why do your judgments on these factors match perfectly with the exact aspects of those categories as used to limit the sexes in society. A woman must be young and beautiful to have value, and a man must be virile, manly and full of youth.
Admittedly, you throw in the accusation of gold-digging, but then it all just gets muddled: is she an innocent victim for having the lack of taste to go after someone--GASP--OLD? Incidentally, the implication is he was probably in his 30s when their relationship started--Bellucci herself was 36 when the film was made, and Henry says he is 57. If we shrug and take these figures as correct, she was 18 and he was 39. Hardly "balding," "wrinkled" or "old enough to be her grandfather." Her father, sure. But that's not that unusual, even in non-financially-motivated relationships.
Go on with your strange and confused perceptions of the world though. Its been a year and I doubt you'd take interest in my exhaustion-induced confrontational tone anyway. For which I cannot blame you, so, have fun.
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kos71ant
21 years ago
Great summary of the film Sidnee, and some very interesting points highlighted. Could you please find the time to give your interpretation of the final scene of the film, outside the police station? What is happening there between the two of them? What is the puprose of Morgan Freeman's presence?
Thanx
The more I learn, the less I understand
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zab-j90
21 years ago
I couldn't agree more. You've pretty much summed it all up Sidnee.
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kevin27
21 years ago
Nicely done Sidnee.
I'm sure you're right. I watched the film recently, looking for that normal dramatic tension "Did he or didn't he?". I thought that the possibility that he didn't was receding all the way through the film, robbing us of the usual pleasure of surprise/questioning. Then "bang" there came the "We've got someone else & he's confessed". My jaw dropped.
Seen as a psychological study, it's marvellous. However, I feel that they pushed the "evidence against" so far that the ending became ridiculous. Why did he tell the terrible lies about the dog at the beginning? And how on earth had he ended up with photographs of the two little girls? Girls from different towns? Was that really all one big coincidence?
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rrb
21 years ago
I echo the praise for your post, sidnee.
BTW, the original French film "Garde a Vue," ended with Chantal killing herself. I suppose this "neater" ending was deemed too dark for the Americans.
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beavis_el_bunghole
20 years ago
No, it is just much less interesting and telling. It is, in fact, the quintessential drab French ending. But we know she is to blame for his false confession. We know she is consumed by jealousy. We know she has murdered their marriage. We know she finally realizes this. There is no need to have her kill herself--it is exponentially redundant. This ending is far more relevant to these characters and this story. And though I have not completely solidified my thoughts and emotions on this ending, reople shouldn't be so quick to debase 'American Audiences' all the time, or all of their directors.
B
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Jonathan-May
20 years ago
Regarding your last two questions:
Why did he lie? Perhaps he really did just remember the facts incorectly the first time. People do make mistakes, and if he jogs all the time, usually with the dog from the beinning, perhaps he just forgot about this occasion when he caught up with the dog later than normal.
Why did he have photographs of the girls? Well, remember his hobby was compiling a photographic history of the island, so it's natural that he would have had photographs, not just of those two girls, but also of a LOT of other people as well.
This was a really good movie, IMHO. I found myself asking the usual did he/didn't he all the way through. Briefly, my suspicion turned to the other Cop who may have been in cahoots with the Wife, but there was no real reson for this, other than the fact that there's usually a twist in these sorts of movies.
I never suspected for a moment that as he was confessing, the real killer would be caught. It took me completely by surprise, and put a beautiful spin on everything that I had just seen that kept me wondering what the character's real motivation was for a good time after the movie finished.
Great stuff!
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silence6182
21 years ago
Nothing to add. Perfect Sidnee. Nothing was important for him anymore so he gave up. by the way they had already decided about him. 100% guilty
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twentythird
21 years ago
Too bad we don't see much of sidnee posting, i would just follow your every move and movies start making sense
Sometimes i think to myself...Gosh! i already understand these movies, i think it's the people who wants it explained and this confuses my own conclusion of the film itself
Though, sometimes i don't mind their own twisted theories on things.
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aangen
20 years ago
I just saw the film and agree with Sidnee 100%.
The final scene to me is the payoff for three characters who all believed they were justified for their actions (a very good finish IMHO).
Henry had just gone through the wringer; he saw how his life had turned. All the questionable things he'd done, and the results of his shortcomings. He understood it all loud and clear and the result is a broken man.
Chantal also now fully realized that her jealousy and lack of faith, and the actions she took drove a possibly good man to become, or worse not become but admit to becoming a monster. She realized that she may have been wrong to assume what she assumed about Henry's relationship with Camille, and that her actions were not only unjustified, but also senselessly cruel. When she sees Henry she tries to reach out to him, but when he attempted to accept the guilt for the murders, her chances were OVER.
And Victor, why was Victor in the scene? I believe he was in the final scene so that he could fully see the results of his mistaken belief that Henry was the killer, and his misguided belief that he was perfectly right to drag Henry down the path that he did. After all, just as Chantal had convinced herself that Henry was guilty of an improper relationship with Camille and then felt justified to punish him for it, Victor did very much the same thing.
So Henry, a less than innocent victim of circumstance, ends up demonstrating on a park bench just how badly two people who should have known better have treated him. A nice ending I believe. Too bad he's destroyed in the process.
When I think back to the scene where he confesses that yes, he is attracted to young women and young girls, that was the most truthful thing he said during the entire film. It was a telling moment and the clue that maybe this guy really was what he said, a mediocre man who became rich, "acquired" a young and very beautiful wife, and that people tend to want such men to be taken down.
I just finished watching this film and was glad to see this thread. As a fan of so many movies the thought that maybe Chantal did it and Henry was covering for her entered my mind for a second. I'm sad that it did as it indicates to me I have seen way to many lame movies....:) This movie stayed true to the story in a better way than most movies. Henry pretty much stated in the first 10 minutes in his chat with Victor many reasons why people would be out to get him. Then it tested the movie audience to see what they believed. A nice touch. I was glad he wasn't guilty as I can almost relate to the character. (Don't ask :)
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enigmatikmike
18 years ago
Well done Sidney and aangen. I have to agree 101%
In my opinion the final scene shows the way in which this investigation has destroyed the three main characters.
Henry: from successful lawyer on top of the world to a dishevelled old man; broken; his dirty secrets exposed to all and he himself loved by none. Chantal: she realised how her oer-the-top jealousy destroyed her marriage; she realised what pain she must have put Henry through. A pain that led him into the arms of cheap prostitutes. Victor: his (mistaken) conviction that Henry was guilty led him to use mind games and play husband against wife and wife against husband; and as he saw the sad state Victor and Chantal ended up in he realised that the only thing he had done was destroying two completely innocent people. And, as an honourable man, this must have destroyed Victor too.
This is a wonderful film in my opinion, and we shouldn't try to tackle it in the way we tackle the usual (maybe inferior) cop films which are tackled in a less psychological way.
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Kharnaxe
20 years ago
Some very good summaries here. I just watched the movie on the TV (it finished not five minutes ago) and another possible interpretation occurs to me.
When Henry becomes fully aware that Chantel is convinced he is guilty, he confesses to ratify her conviction - something like a final, pyrrhic gesture of love.
At least, that seems consistent to me, particularly in light of Victor's line to the effect of "...you love someone who doesn't love you back."
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medwards-14
20 years ago
Didn't they find the pictures of the dead girls in his car? Where did they come from? I can't buy that Henry was some innocent victim.
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beavis_el_bunghole
20 years ago
No. Those pictures were found in an unknown person's car. Henr was utterly innocent. That is why the woman looks odd as she is hearing his onfession and showing Victor the cd wallet. It is the wallet of another man whom we never see.
B
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sockscats-1
18 years ago
Sidnee i agree completely. Normally a guy like henry hearst isn't a sympathetic character in movies but here he is the ultimate victim. This was a fine film but everyone wants to make an issue out of who did the crime when the movie explains that clearly to the viewer at the end..
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biwat
18 years ago
Very good analysis by Sidnee. Thanks.
At the ending after Victor tells Herry he can "go home now",
and states we found the killer or words to that effect,there
appears a "pause". By turning the volume WAY UP one can barely
make out amoung the ambient noise the following words by Victor
"It was Hector". This was Henrys wifes sisters husband. The
clincher incriminating the killer was the photos found in Hectors
car shown to Victor when the woman informed Victor the killer had
been caught in the act. It appears the photos were copied by
Hector and planted in Henrys stack of photos at his house.
I only watched the movie once, but I believe this box of photos
was hand-labeled, whereas others in the stack had printed
labels. Assuming the above correct, then Chantel (Henrys wife)
could gave been having an affair with Hector (as Henry suspected
Hector wanted to do) and Chantel and Hector set Henry
up by planting copies of the photos in Henrys dark-room. I'd be
interested in opinions of the above.
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Steve_Y2K
17 years ago
She wasn't jealous of any of the girls, (her niece, or the photo girls) she was just really creeped out by the attention her husband gave them. So much so that she became frigid and distant, which becomes suspicion of more than just perverted inclinations once Morgan Freeman contacts her.
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bhaubeyy
16 years ago
People call this an analysis, when its a recap with an opinion. Sidnee, you missed the entire point. Henry did not confess out of love, or regret, or any crap like that... HE ACTUALLY BELIEVED HE WAS GUILTY.
Understand, Henry just spent HOURS in the station having the "evidence" that he was a rapist, a pedophile, and a murderer POUNDED into his head.
Freeman's chatacter DESTROYS a man. just by following the evidence, and using a damned effective method of interrogation. So effective, that by the end of the movie, after he has an old friend calling him a monster, drilling the evidence home, being forced to review his life and his marriage, which has become a joke (due to his wife's uncontrollable jealousy), Hackman's character falls victim to a proven psychological phenomenon:
"IF YOU ARE TOLD SOMETHING ENOUGH TIMES, NO MATTER HOW LUDICROUS, IF IT IS PRESENTED IN A CLEAR LOGICAL FASHION, WITH "FACTS", IF YOU ARE TOLD SOMETHING ENOUGH TIMES, YOU WILL EVENTUALLY BELIEVE IT."
Need more proof? the name of the book this movie is based on is "BRAINWASH"
"God, I hate temporal mechanics." - Chief O'Brien, DS9
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