Once again most people are getting lost looking at the finger or the penis or the vagina and missing all that heavenly glory that stories are made of...
Has anyone discussed the intriguing dialogue of the voice over?
I think not.
Remember sex is just the tip of an incredible iceburg.
What intriguing dialog of the voice over? The whole thing was pretty boring.
sharei specially like the monologue given by the Master about the union of grotesque and beautiful. That scene was really done well. Plus, i could relate to that on a very personal level like the way guy was at ease with his self-perception that he was ugly. interesting film.
You mean you also perceive yourself as ugly and are at ease with it?
Funny, I have first seen this movie shortly after it was out, in 2000. I rememember being repelled and horrified by the François Berléand character (Robert) and their so-called relationship. But a few days ago I've suddenly felt the urge to watch it again (I have it on tape), and, surprise, he doesn't horrify me anymore. Why would that be?
In fact, I find him the only vaguely interesting male character in the movie, at best a character on its own, while the other ones (Stévenin and Siffredi) are just two-dimensional.
yea something to that effect.. i feel ugly or unwanted most of the times.. when i am out and about.. and i was very surprised the way this guy articulated in a calm manner.. maybe he has come to terms with his reality in his own twisted way.. i have the same self-image but it might be only temporary thing.. maybe i am not ugly or just feel that way at times.. or maybe i am just fighting this self-perception... that's what i meant.
I see. Well, even if you "feel ugly or unwanted most of the time" this HAS to be temporary, because this feeling makes any kind of human intercourse (including sexual) impossible or just pointless. I mean, you can feel bad about yourself most of the time, but these voices telling you you're no good have to shut up from time to time, otherwise you wouldn't be able to sustain normal human contact.
Then again, as naive as it may sound, this is only a movie. And while Breillat is sometimes strikingly correct in voicing the female issues, this is a male character, i.e. this is her perception of an ugly man's self-perception, you know what I mean? (I personally don't even find him ugly, but that's irrelevant).
The question is, those people who think they are ugly and are not bothered by it - do they even exist? I don't know personally, I can't honestly imagine considering oneself unattractive and being at ease with it.
I'm quite sure it is possible for someone to realise they are ugly and to be "at ease with it", meaning, they have made their peace with it, not that they are necessarily happy about it, otherwise ALL those ugly people - they DO exist, you surely realise that! - would be ending their lives left, right and centre, and while an individual death here and there might not make the news, hearing "Today, another 236 people have committed suicide. Some of them did leave a note, and most of those said "I can no longer live with looking the way I do. I feel I can never find love"" etc, etc., would certainly be hard to miss, so I'm pretty sure that's not happening.
The human mind has mechanisms to cope with such eventualities as considering oneself ugly. Sometimes, those mechanisms do fail, and those people do end their existence, but they are relatively few and far between. Other times, when those mechanisms fail, people resort to plastic surgery, or extreme selfie addiction, drug addiction and other aberrant behaviours.
Also, ALL those unattractive people who DO find partners and procreate (they do exist, we've all seen them) would never be doing that if they weren't "at ease" to some extent. Not to mention that for men, physical ugliness alone is in no way an impediment to finding sexual partners, as the standards and the social mechanics for attractiveness are different for them than for women - think of a boxer with a mashed-up face, for example.
"It's too late... Always has been, always will be...
Too late."
will any visiting female poster shed their thoughts on the voice overs specially when marie character talks about men who disgust us understand us but ones who we love never do... or something to that effect.. it was a striking statement to make... breillat was confusing the heck out of me... any thoughts, rants on this?
shareThis has striken me, too. That sounds interesting, but, come to think of it, not quite true. I would rather say that men don't often understand women, period. Be it the men who disgust us or the ones we love. BUT there is an interesting effect - people who disgust us are the people who have managed to come close to us, to get into our guts somehow. (That's why the feeling of disgust is so strong in the first place). This may create a _false_ effect of being close and being understood by the very person who is repelling to us. The other reason is that we don't bother to impress the ones we dislike, hence we're not trying to pretend and look better than we really are. So in a way, ironically, they know us better.
The movie in general (including the voiceovers) is to me the ultimate expression of the specifically female existential despair, pardon my French )))))
It's about the horror of being the "Yin" - the "hole", the non-entity - and being fully aware of it, about needing badly the "Yang" - not just for sex, but merely to be alive. All of this is obviously hugely exaggerated in the movie and is much less pronounced in women's everyday "psychological reality", but that's the core. And that is what brings Breillat apart from other moviemakers, she's very good at expressing this (mostly deeply hidden) fear. This is what rings true in her body of work. (I know this is outrageously non-feminist, so I have to point out that this is just the way I personally see it).
So.. will any visiting male poster shed their thoughts on the following subject: is this fear of being uncomplete without the other half (in this case the "Yin") familiar to men? It's not the need or the desire I'm talking about, but the FEAR. It would seem to be a purely female phenomenon. Do they need us as much as we need them???
yes, the prospect for this male to be left alone for the rest of his life seems scary but it is not a MUST.. it is wanted but not to the desperate level that you are suggesting.. life can be lived alone if that indeed turn out to be the case... atleast for this male
shareSome men will have a fear of being alone, not so much a fear of being incomplete - they are quite different things, unless you meant it differently than the way you hrased it. However, I would think the fear of being alone is more of a human fear rather than just a male phenomenon.
"It's too late... Always has been, always will be...
Too late."