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It is a plain story of the evolving love affairs of a couple, Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and Gilles (Stephane Freiss). The narrative is linear and unrestricted. It highlights trust, openness and jealousy in marriage. The most spectacular aspect is the narrative structure in which the diegesis is divided into 5 sequences of approximately equal duration and shown in reverse chronological order. Narrative contrasts and visual parallels are subtly and implicitly made among the 5 sequences. However, as the entire story is narrated in insulated blocks (with a quick black-out as the transition device between 2 blocks), the effects of contrast are deciphered only under delayed immediacy (i.e., when the sequences are integrated as a whole in the mind of the viewer at the end of the film). Hence Ozon's use of the reverse narrative serves as a device to invoke the diegesis assembling process of the viewer in deliberating the changing psychological distance between the couple.

The more noticeable contrasts in the narrative are: (1) the relatively short marriage speech from the Priest vs. the long statement of legal rights and liabilities of divorce from the lawyer; (2) Marion's desire for having sex with Gilles and the latter's apathy at their wedding night vs. their reciprocal attitude towards the subject during their meeting in a room immediately after divorce; (3) the gradually distancing relations between the couple and (4) the apathy of both Marion and Valerie (Geraldine Fabian) when each of them is making love in separate time with Gilles.

Ozon adopts the static camera and close-ups of facial expression and eyesight of the characters in emphasizing their emotion and feeling without making the story emotionally charged. Shorts/reverse shots are reduced to the minimum to depict the couple's psychological distance. Where the couple appears in the same shot, they are either back to back or having eyesight of different directions. Ozon masters film language very well in this aspect. Yet, parallelism and contrasts, though adopted, are neither fully nor explicitly exploited. It would be dramaturgically and artistically much better if otherwise. As the plot spans across different stages of the couple's life, there is no repetition in locale in the film. Nevertheless, 2 gaps are deliberately made unfilled in the film to create rooms for the viewer's interpretation: (1) whether Marion has sex with the stranger in her wedding night and (2) the genuine reason behind Gilles' apathy to Marion even before their baby is born. The film is classified as category III in Hong Kong because of a sequence of female (frontal) and male (profile) nudity. It requires a slow digestion of the narrative and visuals on the part of the spectator as well.

註：本評論純屬影評作者個人意見，並不代表本網立場。
Note: This views presented in this review is solely the views of the critic who wrote it and do not represent the stance of our website.

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