Equality, schmeequality. The protagonist's personality is developed at length, while we only have select glimpses of Delpy's character. Because her character is not developed properly, we're left with the possibility that Karol is in love with her because of her beauty. Her surface... Yet, throughout the movie, we see life thru Karol's eyes & feel for him...how could this woman be so cruel & not love him despite his flaws in bed. Obviously he loves her. So, this is the perspective...and we're led to feel at the end that she is put in jail as a punishment in a moral sense, for her inability to love him & overlook the flaws. It's a tiresome, weary moral that is drummed into us over & over in movie after movie, TV program after TV program, perhaps because so many stories are told by guys. The moral is this: To all the beautiful, model-like women - you should love us (less than average guys), just look below our surface & see our cleverness, wittiness, resourcefulness, intelligence, innocence, (insert positive quality), etc etc. Yet, you still have to be a model (many movies fail to show other types of women). Anotherwards: appearances shouldn't be important to you, but they are damn important to us. In fact, we won't develop your character any further, but show a limited snapshot (in this case, her vengefulness) & focus on your superficial beauty. MORAL: LESS THAN AVERAGE GUY SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET MODEL _ IF SHE CANNOT BE PERSUADED, SHE'S (insert descriptive negative adjectives) We're starting off here with the oldest of inequalities...why not tell a story about a less than average-looking woman who is in love with a modelesque guy, if he doesn't want to be with her, he ends up in jail for being superficial, since he couldn't look beyond her flaws. Or better yet, even out the appearance of both...veer away from the tired clichés if you're striving to tell about equality in some way, shape or form. Of course, equality can never be attained, people won't be the same...but let's be a start off a little bit closer than this movie does.
By social standards, Dominique is above average in beauty (thin with long beautiful hair and attractive features). Karol is below average height with short arms, OK features. Why not tell a story about him being madly in love with a woman of equivalent beauty. Maybe she's got short legs with a waist that isn't so thin & pock marks on her face. Develop her character a little more...how did she feel when her husband couldn't make love to her (starts to feel unattractive, feels confusion, sadness, unfulfilled, anger that eventually turns her into spite). We are expected to judge her for dumping him for not being able to make love to her. Look, guys cheat on their wives/girlfriends all the time for a lot less, even when they're 'performing' above standard in bed.
So if directors habitually setup this double standard, it gets really boring. I want to see directors who are able to tell this story: the gorgeous guy digs deep within himself to appreciate the wonderful qualities below the surface, below the flaws, frailties of a less than average looking woman & he finds that he should learn to look for all the endearing qualities, not be so superficial...
I want to see directors tell this story too, especially directors they are able to critique gorgeous women for not doing the same (as what is asked of the gorgeous man in my previous paragraph)....and stop producing loads of movies to convince gorgeous women (or average woman who spend hours to become gorgeous) everywhere that they should go for the 'nerdy schmucks' or old men (who don't spend but a minute or two on their appearances). Well, I don't see that happening until the old men, nerdy schmucks, or sympathizers who make movies can see how hypocritical they're being. Honestly this type of movie would be OK, yikes, if it wasn't for the scalding criticism & lack of character development of Dominique's. You just want to hate her, hmmm? Besides this less than stellar moral, it was a great movie for the rolling sequence of events & character development of the others in the cast...really enjoyed it.
By social standards, Dominique is above average in beauty (thin with long beautiful hair and attractive features). Karol is below average height with short arms, OK features. Why not tell a story about him being madly in love with a woman of equivalent beauty. Maybe she's got short legs with a waist that isn't so thin & pock marks on her face. Develop her character a little more...how did she feel when her husband couldn't make love to her (starts to feel unattractive, feels confusion, sadness, unfulfilled, anger that eventually turns her into spite). We are expected to judge her for dumping him for not being able to make love to her. Look, guys cheat on their wives/girlfriends all the time for a lot less, even when they're 'performing' above standard in bed.
So if directors habitually setup this double standard, it gets really boring. I want to see directors who are able to tell this story: the gorgeous guy digs deep within himself to appreciate the wonderful qualities below the surface, below the flaws, frailties of a less than average looking woman & he finds that he should learn to look for all the endearing qualities, not be so superficial...
I want to see directors tell this story too, especially directors they are able to critique gorgeous women for not doing the same (as what is asked of the gorgeous man in my previous paragraph)....and stop producing loads of movies to convince gorgeous women (or average woman who spend hours to become gorgeous) everywhere that they should go for the 'nerdy schmucks' or old men (who don't spend but a minute or two on their appearances). Well, I don't see that happening until the old men, nerdy schmucks, or sympathizers who make movies can see how hypocritical they're being. Honestly this type of movie would be OK, yikes, if it wasn't for the scalding criticism & lack of character development of Dominique's. You just want to hate her, hmmm? Besides this less than stellar moral, it was a great movie for the rolling sequence of events & character development of the others in the cast...really enjoyed it.