Leaving

it's very deadly and absolutely out of control. when you fall for a man or woman, it's just like a sudden addiction, the lust and passion, the sexual desire are so strong that all the existing relationship, families, kids...anything would suddenly meaningless. it's an incurable blindness and nothing can be reasoned or rationalized by logic. this film just told us such a crazy obsession so destructive and dangerous. when you fall for a man and woman so suddenly with such huge impact, the morality, faithfulness and loyalty to your old existing relationship will be suddenly bounced like a bad check, the existing old checking and saving bank accounts related and honored to that check seem to abruptly become empty or overdrawn. an affair, an adultery would be just like that person suddenly decides to open a brand new bank account to another banking system. a regularly taking care of bonsai is suddenly forgotten. we have seen so many cases like this in our daily lives, and so many movies also portrayed such incidents. and this film is a great example to show you how a normal woman suddenly lost her marbles and so mysteriously fell for another man without any obvious reasons. a very weird case but in the mean times, seems to be also so understandable.

I enjoyed several aspects to the film, Partir. The opening scene catches the audience's attention by showing two of the main characters and an unexplained gunshot. The entire film keeps you intrigued and on your toes wondering what will happen next all leading up to that mysterious gunshot from the beginning. The director, Catherine Corsini , was born and 1956 and is a French director and screenwriter. She has directed 15 films since 1982, her latest being Partir, and her most famous La repetition was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. One idea found in the film is the determination to find true love and happiness. Suzanne is unhappy with her husband and children and she falls for a man, Ivan, which she eventually will do anything for. Another important idea in the film is marital problems. Suzanne falls in love with another man, confesses her affair but finds out she can no longer love her husband regardless of the money and housing her husband had provided her. An aspect of the film I noticed was that there was barely any music. The silence between scenes and conversations created more suspense and wonderment. For example, the scene when Suzanne tells her husband about the affair is completely silent throughout the conversation, which causes to you really engage in the scene. A second aspect to the film I enjoyed was the symbolism of the two houses Suzanne is torn between. There is her husband's house that is large, spacious, and dark, whereas Ivan's home is small, but is bright and welcoming. I recommend this film if you enjoy drama, suspense, and unexpected twists.

Leaving (2009)

A very dry slice of life, and a common and awful slice of life--the breakup of a seemingly okay marriage. It's a very modern, well off, pan European series of events, mostly taking place in the south of France. There is devastation, violence, sex, hurt children, hurt friends, and mostly a lot of pain between the ecstasies. And I suppose that's how it really goes down. Fair enough.

But not necessarily the most engaging movie. I'm not talking about being entertained, but about being lifted, or made to rethink something serious, or maybe even be swept away in something lyrical. Not so. This is deliberately (or not) a study in realism, and yet a glossy one, with some neat ends tied up here and there. I mean, it may be a series of fairly realistic events, but this is a simplified, "nice" world.

The one really solid reason to watch this is the stellar, nuanced, deeply felt performance by British actress Kristin Scott Thomas. The range of moods is amazing, and moving, if you can get absorbed otherwise.

Kristen Scott Thomas is excellent in 'Leaving', a traumatic but excellent film about the break up of a relationship. Much is acutely observed here: the casually indifferent husband who becomes a monster when crossed; the affair, depicted without moral judgement, that attains unexpected emotional significance because of the previously hidden fault-lines it exposes; the sex scenes, unusually effective, in which much is conveyed through the pattern of breath. Plus there's a luscious (but sensitive) soundtrack, and Scott Thomas's brilliant performance as a woman gradually losing her grip on first happiness, and then sanity. The ending is subtly different to the one first suggested: that it is a happier one is unclear in a dark tale.

The upper middle-class lady meets worker and a passionate affair takes place. That's not an uncommon theme in our hemisphere, but it's very easy to parodize. Not at least when it's taken so seriously as here.

Of course the subject is a serious one, like all love stories are, both on film and in reality. But on film the rules are fairly known. We are aware of the signs, we expect a certain plot and certain things to happen and I'm sorry to say that this film doesn't make us disappointed, Or perhaps that's exactly what we are supposed to be and also are.

Don't give us another southern French passion story, until the genre is renewed.