Why was Isabelle so freaked out when...
Matthew wanted to see her room? I never understood that. I thought it was sweet what he said to her.
shareThe fact that she doesn't sleep in her room, and so emphatically said that she would not have sex in her bed, made me believe that at one point something happened between her father and herself in her bedroom. I think her father molested her and it drove her to run to her brother for protection. This would also explain the disgust and hatred the brother seems to have for his father. The very first scene between the father and daughter the camera zoomed in on the way he caressed her back. Based on the fact that her mother's reaction to seeing her naked with her brother and another boy was to just creep away and pretend to never see makes me think she reacted the same way when her husband molested her daughter.
shareThis reply is one of the major problems in society right now. Not everything is about paedophilia you know.
share[deleted]
The post has nothing to do with the society. The scene where her dad caresses her, the zoom in and the camera angle definitely hints at focusing on that in a slighly negative tone. No film-maker regarded as highly as Bertolucci focuses on something without a purpose.
A son does not hate his dad for differences of opinions alone.
I just don't understand where some are getting this molestation/incest thing with Isabelle and the father. I just don't see it at all. I just think she was a "daddy's girl"; they still have a closeness even though she doesn't necessarilly agree with her dad's ideas about the world. She's just not as opposed to her father as Theo seems to be. I think Theo's disdain for the father is nothing more than youthful rebellion, rebellion against the "Establishment", the father's generation and what it represents. Isabelle is not nearly as passionate about the communism as Theo, whose own Maoism is pretty questionable. He talks a good game but did not back it up - as shown through his lack of involvement with his fellow students organizing in that scene where he gets drugs from the female student. I think Isabelle tends to follow Theo's lead, but there are moments where she shows some independence by being more passive in her stance (not really being handcuffed to the theater, not joining Theo's tirades about Communism, for example).
shareI agree. She was NOT molested by her father.
She wanted to keep her room for her own; something she didn't have to share. Perhaps a place where games were not played. Her private sanctuary, so to speak.
She reluctantly took Matthew into her room because Leo was with a girl in his room. It wasn't long before she kicked Matt out and she slept alone that night. Her bed was not disturbed, therefore, keeping her room virginal.