MovieChat Forums > Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2009) Discussion > Scene with the Mother

Scene with the Mother

posted 15 years ago by thereddishcolor
6 replies | jump to latest

I thought the scene were the sisters go to visit their mother in the nursing home was amazing, Scott Thomas' reaction to the way her mother regards her tells so intimatley of the relationship between the two of them, or more appropriatley the lack of the relationship between them.

Not only was this scene so wonderfully effective in that it demonstrated in just moments an entire lifetime of loss, it also was especially eerie in that the mother's voice changed from French to English suddenly; initially I was unsure if it was even her speaking.

This blew me away!

[–] ffeff 15 years ago

I thought it was superb as well, and very true to life. Especially the way the mother switched back to the past and to English -- that's exactly my experience of people in her situation. And as you say, what an economical way to tell the whole history of the relationship between these two! Letting us see it, rather than telling us about it; the acting by both Claire Johnston and Kristin Scott Thomas is wonderful, but the latter is of course amazing throughout.

[–] JIS_22 15 years ago

Enjoy the scene also.

Witnessing the irony of a person spending her life trying to erase the memory of her daughter succumbs to severe memory loss-- made the scene for me.

"Dry your eyes baby its out of character."

[–] psdhart 13 years ago

one of the best scenes in the movie

[–] harrison_1 12 years ago

It's funny because this is the one scene I actually had a bit of a problem with. The problem being that the mother was not as frail as I thought she would be and spoke a bit too fluently for someone who I assume was suposed to have an elderly person's degenerative cognative condition such as Dementia or Alzheimers Disease.

[–] galluslass 12 years ago

Why would she be frail. I play tennis wth a woman in her sixties who has dementia or Alzheimer's (not sure what her prognosis is) physically she is ft and well but her mind is another matter.

[–] harrison_1 12 years ago

Well I'm guessing the lady you know must only be in the very early stage of dementia if she still has both the physical and mental coordination required to play a game of tennis. For this reason I'm also guessing that she is not yet confined to a nursing home, unlike the character of the mother in the movie.