The Final Revelation

I didn't notice subtitles and no sound, so I'd say it was probably the theatre...

Pace

I believe that Emilee, the littlest niece, was watching something on TV or listening to the radio. The subtitles were translations to the kids song being played in the background, not translations of the dialogue between the sisters. I think this was done deliberately. I tried hard to read the subtitles to the song to see if there might be a tie-in to what was going on in the movie, but I found it difficult to concentrate on the sisters and the subtitles since they were disjointed. My guess is that the kids song probably was an intended tie-in. It was like Pierre, her son, was talking to her. I'd have to see the film again to ascertain if my hunch is correct.

I just came back from watching a preview of the film here in Sydney. Perhaps they released different versions, but what the one I watched did not go silent at the end. There was audio up to the last sentence, "I am here."

I agree about what you said about the sister. Surely she would have known about the illness. But then, I remembered that she said her parents erased Juliette from her life. I'm sure the parents knew about her son's illness but since they would not speak about the incident or Juliette herself, it's understandable that Lea herself would forget the details. Remember when she was so upset with herself that she forgot things like from her time with her sister like going to the café after her dance classes?

It's clear (however far fetched) that no one knew about the son's illness, not even the husband. Whether it would have come out in an autopsy who knows?

French trials are run differently than UK trials, the magistrate essentially directs the investigation.

What I do think is highly unlikely is that given she remained pretty much mute throughout the trial it seems more likely they would have sent her to a mental hospital. Unless she specifically directed her lawyers not to use diminished responsibility or whatever as a mitigating factor. I don't know if a defendant could be overruled on that, but either way, if they didn't know it was a deliberate act of euthanasia then surely it would have been seen as an act carried out due to some mental breakdown. There was essentially no motive. She had no history of violence or criminal record.

The thing that is hardest to believe (and justify) is that she would have kept the child's father in the dark. Unless they were somehow estranged by the time the child fell ill, but even then it seems unlikely.

I don't think you mean the VERY end; but when Lea hears back from the doctor on the phone and finds out Pierre (Juliette's son) was gravely ill. Lea's older daughter is next to Lea in a chair reading a book. She is reading the book semi-out-loud and the words are translated in the subtitles (the words seem to be a veiled reference to a knight's struggle against death by the way). Right after that, the sisters argue about why Juliette didn't tell anyone the truth, and although the dialogue is a bit hard to hear in anguished high-pitches, it is not silent. Lea tells Juliette 'I'm here, I love you.' At the VERY end, after the sisters have cried and argued themselves out, Michel comes into the house downstairs and yells up to them. Juliette finally answers and says, 'Je suis la' or 'I'm here.'

While flawed in a few minor ways, a devastating and devastatingly good movie.