Quite literally an emotional ride, "I'll Wait for the Next One" offers the promise of a fateful encounter only to be challenged abruptly by a surprise ending. The surprise works because our feelings are channeled through the eyes of the woman, whom in becoming the dupe of the male perpetrator forces viewers along to share in her struggle. The film thus raises many questions regarding the nature of the conflict it depicts: why is it not surprising that the man is the perpetrator and the woman is the dupe? Why are we drawn to believe the man's story, and what does his final action reveal about the nature of men as societal beings? Is the ending a fault of the woman or of the man? If the woman is at fault, do women need to just be more careful in an overtly oppressive society? Or if the man is at fault, does he need to be more considerate of the extent to which his actions inflict damage upon society? The depiction is that both the woman and the man are at the extreme ends of their respective depths of capacity for emotional sentiment, and it is a very crude depiction that does little to progress away from the repression inherent to patriarchal societies. However, the responsibility to answer the questions posed by the film lies in the viewer, and as a result so too does the responsibility to make any changes in the real world away from what we see on screen.
Review of J'attendrai le suivant...
