This, for me, is a film about becoming lost but needing to find a way back to connection with the world and your purpose.
A philosophy teacher disconnected from her job is confronted by her husband announcing he is leaving her for another women. Shortly afterwards we see her committing her elderly mother to a care home and subsequently inheriting her mother's cat. She claims to be allergic to the cat- I think this is poignant for her later transformation. Later on her mother dies and she finds herself lost, confused, upset and puzzled by the meaning of everything around her
She goes to stay with her former student Fabian in the french countryside. After being picked up at the train station by him she tells him this is the first time she has truly been free- her mother has gone, her children have left home and her husband as left her. She seems to sigh with an aura of bliss but with a bitter sweet ambience of helplessness.
She brings her cat along on her little trip and the cat disappears into the wilderness and she spends the evening shouting into the abyss for her. The next morning when the cat returns she is overwhelmed with relief as her cat presents a freshly caught mouse for her, strangely cuddling the cat (Pandora) without showing signs of any allergy. That cat that she was fed up with and saw as a nuisance is her saviour. She needs to find purpose and meaning in her world that has dissipated before her eyes.
We see at the end of the film after she has prepared dinner at Christmas for her family her grandson is crying in the bedroom. Her daughter- the new mother- gets up to see to him- but the now grandmother tells her she will see to him...then comforts him in her arms and roll the credits.
Some may see this as a collection of very well acted, realist scenes exploring relationships between her and the people she encounters but deeper I feel the film is about the need to find purpose and when this disappears it can be found in the strangest of places - including a cat you're allergic too!
A philosophy teacher disconnected from her job is confronted by her husband announcing he is leaving her for another women. Shortly afterwards we see her committing her elderly mother to a care home and subsequently inheriting her mother's cat. She claims to be allergic to the cat- I think this is poignant for her later transformation. Later on her mother dies and she finds herself lost, confused, upset and puzzled by the meaning of everything around her
She goes to stay with her former student Fabian in the french countryside. After being picked up at the train station by him she tells him this is the first time she has truly been free- her mother has gone, her children have left home and her husband as left her. She seems to sigh with an aura of bliss but with a bitter sweet ambience of helplessness.
She brings her cat along on her little trip and the cat disappears into the wilderness and she spends the evening shouting into the abyss for her. The next morning when the cat returns she is overwhelmed with relief as her cat presents a freshly caught mouse for her, strangely cuddling the cat (Pandora) without showing signs of any allergy. That cat that she was fed up with and saw as a nuisance is her saviour. She needs to find purpose and meaning in her world that has dissipated before her eyes.
We see at the end of the film after she has prepared dinner at Christmas for her family her grandson is crying in the bedroom. Her daughter- the new mother- gets up to see to him- but the now grandmother tells her she will see to him...then comforts him in her arms and roll the credits.
Some may see this as a collection of very well acted, realist scenes exploring relationships between her and the people she encounters but deeper I feel the film is about the need to find purpose and when this disappears it can be found in the strangest of places - including a cat you're allergic too!