SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.In addition to the lack of exploration in the storylines, the text approach used to introduce each narrative felt a bit lacking creatively. The technique is fine in terms of setting the story up and helping keep the parts coherently ordered, but it feels like more ambition in switching between the perspectives via some other type of visual or narrative marker would help embellish the characters’ perspectives better.

2. While I find the repetition of Marguerite’s rape with Jacques to be gratuitous, namely due to the few differences between the both of their interpretations regarding what happened, I also find the doubling may be a way of demonstrating that even in Jacques mind , he knows that his action is wrong. The key difference between both scenes is the length Jacques “plays” with Marguerite before forcing himself on her. In his version, the interaction between the two is slightly more playful, just enough so to justify, in his mind, the idea that Marguerite was enticing him.

However, her disgust and pleas for the situation to stop indicate that even with Jacque’s chauvinism coloring the scene, the brutality of what’s happened is comprehensible. This is reinforced by the conversation Jacques has with Count Pierre (Ben Affleck) wherein he reveals to the latter the nature of his encounter and it’s clear that while both men know what’s really happened, they can disguise it with euphemism internally and fully reject it publicly.