Markus: "And this spot, at the heart of these Nathalies, is where I'm going to hide."By David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos
With Audrey Tautou, François Damiens, Bruno Todeschini
I've always had a certain special thing for Audrey Tautou. She often plays vulnerable characters with purity of heart and deep sensitivity which is often hard to find delicately portrayed in films, much less in romantic comedies, as this film is.
In Delicacy, Nathalie is heart broken after her husband of three years dies in a freak accident. But as is the case with attractive young women, men around her seem to see the death as an opportunity to finally get to sleep with her, as is the case with Nathalie's manager (who we know hires her because he falls for the small passport photo on her resume). The questions the film revolves around are how will Nathalie ever stop grieving? Will she be able to love again?
This is a film of chance, in many ways. Her chance meeting with her departed husband in a cafe, the inner dialogue in his mind as he watched her order--telling himself that if she orders apricot juice, he will go up to talk to her--the fact that she almost orders coffee but instead orders apricot juice, the way her passport photo caught the eyes of a company manager and his hiring her, the chance meeting with Markus, an otherwise invisible and quiet Swedish man of few words and few friends who works in the same company and was assigned to the same committee for a project. For me it highlighted just how some of the most important events of life are precisely just chance, no matter how much design we wish to attribute to it. I would say many romantic comedies play on this theme of chance, but this does so in an utterly conscious way, revealing something so strangely delicate about human character, about our lives, and even to an extent the level of powerlessness we may have.
Nevertheless, I think the film also questions this element of chance. Her late husband and her meeting seemed almost too perfect, there seemed to be no struggles, no fights, no misunderstandings, he was handsome and a gentleman and he made no hesitation to ask her to marry him. For me it seemed that in a way it made him less human, and perhaps his character can be interpreted as Nathalie as a young girl's wish fulfillment dreams. It's exactly what every little girl might dream of -- a handsome stranger who dashes into your life and changes everything and there is never any awkwardness and everyone gets along.
I enjoyed little details of the film like the last words she shared with her husband (they were rather critical and banal words, the kind of thing that is easy to say to someone who you expect to be around not thinking of it in terms of the last words you'll ever tell them). The feeling of grief is portrayed masterfully, a book Nathalie had been reading before hearing the news afterwards becomes just a lump, a detached object. The color that that seeps into life when in love brilliantly blooms in this film -- once when she meets her departed husband, and again with her growing relationship with Markus.
As for Markus, I think he was simply lovely. I believe he represented for Nathalie a more mature love -- a less glamorous, stylized version of what she had before. I think it's important that for Nathalie, this time it was her who asked him out the first time, she who stunned him into silence by kissing him unexpectedly the first time he ever stepped into her office (the kiss which she is unable to explain to the viewer or her friends, but which I interpreted as a sort of instinctive knowledge on her part that she would be safe with him) the charming way that he was just a sort of awkward man, who had no special lines or moves and simply listened to her words and felt blessed to be around her.
While we know little about Markus, we can deduce he is wary of love, as the the moment he realizes he is beginning to care for her, he refuses to physically see her in order to prevent "heartache". Nevertheless he gives her a chance, only to find himself suddenly spotlighted and mocked by people for not being "good enough" for her. In a tender moment, she shyly touches his cheek, and takes him to her most special place, to the village where her grandmother still lives and to the garden behind her house.
What I loved best about this film was their tender and believable way of getting to know one another. The first night they spend together is spent sitting across each other on a couch, holding hands, and falling asleep. The next morning they drink coffee and eat expired Melba biscuits with butter. You can almost see the world dissolving around them, and the people in it jealous of this rare and innocent connection, and doing whatever they can in some way to break it, despite of and perhaps because this connection is the one thing they want.
A coming of age film, both Nathalie and Markus quietly blossom into the best versions of themselves. What a poignant look at the revolutionary power of intimacy and human connection!
I liked: The small details in this film were so wonderfully thought out. Nathalie's best friend in one scene has tears in her eyes while watching Nathalie dance in a bar, and her tears seem to signify so many things at once. The dialogue was refreshing, never falling into cliche nor trying too hard. I loved how the characters could be silent when they wanted to. You can be sure there is no overacting, just the pure enjoyment of one another's company. The casting was superb, and the characters had real chemistry.
I disliked: At times more things could have been explained. I think the film attempted to be edgy and cool sometimes and characters did out of character things -- it made the viewer have to suspend their belief at times which detracted from the narrative flow. But only for a second.
87/100
A refreshing love story for even the most jaded of viewers. I highly recommend!
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