Cavities

This a beautifully shot, dramatic scene, framed by a thunderstorm. Olivier enters Julie’s house soaking wet. The room looks somewhat like a Van Gogh painting. She tells him to take it off, which Olivier interprets as his rain coat, she responds “all of it.”

Olivier then proceeds to remove his clothes in the slowest manner possible given the situation. After about 10 seconds of this, Julie removes her shirt. The symphony begins to play on the soundtrack. We only see her undressed from the shoulders and back, indicative of how tasteful the scene is staged. The image of Julie like this, unsurprisingly, quickens Oliver’s pace. He approaches her. She pulls him toward her and says “they took everything. Only the mattress is left.”

They kiss only for a second. The scene then cuts to Olivier asleep on the mattress. A cup of coffee is set down beside him, indicative that they shared the bed overnight as well. I suppose Julie exaggerated that they took away everything, how then did she make coffee? But no matter. Oliver smiles at Julie, and for the first time in the movie, she smiles as well.

Julie says “I appreciate what you did for me.” I assume she means his visit to the hospital, making sure that she could see the funeral on television. Then she adds “But you see, I’m like any other woman. I sweat. I cough. I have cavities. You won’t miss me. I’m sure you realize that now.” Olivier looks stunned at what she just said. Before he can formulate works, Julie says “shut the door when you leave.”

And she just walks out. Olivier does rush to the window to yell after her. Why he didn’t just run after her to talk, well, it wouldn’t look as dramatic, so it’s a small filmmakers indulgence.

Kieslowski said in interviews that he throws in these little actions that Julie takes to help her shut out other people, little repetitive actions that focus her mind on personal sensations, not voices or the thoughts of others. In this scene, she runs her right hand against a stone wall as she walks away, scraping it, inflicting some pain.

So what does it all mean? Julie gives away part of it when she thanks Olivier. She believes she owes him something before she disappears, so why not allow him to live out a fantasy? But I also have to think there’s some revenge being inflicted on Patrice. She’s clearly not mourning him and thinks nothing of sleeping with his collaborator at the first opportunity.

Her description of why he won’t miss her—sweat, cough and cavities—is quite funny. No man is going to reject a woman over those things. And if Julie truly believes that Olivier has lost interest with her after one sexual encounter, she clearly doesn’t understand men at all.

With this scene, Julie completes her disconnection to her past life. She will now move on to an entirely new existence, free of connection to anyone she knew. Except for her mother, whose memory and connection to the present is fading fast.