User Reviews

The English au pair Helena takes care of the autistic boy Bertrand, son of the English mother Caroline and her Dutch husband Jean Paul Griveau, both engaged "at the fringe of the criminal world". The father drives Helena and Bertrand to the family's country house in Aubersac which renovates by local workers, among them the summer working law student Alain. Seeing Helena mothers ring on her finger, Jean Paul gets the idea that she should act as his wife, supervising the lazy workers. But Helenas low keyed kindness is effect less. Telling Alain to do the work, having received money, they leave. A love affair develops between her and him, Helena and Alain, being Bertrands alternative 'parents'. The sudden arrival of the Griveaus makes it impossible for them to meet 'next day'. In the course of Griveaus sexual abuse, Helena, self defending herself, kills him with a brick stone. And in self defense minutes later the cause of his wife. Helena wipes out all traces by setting everything on fire and runs away with Bertrand. Two years later realizes the young lawyer Alain Dercourt, visited by an English detective, showing him a newspaper clip of the Griveaus, that Helena never was 'Mme Griveau', memorizing her question, 'Alain, suppose I am not Mme Griveau?'. With the help of the photos he took on their excursion and inquiries, he spots her, Helena living with her 'son' Bertrand in a village. Seeing him, she leaves a note at his hotel to meet her. She tells him: "If we do not see you anymore, I know that you love really me." Not accepting her demand he comes to her house. Bertrand sees the newspaper clip with a picture of his parents, Bertrand takes it to school, The teacher contacts the police. Until Bertrand feels safe in the symbiosis of Helena and Alain, his transitional object is a red toy car, loosing it into the well, not needing it anymore. Another transitional object is Helenas ring, a gift from her dying mother, the cause to act in Aubersac as 'Mme Griveau' and given seconds before she meets the police to Alain as token for the future. Other objects is the chess piece, the white horse and the pair of scissors. The chess piece, repaired by Alain, is Helena memory, using it as recognizing key when Alain gets her note in the village. He has it with him when coming to their house, Helena returning it after their night of lovemaking: "Take it and go." Before the film starts we see scissors among the instruments of the man, sharpening the pair of scissors which should cut Bertrands hair but kills the mother. Another object is the newspaper clip, showing for Alain the real Mme Griveau. The speechless Bertrand makes sounds, being with Helena and Alain, pronouncing at the end of the film when showing Elena the newspaper clip: 'Pappa, Mamma, Mamma, Pappa'. We know something of her mother and a lot of Alains father and his profession. Her life after the Aubersac in the village with her 'son' is a dyadic, symbiotic prison. She tells Alain that she had a choice in Aubersac: Bertrand. "We can't live together with you and we do not want you." And repeats: "For another person is no room." Like this speaks a prisoner, hoping for release. Alain asks Bertrand, showing the newspaper clip: "What has happened to them?" Helena stops Bertrand to the answer. After their love night Helena forces Alain to verbalize what she has done: "If you love me, say it. Say it!" His answer that it doesn't matter is not listened to: 'Say it that I can hear it.' Alain, the law: "You killed them" and tries to seduce the law. She sees outside Bertrand with the newspaper clip, his teacher and the police. Helena leaves the house, speaks with Bertrand and, ensuring her love to Alain, gives him the ring. Helena will after her time in prison be Mme Dercourt: "For me it was a love story, besides what others think, it is still like this."