The Film
The film opens with Pascale trying on a negligee in
front of her bedroom mirror and calling for one of her twenty
year-old sons, François, who appears wearing only his underpants
and a t-shirt, to give her his opinion about how she looks. They
are soon joined by his twin, Thierry, similarly dressed, who makes
some jokingly crude and hurtful comments about his mother. From
this first scene we understand immediately the difficult and
disrespectful relationship that exists between Pascale and her
sons. As we watch her prepare meals for them, which her sons always
eat ravenously whilst criticising everything she says, it becomes
apparent that Pascale has no parental control over them, but
especially over Thierry’s angry bullying behaviour. When she
returns home from work one day to find her ex husband in the house
with their sons, she becomes enraged and asks him to see them
elsewhere, frustrated by the intrusion into her personal space
which so undermines her authority. Filmed with slow static takes
that perfectly capture the claustrophobic atmosphere within the
rooms of the home, Private Property painfully portrays the
intense emotional interactions between the twin brothers and their
mother.
Private Property shows the difficult job
of a single mother, dependent on the financial support of her ex
husband, struggling to make things good for her sons without the
balance and support of another adult partner in the home. Her
devotion to her sons has been her major focus for the ten years
since the divorce until she begins to recognise the need to focus
on her own life again. We learn that she is having a secret
relationship with her neighbour, Jan, a cook who wants her to sell
up the family home and move away with him to open up a B & B.
She gradually builds the courage to tell her sons this plan, but
they are so shocked at the prospect of a change to their lives that
they completely forbid a sale of the house, which they remind her
was bought by their father for them. Thierry meets with his father,
Luc, to inform him of Pascale’s plan and is reassured by him that
she will not be allowed to sell the house. However, François
reflects on the possibility of actually helping his mother and Jan
in the B & B, revealing a difference between the brothers in
their relationships with Pascale. Throughout the film we are shown
scenes of the brothers playing table tennis and computer games or
lounging in front of the TV whilst waiting for Pascale to feed
them.
Desperate for some adult support in regaining
parental authority in the discussion about her future, Pascale
invites her lover Jan to supper. He cooks the family a special meal
and is rewarded by rudeness from Thierry and disinterest in eating
his food. Soon after, Jan tells Pascale that she must sort out her
relationship with her sons before he can see her again and she
becomes more isolated than ever. The brothers start to argue more
frequently between themselves, and with their mother, causing the
family to finally disintegrate when Pascale leaves home in search
of some space for herself, unable to cope with Thierry’s
behaviour.
I will not describe the end scenes in any detail,
except to say that they reveal the ultimate emotional vulnerability
and immaturity of Thierry, whose anger finally causes great damage
to the family. We come to understand that there has been a
catastrophic failure in helping him to process the deep hurt and
loss that he experienced as a result of his parents divorce and
that he has continued to suffer as a result of their ongoing poor
relationship. Perhaps appropriately for the subject matter, the
film concludes without resolution.
Relevance to the field of Mental Health
Private Property provides us with a window on the world
of the post divorce family ten years from their break up and gives
us an opportunity to reflect on the harm of continuing conflict
between divorced parents over many years. The film is especially
good at illustrating the damaging effects that an acrimonious
divorce can have on older children, particularly when their
divorced parents continue to undermine each other as they fight for
the allegiance of their children. Because Luc has bought the
farmhouse for his sons and ex wife, he remains essentially in
control of the family, depriving Pascale of any freedom to move on.
Her dilemma is very well performed by Huppert as the downtrodden,
impoverished, exhausted single mother who is trying too hard to put
her sons needs first, trapped by the role that she has played in
creating their inconsiderate selfishness, whilst unable to realise
her own desired future.
Private Property might also be of
particular interest to psychotherapists, working with families or
individuals, as a focus for discussion about the role of
inter-personal boundaries within relationships. Indeed the film
opens with a dedication “To our boundaries”, setting the
psychological agenda that will be explored. The close bond that is
presented between the twin brothers, as we watch them shampooing
each other’s hair in a shared bath, gives rise to uncomfortable
feelings of an inappropriate inter-personal boundary between the
siblings, characterised by inadequate emotional separation from
each other and from their mother. Later on in the film we witness
the dangerous consequences of that inadequate separation. In the
opening scene in which Pascale asks François for his opinion of her
newly purchased undergarment, we are in equally uncomfortable
territory, as we witness a sexualised conversation between a mother
and her adult sons. As a training exercise for those wanting to
work with families in distress as a result of divorce, this film
offers a wealth of opportunities for observing both verbal and
non-verbal interactions that point to the difficulties each family
member is experiencing.
For further reading, The Royal College of
Psychiatry website has a good factsheet on the effect that separation and
divorce of parents may have on children and young people, in their
Mental Health and Growing Up series. The website Divorce Aid also
has a number of relevant pages for
teenagers. As such, this film could be used as a springboard
for discussions about the effects of divorce on the mental health
of children for medical students and psychiatric trainees.
• Further information about Private
Property can be found at IMDB.
• The DVD can be purchased at
amazon.co.uk., but only from third party sellers. However it is
available to rent from various sources.
• Minds on Film is written by
Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Joyce Almeida
|