John F Kennedy, president of the United States once stated that “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”. This quote reflects the messages in the film “He loves me, he loves me not” where L. Coloumbani cleverly allows the viewer to understand the importance of perspectives when looking at the truth. It allows us to think and not just jump ahead and assume that whatever we see from a person’s perspective is the truth.
In the first half of the film “He loves me, he loves me not” the viewer is persuaded to believe that an innocent girl named Angelique who is madly in love with a married cardiologist (Loic), is being used and abused by him. However in the latter half of the film we, the viewer, see the film from Loic’s point of view which then we find out that what we just saw was just pathological point of view of Angelique who is diagnosed with Erotomania in the end of the film.
Gradually we start to relook at what we just saw and start to realise that what Angelique saw as a relationship was just an illusion. Furthermore, in the second half of the film L. Coloumbani has also recreated an image of loic as of a loving and caring husband of a standard family. It is a picture of a happy and perfect marriage, however is ruined from the unknown stalker Angelique who frequently sends him gifts and messages.
Though for Angelique we have misunderstood a girl who we thought was a sweet and loving girl who was the victim of a player, for a person we now know is a dangerous harasser who ruined a man’s life. Therefore, it allows for us to now open our minds to the different perspective and that the truth is never just from a person’s perspective. Throughout the film, L. Coloumbani explores the theme of reality versus illusion. In the first half of the film she has allowed for us to view Angelique’s point of view of her relationship with Loic which then we find out that what we saw was only just an illusion.
When we get to the other half of the film, the truth starts to unfold and we start to see Loic’s point of view which is the reality. An example of this is when we see saw Angelique and Loic at the park, the medium and close up shot of their facial expression shows that they are having a really great time together. However, we start to see the reality when there was the long shot of the whole park when Loic told the story. This shows that Loic didn’t go to the park with Angelique but with his wife and friends.
The close up of Loic facial expression when he was looking at the pictures drawn by Angelique shows that he didn’t appreciate the pictures and assume that someone is stalking him or his friend’s son, making him feel nervous and scared. Hence, Coloumbani tries further emphasize the truth in reality versus illusion, that in order to find out the truth we must the get whole picture of the situation rather than just basing the truth on just the one perspective.
Furthermore, Coloumbani has also related the theme of love versus obsession with the film “He loves me, He loves me not”. Defining love it means an intense feeling of deep affection, passion and attachment towards someone. In the first half of the film we thought that Angelique was really in love with Loic and he loved her back, but really it was just Angelique who is obsessed with Loic which meant that Angelique was blinded from the fact that Loic is really in love with her.
In the first half of the film when we saw Angelique smelling onto Loic’s scarf we think that the scarf was a gift to her and she is smelling the scarf as it represents Loic, the close up of Angelique’s facial expression shows that she is really in love with him, but in the latter half of the film we find out that the scarf wasn’t a gift to her but that she just found it on the floor when Rachel (Loic’s wife) dropped it when going to the park. Another scene that reflects on love versus obsession is when Loic enters the room in Angelique’s house, he finds a portrait of himself made out of different scraps.
The scary non-diegetic music and Loic’s facial expression when he opens the door to the portrait emphasizes how frightened he was and Angelique’s obsession with Loic. Thus, Coloumbani relates the film to truth by saying real love is not just about affection and passion but about trust and understanding towards each other. Furthermore, the use of dialogue and music has been used to further help us discover Angelique’s blindness to the truth. For example in the first half of the film we were shown a scene where Loic and Rachel was fighting, while Angelique was trying out the wedding dress and planning the trip to Florence.
The use of no dialogue and the romantic non-diegetic music gives us a sense that Loic is going to break up with Rachel, while contrasting to that Angelique is like preparing for the wedding and trip which tell us that it’s all going to work out for her and Angelique’s relationship is going to become how to dreamt it to be. However, when we get to see the latter half we then get to hear the dialogue with no music and no scene of Angelique. Here we start to hear what they were arguing about and then soon find out that Rachel and Loic didn’t really breakup.
Hence, by cleverly using dialogue and music, Coloumbani has got to us that we can’t really just assume that what we see is the truth but we have to get the whole perspective to figure out what is actually the truth. Summing it up, L. Coloumbani reinforces that the truth can be found out after looking through all the different perspective of the situation. Although we thought that Angelique’s story was the truth, after we saw Loic’s point of view we can start to realise that Angelique’s point of view was just all an illusion. Hence Coloumbani tries to make us realise that perspective is really important when trying to find out the truth.
