Let's put it this way. Briony never actually saw first hand the suffering she put Robbie through as a result of her lie. The reason this scene is in the film and is so important is because it relies on no element of her imagination whatsoever. Here she confronts the ugliness of the reality which she doomed Robbie to. It's moments like this where she quite literally and figuratively, has blood all over her. Sure she realises that telling a story and suspending disbelief can aid someone through trauma ie. her playing along with the soldier's story - but she moreover realises the full weight of her actions - no matter how much she may excuse her storytelling, she's guilty. She knows it. You can now just see in her eyes her reeling from how on earth she can go living with that fact.
Exactly! It is so touching, the aspect of this scene you just explained, I always thought so too! Also, I would add it is sort of an irony, sort of a contrast to Briony as a 13 year old and her thoughts. I read the book and it is not different than the movie, only a bit more detailed, especially in psycological portraits and shades of the story. So let me explain what I meant by the irony - in the book the thoughts of the 13 year old Briony are explained really well - her way of thinking was explained exactly to make sense - how delusional and infatuated she was by her own ideas: She almost made Robbie fiction. The play she wrote in the begining of the movie was just "childish writing" to her, it was only her past attempt to be more grown up and taken seriously after she saw the fountain scene. She poeticized the idea of bad events - they were shocking and painful, but she almost longed for painful events just so she could have something grand, dramatic going on in her life, so she could feel so big and mature - basically she was a drama queen, she did feel the pain and was not a complete psycopath nor sadist but she loved the idea of her role in something so grand. Anyway, you are probably wondering why that matters but bare with my for a little longer. So, when she threw away the idea of the past play since now she had something real going on -she discovered Robbie, whom she knew her whole childhood, was "bad". So she thought about writing something new about recent events and about Robbie and made up how she would portray and describe him and made up more things about him so her idea would fit with the reality etc. Basically, she made Robbie one of her characters, she made him fiction. In this scene, Luc truly believes she is this girl he talks about. So in this scene - Briony is partly fiction. In a way she wants to be fiction - because then she would not be her - the girl who did something so horrible and unforgivable, so she plays along with his story (and because he is dying so it would be inhumane to explain to him that she is not the english girl he met). But in a way, it is punishment for her, being so unimportant, being fiction, being the girl Luc talks about, just like the "bad dramatized Robbie" she made up in her head and by doing so ruined the real, kind and sweet Robbie - that is why she says her name so desperately before he dies, she is hurt by how she made this Robbie up and as a result became THIS Briony. While real Briony, the happy girl she was and the real, healthy Robbie who did not go to war, are fiction - they no longer exist.
This is the most touching scene of this movie and even in movie history in general. At the end she feels so close to this french man that she passionately says to him that her first name is Briony which is very moving to see for me.
I always thought this is Briony's punishment for what she did. She genuinely loved Luc in that moment, only to lose him as soon as she told him. Now she knows how Cecilia felt.
I think it was just to show that at the end of his life he was thinking about all the opportunities at love he didn’t take. So he did that with Briony, she served as a personification of all those opportunities that he didn’t take but is now taking on his deathbed. So heartbreaking 💔
The French soldier had a serious head injury and was confused, mistaking Briony for someone else. Briony played along, pretending to be the girl he once knew, and she got swept up in the emotion, coincidence, and tragic romance of the moment. Played beautifully by both actors. I read that the director actually came very close to cutting this scene - but it's now one of his favorite scenes in the film. (Mine too)
This scene is so beautifully designed for Briony to confront reality with this dying soldier. Of course, he represents Robbie, a dying young man, whom she doomed to the horrors of prison and war, and whom, like this soldier wanted just peace and love. And had them, before her lie took them away from him and Cecilia. She is now confronted with the monstrosity of her storytelling, her lie has been accepted a truth and has created the reality of Robbie being forced to fight in the war and die in the war.
when you think about it ..this a type of punishment , to see a love that could never be taken from you . her sister had a crush on Robbie that turned into early love but the process was stunted when Briony got jealous and lied . a love never to be loved
When watching this scene i was suspicious of the soldiers sanity. But when she loosened his headband it was all too clear. I felt bad but happy that he had someome by his side..but my gawd that actor tugged on my heart strings hes good i hope to see him in more work. And as for briony she deserved that.
I was watching this movie online when this scene came out. I didn't understand a word and there were no subtitles. Thanks for posting this on youtube! ^^
I think she paled in comparison to Saoirse Ronan and Radcliffe. Great actors always add to the role, for example Saoirse was so intense and nuanced in her performance, while Romola is just timid and almost one-dimensional. I also feel that Saoirse was the true Briony and we lost her when Romola came. You can be broken and intense and in fact Briony should have been as an adult, that intensity now focused on herself. I recently watched Saoirse Ronan in Little Women and she was so deep as a character, so beautifully complex and multidimensional, I was in awe. Sadly I see none of that in Romola, just physical beauty and very average performance. This scene here, as well as the one where Robbie confronts her in Cecilia's place allow for much more intensity than what Romola showed.
@@fede1969 he just says "your sister" and "that guy she was in love with" which could be any one of thousands of young adults in any town in almost any part of the world. Briony supplies names & fills in the gaps from her own imagination like she did years ago, only this time it brings a tiny bit of comfort to someone about to die rather than condemning an innocent man to prison.
