𝓨𝓪𝓻𝓪

Max at the bar - until I watched this, I thought Max and Lisa worked together at a pretty raucous bar/strip club, but actually it's a really low-key smoky place for older working class Francophones, one of whom shows up near the end of the film to make fun of Max's English (after he calls Ruiz & Associates). this scene shows Max flipping through a heavily annotated and bookmarked coffee table book on Australia. if nothing else it highlighted to me the sort of...helpless childishness of the dream, like his idea of Australia is a vintage picture of a blond cowboy herding cattle in the bush, oh Max. without this context, in the film, my impression at least was that Max had planned everything and was being pretty systematic about his decision, but after I saw this scene I had to wonder if he had actually thought about his life in Australia beyond completing the steps for the working visa.

Erika's extended explanation - right before the kiss at the lake house. it's the scene where Erika is going on and on about how "you're like, two women or two men, and then bam!"/"super expressionist but like impressionist at the same time" etc. this is just a longer version. no idea how anyone managed to keep a straight face during this scene, Camille Felton was too freaking good. I was dying.

Max after the fight with Manon - poor baby!! this one's Manon mocking Max from the sofa while Max cries offscreen (just before he punches the mirror) and a sequence post-mirror-break where he cleans himself up. I can see why it was cut—maybe the agony was too intense for what Xavier calls one of his most ~restrained films. (some kind soul has put this on YouTube - Scène coupée)

Three dudes carrying a mattress - hilariously weird, complete tonal shift from the rest of the film. takes place just after the farewell dinner, while la bande is waiting for Matt and Sarah to finish their discussion. Max sees three attractive young men carrying a mattress down the street in slow motion. the music that plays is similar to the very avant-garde metallic screeching and grinding that played during Erika's short film. Max makes eye contact.

THE. KISS - ok so I already made a post where I absolutely lost my shit about this, but basically, yes the kiss at Shariff's is THE one good movie kiss, but this kiss blows it out of the water. Imo, the kiss at Shariff's shows us two people who want to have sex with each other and are still kind of amazed and frightened by the depth of their desire, but there's some ambiguity about how they actually feel (love or lust?); the kiss in Erika's film is two people in love. the distinction! is wild! how many times have i watched this (more times than I care to admit)! it starts out so awkwardly but boy! howdy! do they get into it. and so quickly! they're just. melting into it. Matt's smiling. Matt's pulling Max closer. it's so good it's so good but at the same time it absolutely could not have gone into the film because it makes the whole thing a foregone conclusion. in those few seconds you can see it all over Matt's face: he is stupid in love.

I tried to rip the kiss scene so I could upload it but alas I am a dinosaur. I have a shaky phone video of it instead. 😅 Enjoy?