Movie Moments & Jérémie Renier

I recently went and saw the movie Atonement about two lovers who are torn apart by a young girl's vivid imagination and lies. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie but it was one, small, 5 minute scene from the whole movie that really caught my attention and touched my heart. 

In the movie (which is set partly during 

WW II), a wounded French soldier is brought into a London hospital for treatment. The scene opened with a French speaking nurse requested to "go and sit with the soldier in bed 13 - and hold his hand." A strange request as all the nurses are trained to be impersonal in everything they do. The nurse does as she is told and when she is seated, the soldier turns his head and seemingly delirious, starts a conversation with the nurse believing her to be his sweetheart from his French village. He introduces himself as the young Luc Cotard and talks to the nurse of missing how he helped his father in the town bakery and how he enjoyed the visits that she would give to him. As the scene progresses, the nurse and the audience discover the soldier has a fatal head wound and this seems to make it so much worse for the nurse who has grown attached to this sympathetic figure. Some of his final words to the nurse is that

 "You know, my father expects to see us married next spring in the town church so we can stay happy forever." 

After this touching moment, the soldier's head falls softly to his pillow where he does not rise again.

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The first thing that this scene did for me was enhance my feelings of love for all those who served in wars, still serve in wars and all their families who suffer to have them go. Luc Cotard, though just a fictional character, provided the perfect image of the innocents who are caught up in war. The scene was definitely powerful with the simple soft words of missed memories and the atmosphere set by the actors and the environment they were in.

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Now when it comes to movies, I have a really good eye for recognizing actors and what other movies they have done. I recognized the actor who played Luc Cotard as Jérémie Renier a great Belgium 

born, French based actor who had 

done some other pretty amazing films such 

as Brotherhood of the Wolf

and The Child. This brief appearance of him in this movie 

highlighted the joy I take in lesser 

well-known actors, such as 

Jérémie. 

He certainly did a great job and made my 

day by being in the movie.

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I must admit, I am a hard one to make cry in movies and the things I do cry over are not your usuals. The only scene that stung my eyes with tears in Atonement was the panning and drifting scene of Dunkirk. The disintegrating British armies waiting for evacuation on the beaches of Dunkirk are seen in their various activities where the men were left up to themselves. As the camera moves among the thousands of men, you see some sad settings (shell shocked soldiers, animals being put down) but also some happier moments where soldiers tried to genuinely amuse themselves (sometimes the grog, sometimes the abandoned merry-go-round and ferris wheel). As the camera moves steadily up the churned sand hills to a pavilion that jetties out over the sand, the hauntingly, sad sound of men singing can be heard over the ruckus of thousands. The pavilion is filled with rows of fatigued, dirty men - young and old - singing as they look out to sea, almost as if they could see their homeland. That moment of the soldier choir was something that really touched me and maybe...

just maybe...

there was a tear or two.

♥