I know I haven’t posted about movies lately, I’ve been catching up with series and watching movies that didn’t really inspired me to write something. I’m glad that I could make some time to see this French film on the 21º French Film Tour that is presented every year at my college campus because this one really hit my core and I feel like every woman should see it. So keep reading if you want a little boost of empowerment.
The film is about a 40-something single woman who is a cancer survivor, after that hard struggle she now feels that she has no purpose and she can’t find a motivation in life, she feels ugly, useless, worthless and lonely. Every person around her seems to be okay with their lives and no longer including her, she has to find her own path again. In that process, that is no easy at all for her, the movie touches different topics that many women can relate to.
First, there’s this situation with beauty and what makes her feel good about herself, she needs to appreciate her beauty from the inside-out, especially since she doesn't have hair, and then she has to face a double mastectomy. She learns as the movie goes, that it’s easier to be naked in front of an audience than showing her weaknesses and strengths with family, friends, and lovers than showing who we are, even the parts that we hate about ourselves. In that same page, there are issues that include the hard moments of a mom-daughter relationship, where sometimes our insecurities may come from a mother that was maybe too hard for us, that never truly taught us how to love ourselves and know our worth. We shouldn't take too much time and get to 80 years old to be comfortable in our own skin.
Another important and relevant topic is the dating and love part. Considering the unstable and sad place where she was, it was nearly impossible for her to trust someone and believe that she could be loved, so when she meets a man, she kept pushing him away, not because she wasn’t interested in him, but because she was afraid of getting hurt, when she was already down. It is important to recognize that the only person who can save us from such a dark place is ourselves, but is nice to face those demons while being in a relationship with someone that cares. A woman has to be strong to put herself out there and trust someone that might leave, only hoping that they don’t.
A girl raised by a women that taught her how to love herself and her value wouldn’t risk that for a boy that might leave as soon as things get complicated, not for a boy, not for anybody, so that’s how important is for mothers to be aware and loving to their daughters and sons, love makes us brave and strong. But let’s be real, not all women understand that, and sometimes they put fear on their kids, sometimes they have to fight harder to find their own voices, even if that means fighting against the mean things your own family tells you.
The lesson that is throughout the movie and I also found inspiring was the one we hear all the time and yet, we still don’t practice it enough: stop basing our happiness on something or someone that is not yourself. We bitter our lives paying more attention to problems and situations that probably aren’t that complicated, rather than enjoying what we love and makes us happy, we need to learn to use what we find interesting, and what brought us joy and toss what hurt us out, all the resentment and bad feelings that only damages our souls. Don’t wait for an awful and hard disease to push you to find happiness, to find yourself, to fight for what you want, to stop being scared to fall in love, to face your mom or whoever hurt you. Say goodbye to yesterday!
