Here's a random poalof ask for you (and sorry if you've answered this before)...but I'm trying to figure out what in the world is with the ghost/hallucination of Héloïse in the wedding dress? It's like Céline threw in this random kind of magical thing that's so much less rooted in reality than anything else in the movie, and I don't get it. Do you have any thoughts on this, or have you seen any Q&A where Céline talks about her thinking on this??
Yes, someone pointed this out to me when I had the same question (and it is lost in my tags). At TIFF, at about 16:10+, Céline talks about how since this is a film about/filtered through memory, the memory is contaminated by the knowledge of how the entire affair ends. The “ghost” that Marianne sees is actually the final sight of Heloise that Marianne managed to see: Heloise standing in the room trying on the wedding dress or Heloise on the staircase.
The timing of the ghost sightings are interesting, too. That is, the first time it happens, Marianne and Heloise have kissed in the cove but the formal start of their romance is about to ensue, so Marianne, remembering these events, is already feeling haunted by how the romance will end even before it starts. (And Céline has said this as well, that “The present of the love story would be haunted by its end, which is something all love stories have, in a way. We’re haunted by our beginnings and our hypothetical endings.”)
The second time it happens, when Marianne goes down for a glass of water after the drugs, the painting is closer and closer to being finished. In fact, the following day is when they fight and when they finish the painting. So it’s on the final night (and the visions only occur at night, in the dark, like the majority of spooky ghost visitations) before the knowledge of the end really comes for them, so it’s a sign of Marianne’s heightened anxiety/awareness as she’s recalling particular points in their relationship.
In short, it’s an effect of memory and a commentary on memory.
Oh, I did find a post in which I did previously discuss this question!
