STATEMENT OF INTENT
Once upon a time, there was a charming prince, not so charming after all as he reveal himself to be a violent man but who apologizes concessions after concessions, humiliations after humiliations, punch after punch until the down-time!
In my neighborhood, there was a couplewith three children, very discreet: a very elegant husband that I met very rarely and a beautiful and smiling woman I see every time she fetched her children from school. Until the day when a morning I saw about ten police cars in front of their home. The young woman had just killed her husband.
The violence with in the couple defines itself as situations where the cases of violence (physical, sexual, verbal, psychological, economicabuses) aree at the same time recurring, often cumulative, and they deteriorate and accelerate (phenomenon described as the « spiral ») and are situated in a asymmetric and frozen system of power (dominant / dominated). They are different of quarrels or conjugal conflicts where two points of view oppose in a relationship of equality.
the violence, there is a ratio of domination and seizure of power by the author of this violence on the victim. This violence creates a permanent climate of fear and tension. The consequences for the victim are disastrous: fear, guilt, loss of the self-respect and of the autonomy, the isolation, the stress but also the split of the family. It is one of the major risk factors for the women’s health in the world but the men can also be victims.
Victoria TOLLIER is a 46-year-old woman, with a rather common curriculum – a degree in law, married, two children – until the path of her life turns towards the routine. “Down-time” is a fiction of reality. If the story is only a product of imagination, it shows a situation which is unfortunately still too frequent today: the Domestic Violence.
According to a national study on mortality within the couple, led by the delegation of the Ministry of the Interior to the victims , the violence between spouses or ex-spouses caused, in 2013, the death of 146 people, a number in light drop compared to year of 2012 when 174 deaths within the couple had been registered. (women as well as men).
The domestic violence has noxious consequences for the victims as well as for the children of the couple.
The law says: THESE ACTS ARE FORBIDDEN AND PUNISHED BY LAW .
The law of July 9th, 2010 concerning the violence made specifically against women, for the violence within the couple and for the incidences of the latter on the children.
In this movie, I wanted to present the story of a life, from a romantic begenning to a violent break. Victoria TOLLIER’s character let her heart choose her own path. Moreover one can observe that love has a big part of responsibility in this kind of story. By love, can we accept everything?
Also, I wanted to show a very extreme situation, which is the murder in all its madness, not to understand but to elucidate the causes and the consequences of such an act.
Finally, I opted for a narration of the main character because who else than Victoria can express her real-life experience by allowing the viewer to be in total connection with her feelings.
Inspired by “Usual Suspects” de Bryan Singer, I like take the viewer where he or she does not expect it.
Jeff TAVER.
Los Angeles feedback film festival 