Grief In All Its Beauty

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Recommended: Essays on stages of grief

Grief In All Its Beauty

Stages of grief and loss are beautifully realized in the touching French film Le Temps des Adieux (Time to Say Goodbye).

Death is a part of life that we all must face, whether it is our own or of a loved one. It is an unavoidable and sometimes controversial part of life. Each person has his or her own view on it. The interpretations on it vary. Ask the religious man and you'll get one answer and ask the atheist and you'll get another. Regardless of what they may say, there is one thing they have in common. Grief. It is a universal emotion experienced by everyone. How he or she deals with it is a unique process. Everyone grieves differently and Le Temps des Adieux is about how a man deals with his own personal loss. …show more content…

Our protagonist Michaël sits in a room full of people, but you can tell he is alone. People offer their sympathies and tell him they are here for support, but he doesn't say a word. Nothing he says or nothing they say can fill the void that is now his life. The only person that may be able to speak to him is his father, but in the end it is up to Michaël to let go and come to accept the loss, even if it means losing the person who is dearest to him.

If I had to apply psychology to Le Temps des Adieux and see where in the stages of grief it falls, I'd have to say it focuses on the acceptance stage, which may be the hardest stage of them all. It's in the title. It is the "time to say goodbye" and in this film, it is beautifully

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