Marguerite is a 2017 film from Canada (specifically Quebec, so in French) directed by Marianne Farley.
Marguerite is an elderly woman who lives alone. Her health is failing; specifically, her kidney function is declining. Sandrine, the young health care nurse who comes periodically to take care of Marguerite, suggests that she go to her doctor about dialysis, but Marguerite isn't interested.
One day by chance Marguerite happens to overhear a phone conversation between Sandrine and her lover, and thus finds out that Sandrine is a lesbian. This discovery awakens in Marguerite feelings long buried and memories from long ago.
Tropes:
- Bathtub Scene: It's an old lady being bathed by a nurse, but it's still suggestive of a physical intimacy that foreshadows the rest of the story.
- Bittersweet Ending: Marguerite buried her feelings and as a consequence will die alone, but she at least managed to finally come out to someone who could give her sympathy and understanding.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Marguerite says that she was never able to muster the courage to admit her feelings to her friend Cecile. Eventually Cecile married a man.
- Foreshadowing: Although Marguerite is old enough to be Sandrine's grandmother, the opening scene where Sandrine gives her a bath is erotically tinged, as Marguerite closes her eyes with bliss as Sandrine soaps her back.
- The Ghost: Sandrine's lover, who is mentioned several times, who is on the other end of a phone conversation with Sandrine, who is on the screensaver to Sandrine's phone. She never appears.
- Late Coming Out: Having never acted on her feelings, Marguerite finally admits she's a lesbian when she's old and dying of kidney failure.
- Minimalist Cast: The only two parts are Marguerite and Sandrine.
- Nobody Poops: Marguerite is on the toilet, trying and failing to pee, when she overhears the phone call between Sandrine and her lover.
- The One That Got Away: When Marguerite was young she was a stewardess, and she fell in love with one of her fellow stewardesses. She confesses to Sandrine that she never got up the nerve to confess her feelings to her friend.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Marguerite knows that her days will be over soon. Her kidneys are slowly failing, and since she doesn't want to be hooked up to a dialysis machine, she'll soon die.
