Auzy’s Reviews > Giovanni’s Room > Status Update

Hella leaves him to return to America. Back alone, David packs his bags. He stares into a mirror, strips away his denial, and confronts his own culpability in destroying Giovanni and Hella. David tears up an unopened letter from Jacques (Giovanni's official execution date). A sudden gust of wind blows the torn blue paper fragments back into his path, symbolizing that he cannot run away from his past or his guilt.

To escape the Paris' scandal, David and Hella move to the South of France. Jacques stays behind in the city, follows the trial closely, and sends David updates regarding Giovanni's condition and the legal proceedings.

David’s guilt and suppressed desires lead him to a gay bar in Nice, where Hella catches him with a sailor. He cheated on her once again & she mentioned that she might have known for a long time.

David abandons Giovanni & commits to Hella, sending a destitute Giovanni into a destructive downward spiral. Desperate for money and work after turning to Jacques and ending up on the streets, Giovanni begs his former employer Guillaume for his job back. When Guillaume exploits and rejects him, a desperate Giovanni snaps and strangles him to death with a dressing gown sash.

G said they should end their fight. They drink in a civilised manner.

D asks G what he'll do & he said that he'll hang with J, and that J has become fond of him. D says to be careful - ironic, even G says he D should have given him that advice when they first met.

"his body was burned into my mind, into my dreams"
"One day I'll weep for this. One of these days I'll start to cry."

"You want to be clean."
"You want to despise Giovanni because he is not afraid of the stink of love."
- G to D

"What kind of life can two men have together, anyway?"
- D

"Something had broken in me to make me so cold and so perfectly still and far away."

-

"You are not leaving me for her,"
"You are leaving me for some other reason. You lie so much, you have come to believe all your own lies. But I, I have senses. You are not leaving me for a woman. If you were really in love iris this little girl, you would not have had to be so cruel to me."
"You love your purity,"
- G to D

"Why have you gone away from me?"

"I have never reached you,"
"I am nothing to you, nothing, and you bring me fever but no delight."

"If you cannot love me, I will die. Before you came I wanted to die, I have told you many times. It is cruel to have made me want to live only to make my death more bloody."
- G to D

"I felt nothing for Giovanni. I felt terror and pity and a rising lust."

D&H run into J&G in a bookstore. To protect his facade, D immediately introduces G to H. He later covers up the truth by telling her that G was simply a "roommate". J informs D that G has been in absolute squalor, & suggests that the 4 of them grab a drink together. H says she's unwell & D said he would join them later on.

D says they should get out of Paris.

D went to G's the following evening. G sat up & cried.

Hella reveals that her time alone in Spain left her feeling lonely and directionless. She concludes that a woman needs to attach herself to a man to realize her full identity, leading her to accept David's proposal so they can start a family.

David writes back to his father, saying he will get married to Hella + to send money.

It's been 3 days, David had not mentioned Giovanni.

Hella & Giovanni met by accident.

Hella wrote to David, informing him of when she'll be back. He did not tell Giovanni, and met her at the station. He hoped he would feel something when he saw her but nothing.

"I loved her as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was."

But when he embraced her, "with Hella in the circle of my arms, that my arms were home and I was welcoming her back there"