One of the interesting things about Delphine, the trait that distinguishes her from most people who suffer from depression, is that she doesn’t put a lot of energy into masking. A sad fact about being sad is that most people try so hard to pretend that they aren’t that they become whoever the people around them want to see. This is exhausting and it accounts for the drained feeling depressed people carry around.

Delphine, to her credit, doesn’t do much of that — she sticks to her values and is willing to be isolated as a result. This next section spans three days over her Cherbourg vacation and we get to see her in numerous scenarios where she play along, but stubbornly does not.

First, there’s Thursday, July 18. While her friend is busy hanging out with her boyfriend, Delphine spends most of her time with a girl who looks like she’s about eight. This girl asks her lots of personal questions, which leads Delphine to ask if anyone is putting her up to it, but the girl replies that she’s curious.

The girl asks if Delphine has a boyfriend, and she responds yes, without elaboration. She tells her that Jean-Pierre is her boyfriend and he lives in another city, so he can’t be with her, but she thinks she will be with him again someday. It seems like she’s just lying to the girl, which seems like a strange thing to do, but she then adds that she has many boyfriends and Jean-Pierre is just one.

From this, I assume Delphine is telling the girl that she carries feelings for men around with her and it tends to shift day by day, but at this time Jean-Pierre is the one she’s thinking about most. In other words, she’s not lying to the girl at all, she’s being very sincere about her romantic frame of mind.

The girl responds to this by saying that Delphine changes men the way she changes clothes, which sounds like the kind of phrase a child would overhear and borrow from an adult. Earlier in the conversation, she asked if she likes to play on a swing or go out on a boat and Delphine responded that these things make her dizzy, so she avoids them. The girl responded that she likes calm things.

On Friday, July 19, Delphine is playing with a toddler. This girl looks like she’s about one, and she’s walking around the backyard of the house, playing some kind of sand-related game with Delphine, completely naked. I don’t know if this is culturally ok for the French, but it seemed very strange to me and not something I think any parent should allow to be in a feature film.

After playing with the child a bit, Delphine is back at the meal table talking to the adults, who talk about their plans — going to the beach and then going sailing. Delphine brings up that she doesn’t like going on boats (another way I align with her — I don’t get seasick, but I always have a feeling after about 30 minutes on a boat that I’d really like to get back to land now, why are you sticking me out here?)

The group at this point starts to pick on her again. One hints that she’s being difficult, leading Delphine to respond that she’s been very kind and has done lots of helpful things like doing the dishes. (She also amused all of their children, so they have a lot of nerve criticizing her.) Another then brings up horoscopes again to say that Capricorns like high altitude and going it alone, much like her. a third chimes in that she tends to not approve of their ideas. They say this all in the spirit of wanting to be helpful, but to me, it all comes off as meddling and mean. A final person who chimes into the conversation actually says that Delphine is a lot like a plant.

Then we get to Saturday, July 20 and we see Delphine finally break down. She goes for a walk near the beach on her own. Paths are blocked in several directions, but she finally finds a clear one. Eventually she makes her way to a secluded spot and has a good sob.

We next see her meeting back up with people, but it’s the children who come up to ask where she’s been and how she is doing. If this first vacation of Delphine’s has any saving grace at all, it is the kids who seem to genuinely like her and are happy to find ways to enjoy her company.