The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Colombe’s envelope arrives unsealed, so Renée reads the contents. The envelope contains Colombe’s dissertation draft with notes from her professor. Colombe’s dissertation is about a medieval monk/philosopher named William of Ockham. She reads through the dissertation and judges that Colombe understands the philosophy but in a useless way. One of the questions Ockham poses is whether universal things exist. He posits that general things are only tricks of the mind and that everything truly exists as an individual entity.

Renée believes that intelligence is useless if it doesn’t serve others. Thus, she finds Colombe’s dissertation unimportant because it doesn’t seek to progress humanity.

Colombe promises she won’t play loud music in her room for a month if Paloma goes to Renée to ask about the envelope. She was thrilled when Madame Michel invited her inside. Paloma noticed that Renée had the television on silent; the program was about kids burning cars in the poorer neighborhoods of Paris. Paloma finds it pointless that kids would want to burn cars but reminds herself that, by extension, her desire to burn the apartment would also be pointless.

Paloma goes shopping with her aunt Helene for her mother’s birthday. Despite Helene’s wealth, Paloma respects her because she has integrity. Helene has a child with Down syndrome named Sophie and doesn’t act like anybody but herself. They meet a couple at the café whose adopted son is from Thailand. Paloma worries that the baby’s life will be too different in wealthy France then realizes that perhaps the frustration he will grow up with will make him want to burn cars. Paloma wonders if her desire to burn the apartment grows from the same sense of displacement because she feels no connection to her culture or society.

Paloma’s mother Solange stops to chat with Renée. She remarks to Renée that Paloma is an odd girl. Solange tells Renée that Paloma has asked permission to go to Renée’s instead of hiding. Though Solange finds this behavior strange, she nonetheless wants Paloma to have her space so the family doesn’t worry about where she’s hidden.

Manuela visits Renée. They discuss Renée’s upcoming appointment with Kakuro to watch a film. Renée needs Manuela’s help figuring out which pastries to bring. Manuela promises to bake her a gloutof, an Alsatian cake often referred to as a kugelhopf, for the event.

Kakuro Ozu knocks at the door. The ladies invite him in to join them for tea. Kakuro tells them that he’s having a debate with a friend about European supremacy. He asks them what they think the major inventions of the French and England are. They’re interrupted by Solange, who is surprised at the sight of this group casually socializing. She drops off Paloma, who joins them for tea. Kakuro leaves after tea, and Paloma sits on Renée’s sofa chair. Paloma asks her if she believes that life has meaning.

Renée goes to the dry cleaners to clean the dress Manuela got for her. Later, Manuela drops off the gloutof.

Paloma is moved when the cleaning lady brings her mother a bouquet of flowers from her sister’s garden. A petal falls off the flower, making Paloma realize that beautiful movements can be about time, not just space. It makes her discover the essence of beauty. She wonders if living is all about finding those moments before they die.

On Sunday, Renée dresses up and goes to Kakuro’s apartment with the gloutof. Kakuro has a VCR thanks to his former career importing high-end audio equipment to Europe. They watch The Munekata Sisters together, and he pauses the movie a few times to discuss something, including the scene where the daughter talks about the camellias growing in the moss on the temple. Renée feels so connected to Kakuro that time seems to pause. She has never felt this way about a man before.

Renée sees a picture of a beautiful woman. Kakuro explains that it’s his wife Sanae, who died of cancer 10 years before. He has a daughter who lives in Hong Kong with his two grandchildren. Renée shares that she is also a widow whose spouse also died of cancer.

Renée is starting to feel trepidation about her friendship with Kakuro—she feels she is being foolish to believe this cross-class friendship can really flourish. Throughout the week, Paloma, Manuela, and Kakuro stop in to visit Renée. Paloma declares she will become a concierge. Kakuro invites Renée to have dinner at a restaurant with him for his birthday before he leaves to visit his daughter in Hong Kong. Renée declines the invitation, saying she’s sure he has friends who will go with him instead, to Kakuro’s shock and disappointment.

Paloma demands to know why Renée declined Kakuro’s invitation. It starts raining.

The rain brings back memories of Renée’s sister Lisette. Lisette was pretty and well liked. She left home at age 16 to work as a nanny. When she came back to visit, she would tell her peasant family about women driving cars and city streetlights. Renée’s family history is ripe with strife and suffering. One day, during a strong downpour, Lisette unexpectedly came back home, unmarried but pregnant. Lisette died during childbirth, as did her baby.

The memory makes Renée cry in front of Paloma, who tells her that she’s inspired Paloma to hope again. Paloma holds her hand, and when her mother picks her up, Renée realizes she’s made a dear friendship, despite their age and class differences, with a very special 12-year-old girl.

Paloma is struck by Renée’s story about her sister. Renée avoids a friendship with Kakuro because her sister had been ruined by a relationship with a wealthy man. This makes Paloma wonder about trauma: Is it more traumatic that Renée’s sister died or that Renée has to live with the fear and memory for the rest of her life? Sharing this moment with Renée makes Paloma revise her thoughts about her own family. She wonders if the reason she feels disconnected from them is because she can’t help them. She admits that she no longer likes the idea of dying.

Renée calls Kakuro. His assistant Paul picks up and Renée asks him to let Kakuro know that she’s changed her mind and would love to have dinner with him. Renée is surprised by a visit from Jean Arthens, who used to have a drug addiction that nearly killed him. Now, he looks well. He recalls that Renée planted some flowers in the courtyard that had had captivated him when he was ill, and now that he is better he wants to know what type of flowers they were. She tells them the flowers are camellias. They both tear up and Renée tells him how happy she in that he came by to ask “[b]ecause a camellia can change fate” (288).

Renée reflects that people live each day mired by the boundaries of human existence. This can feel like a tight passageway to a certain type of hell. However, something as simple as a camellia can make a passageway into a pathway.

Kakuro sends Paul to Renée with a pile of gifts. His note reads: “Suddenly on his shoulders soaked with sweat he felt a pleasant and airy sensation that he could not initially explain; but during the pause, he noticed that a huge black cloud drifting low in the sky had just fallen to earth” (293). This note is a quote from Anna Karenina, capturing a moment when Levin is farming in the rain. Renée opens the gifts: A beautiful new dress, pair of pumps, and scarf. She cries silently.

The next morning, Colombe’s boyfriend Tibère knocks on Renée’s door looking for Colombe. He realizes Paloma was playing a joke on him by telling him he could find Colombe at the concierge. Renée wonders how people can be so alike despite their intense differences.

Renée anxiously dresses up for her date with Kakuro. As they leave the building arm-in-arm, they run into two neighbors who don’t recognize Renée. Kakuro tells her it’s because, unlike him, they’ve never truly seen her.

Renée contemplates the tenants’ inability to recognize her. She wonders about all the people who don’t truly see, then turns the question onto herself. What else has Renée herself been blind to?

The lighting in the restaurant reminds Renée of the film Black Rain. Over dinner, Kakuro says he has something important to tell her. He looks her in the eyes and tells her she is not her sister.

Renée is so shocked and uncomfortable that she chokes a bit on the food. Kakuro repeats himself twice and assures Renée that they can be friends or whatever they want to be together.

Renée sobs with joy because Paloma has betrayed her trust. After all her years protecting herself behind a solitary façade, Renée has been discovered and aided.

Renée wakes up the next morning ravenously hungry but at peace with her life. She leaves the building to run an errand, where she runs into Gegéne, the tramp who lives on her street. She notices that he’s moving erratically, then suddenly he breaks into a run. Then, something happens that Renée wishes wouldn’t.

Renée realizes she is dying. She runs after Gegéne, who has run into the street full of traffic. In trying to stop him, she is hit by a laundry truck. It makes her think of Manuela, whom she will never see again. Faces of loved ones flash before her eyes. She first thinks of her cat, who she knows will be well taken care of by Olympe. Next, she sees Manuela and realizes the depth of her gratitude for their friendship. She sees Lucien, her husband who she will now join in the cemetery. Then she sees Kakuro, the man who made her believe in the camellia. The last face she sees is Paloma’s, and she sends a soul message to Paloma that she should live worthily. The last image she sees before she dies is the image of her father sowing the earth.

Paloma is devastated to hear about Renée’s death. She’s never experienced the finality of death, never before understood the term “never.” Now that she understands the consequences of death (no more conversations, no more potential) she realizes how silly she had been to contemplate suicide. She promises Renée that she will keep living to find the “always” within the “never.”